Joseph Campbell’s guide for 2020s workaholics with social media and three side gigs
How to set boundaries and create sacred time and space.
I hope you’ll share today’s Idea Link with someone you know who needs more work-life balance. You can also download a PDF on this topic to share down below.
On a recent kayaking trip to South Carolina’s Sesquicentennial State Park, my wife noticed that one of our paddles had seen better days — both fins had a crack in their brittle plastic.
We hadn’t been in the water for long when we got the kayak into a patch of plants and mud that was thicker than it looked. As we tried paddling through, one fin of Becky’s paddle snapped off.
The mud was too thick to stroke through, and I was worried my paddle might break, too. We pushed against a nearby log, but it drifted, giving us no resistance.
We were stuck with stinky mud seeping in through the kayak’s drainage holes.
Sometimes modern work/life can feel like that: You’re cutting through projects just fine, so you take on more and more. Technology floods your mind with information.
Then something snaps.
You lose motivation for your work, unsure if this job or this project was even the right way to go. You seem stuck as you try to make traction in too many directions at once.
Between the buzz of digital distractions and exhaustion from being overscheduled, it can feel like you’re sitting in the middle of a millpond as mud seeps in.
Advice from Joseph Campbell
The famed mythologist Joseph Campbell — best known for identifying the hero’s journey that the world’s great stories share — has some advice for just this situation.
I recently listened to one of Campbell’s last interviews, which aired in a 1988 PBS special.
Campbell explained how centuries ago, our ancestors treated the entire world as sacred. But by the 1980s, most of the sacred feeling was gone. Even before internet access reached most homes (or pockets), Campbell saw the beginnings of an always-on work culture. He saw the need for sacred space.
Here is his full quote, followed by some observations and applications for modern workers.
Joseph Cambpell on sacred space
“This is a term I like to use now as an absolute necessity for anybody today.
“You must have a room, or a certain hour or a day or so, where you do not know what was in the newspapers that morning. You don’t know who your friends are. You don’t what you owe to anybody. You don’t know what anybody owes to you. But a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are, and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation.
“First, you may find that nothing’s happening there, but if you have a sacred place and use it and take advantage of it, something will happen. …
“Most of our action is economically or socially determined and does not come out of our life. As you get older, the claims of the environment upon you are so great that you hardly know where the hell you are, or what is it you intended? You’re always doing something that is required of you. this minute, that minute, another minute.
“Where is your bliss station? Try to find it. Get a phonograph and put on the records, the music that you really love. Even if it’s corny music that nobody else respects. The one that you really like, the book you want to read. Get it done, and have a place in which to do it. There, you get the ‘thou’ feeling of life. These people had it for the whole world that they were living in.”
What ideas, images, and sounds come to mind as you read Campbell’s words about sacred space? As I listened, I felt like he’d been watching me for days and was jogging beside me to give customized advice.
The problem: Always on
“Most of our action is economically
or socially determined and does not come out of our life.
You’re always doing something that is required of you,
this minute, that minute, another minute.”
— Joseph Campbell
Economic need and social expectations govern most of our time. More than half of an adult’s waking hours on a workday are spent at work or commuting, and work follows us home through connected devices.
I’m no different. On most days, I’m going for a run by 5:40 a.m.. Then I wake kids up at 6:20, make their breakfast, shower, drive them to school, go straight to work, often skip lunch to get more work done, and fight rush-hour traffic on the way home. Then it’s eat dinner, give attention to my kids, tell them a bedtime story, kiss them goodnight, and make school lunches for the next day.
By then, it’s almost 9 p.m. and I get to decide: Will tonight be the night I finally write on that one project? Meanwhile, I’m getting dozens of smartphone notifications to triage and deal with.
The solution: Set boundaries to create sacred space
“You must have a room, or a certain hour or a day or so,
where you do not know what was in the newspapers that morning.
You don’t know who your friends are.
You don’t know what you owe to anybody.
You don’t know what anybody owes to you.”
— Joseph Campbell
When I heard Joseph Campbell say this, I thought about how often I pick up my phone in the morning intending to read scripture or an inspirational message, but find myself checking email. Then I’m hashing out Wordle or Keyword or headlines on social media (postponing my run).
Campbell’s advice is that we set aside time or a place to disconnect from the outside world. A time when we’re not double-checking our to-do list. We have to set boundaries around the economic and social requirements of our environment.
Many people observe a sabbath day. For others, it’s a particular time on every day. It’s also helpful to have a place — whether that be a house of worship or a closet, a backyard garden or a park — to unplug from the world and rest.
As Campbell said in the 1980s, it’s an absolute necessity. It’s only become more important since then.
Question: What is your sacred space, or your sacred time?
What to do in sacred space
Campbell also called this sacred space your “bliss station,” a place where you can “follow your bliss.” There, you can focus on what is intrinsically motivating for you. “A place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are, and what you might be.”
His advice includes turning on “the music that you really love” or reading “the book you want to read.” Sacred space might also be where you meditate, pray, paint or do whatever makes your heart feel lighter.
You might choose to be still.
Whether you feel you are approaching a deity or just getting in touch with yourself, these activities help you approach bliss.
Campbell called it the “thou” feeling of life.
“I believe the solution is to infuse the sacred into your routine by finding sacred purpose in our daily activity.”
— Bryan Gentry
Make more moments sacred
But how do we create sacred space when more and more of our actions are economically and socially determined?
Referring to ancient societies that infused myth, faith and ritual into nearly every activity, Campbell says, “These people had [the ‘thou’ feeling of life] for the whole world that they were living in.”
I believe the solution is to infuse the sacred into your routine by finding sacred purpose in our daily activity.
Remember my schedule I described above? Between taking care of myself, my family, and my job, sometimes I’m on the clock 16-18 hours a day. (More, if you count Wordle.)
But some of those routine activities can be sacred. Telling my kids a story and tucking them in, for example, is a sacred opportunity to connect with them.
My starlit run each morning can be sacred. Sometimes I’m listening to podcasts (or 1980s interviews with a famous mythologist), but other times I enjoy the quiet, still world. Sometimes I run to the Encanto soundtrack or Jim Croce’s “I Got a Name,” both of which are sacred to me.
Even my day job can have sacred moments of connection with coworkers, or times when I work on a project that brings joy, or a walk on brick pathways lined with towering trees.
I think each of us needs to set boundaries to create sacred time and space. But we also can take down the boundaries that keep the sacred out of our daily lives.
Question: What activities on your to-do list can be treated as sacred if you think about the purpose behind them?
Getting un-stuck
Luckily, my wife and I were not stuck in the muddy mill pond for long. Shallow paddling allowed us to slowly back out of the muck and steer to clearer waters.
When the second fin on the worn-out paddle snapped, too, we took turns with the remaining paddle. I enjoyed seeing how fast I could make the kayak cut through the water alone.
Eventually, I stopped paddling and said we should just drift for a while. We talked quietly and watched giant clouds bob across the sky. The gentle wind and slow current carried us toward the center of the lake. I breathed deeply and all to-do lists faded away.
That was sacred space.
Action item: Can you schedule a time and place to hold sacred?
I hope you’ll take Joseph Campbell’s advice and make sacred space in your life. Pull out your planner and set aside 30 to 60 minutes in the next week. Make at least two or three times if you can.
Decide what to do — walking, birdwatching, meditating, praying, reading, writing poetry. Make it a time when your mental and physical activity will be determined by you, not by a to-do list, email or social media notification.
I also hope you’ll share this post with a workaholic you know and invite them to join you in making sacred time and space.
If you want to hear Joseph Campbell for yourself, you can find the entire series Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth on Youtube. Here’s the first one: