If you want to get a better idea of the emotional resources that it takes to achieve a goal then you are encouraged to watch the film Castaway which stars Tom Hanks.

In this story the character Chuck Noland, a FedEx executive, is stranded on a deserted island somewhere in the Pacific ocean. He manages to survive on fish and coconut and after 4 years he is in quite good physical condition except that he is very lonely. He attempts suicide but is unsuccessful then one day he gets the idea to build a raft and sail away from the island into a shipping lane some hundreds of miles away in the hope that a passing ship might rescue him.

If we look at his situation in terms of values what we have is a man who has hit rock bottom and is in emotional pain and wants to move towards love, relationships, people etc. Let's just call this love. Now when he first landed on the island he tried to swim through the surf which breaks on a shallow razor sharp reef and in the process he injured himself. So to move towards love he has to move towards the prospect of more pain and by sailing out into the ocean it is an all or nothing attempt at reaching his desired outcome.

So Chuck wants to move away from the emotional pain of just existing on the island towards the love that he can get from living with other people but to move towards love he also has to move towards more possible pain and suffering on his sea journey which could ultimately kill him.

It is a nice clear example of values conflict which many of us experience in life, but hopefully not to such a degree. We set a goal for ourselves, think about taking action towards it, then a negative emotion kicks in and we back off. We then rationalise our lack of action with a hundred and one excuses. But in reality we fail to take action for a number of reasons:

• We do not have a well defined outcome in mind.
• We have not associated massive pain with our current situation.
• We are not focussing on our outcome.
• We do not know what steps to take to achieve the outcome.
• We are scared to feel the emotions that arise when we start taking action so we back off.

So let's get back to our story. Chuck is successful in paddling his raft through the surf break and with the help of a sail made from a garbage bin he paddles out towards the sea lane. Most of us can define our outcomes much more clearly than Chuck did but in his situation he only has a general idea of where the sea lane is and he must take action or suffer for the rest of his life on the island.

One night he is paddling along, legs dangling over the back of the raft, when a whale surfaces next to the raft. It makes that typical whale sound when it blows air out the top of its air hole. Then the whale swims back around the raft. It lifts its head out of the water, inclines it so that it can take a clear look at Chuck. We see the eye wink very slowly and then the whale disappears.

Some days later we see Chuck asleep on his raft in the burning sun. We hear the sound of the whale and see a little spray land on the raft.

Sometime later, maybe days later, we see Chuck unconscious once again on the raft looking very sunburned. Then we hear the sound of a container ship. It moves from left field across the screen and the camera shot is from water level looking up at the massive hull. The camera shots alternate between the ship steadily moving across the screen and the unconscious figure of Chuck. We get the feeling that the ship will pass him by before he wakes up. Then we hear the sound of the whale. We don't see it. Just a little spray that lands on his face. The ships starts moving out of the field of vision. We think all is lost then Chuck regains consciousness, stands up and waves madly. Someone on the ship sees him and the next shot is of him back in the United States with his friends.

To me the whale symbolises that God was with Chuck on his journey. God is always with us but we are often too blind to be aware of it. God's presence as the whale did not mean that Chuck would not die just that he was not alone. Opening ourselves to His presence can put us in touch with the emotional fortitude that we need to take action to get off of our own desert island and move towards love, peace, happiness and so on.

If you want to learn how to master your own life then feel free to enroll in Zen and the Art of Living.

Abby Eagle 30/05/2007