The Message Carl Jung Wanted the World to Understand
It’s short and sweet but it packs a punch
When I was growing up, I didn’t really know who I was. I was a chameleon. I fitted in everywhere but that left me with the feeling that I didn’t belong anywhere.
It was a strange feeling.
One that gave me lots of friends and a good life but no real depth.
I would find myself imitating other people’s laughs, how they spoke, what they said, how they danced, what they listened to, and even how they ate.
I was like clay. Ready to be remoulded at any moment if the occasion needed it.
I’m not saying all this is bad. It helped me become extremely adaptable, versatile, and relatable. However, I often lost myself in the process and that was confusing.
At times, it even caused me to be anxious.
That’s when I heard Carl Jung say:
“The world will ask you who you are, and if you don’t know, the world will tell you.”
This made sense to me because for the longest time, the world was telling me who I was because I didn’t know.
So, who am I?
This question has intrigued many great hearts and minds through time, including Socrates and Rumi and all the other philosophers and soul seekers across millennia.
After being on a spiritual path for nearly a decade now, Who Am I is split into two categories:
- Myself
- My non-self
Getting to know myself has been a process of learning what I like, what I don’t, how I want to live my life and with who, and what gifts I want to share with the world.
It’s also been a process of learning what my boundaries are, how to set them, how to say no, and having the courage to stand behind what I believe in.
It’s the human part of the human experience.
Getting to know my non-self has been the most magical part. That’s involved learning I am so much more than this human body, I am not my thoughts, and I am whole and complete.
My soul is a part of the universal soul that brings everything to life and that for a brief moment in time, I am just having a human experience.
Perhaps Rumi — the great Persian mystic poet — captured this best when he said: “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the ocean in a drop.”
Or Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
Or Jim Carrey: “I used to be a guy who was experiencing the Universe, but now I feel like the Universe experiencing a guy.”
All of these statements ring true for me because, from my personal experiences of psychedelic journeys, plant medicine ceremonies, and breathwork sessions, I’ve experienced something similar.
Getting to know my non-self is how I’ve come to understand my existence in life (and life itself).
Dancing between these two worlds is the hardest part
Me, myself, and I still get triggered, annoyed, upset, confused, lost, and overwhelmed in daily life. I’m constantly making mistakes, not speaking my truth, and stumbling through life.
On the surface, it looks like I’m calm and ready but deep down I don’t have a clue what I’m doing.
Then I connect with my non-self and realise that everything is OK and exactly where it needs to be. There’s nothing to do, nowhere to go, and no one to become. I am beautiful and whole and perfect because the universe is beautiful and whole and perfect.
This is all to say that dancing between these two worlds is hard.
How to be completely immersed in the human experience and feel all the emotions that it brings up while simultaneously knowing that it’s all just a big playground is not easy.
What I have to constantly remind myself of is that there is so much more to life that we don’t see than what we do.
This is the paradox of life and Carl Jung knew more about it than most.
That’s why he said:
“Only the paradox comes anywhere near to comprehending the fullness of life.”
And why Brené Brown went on to add:
“We are complex beings who wake up every day and fight against being labeled and diminished with stereotypes and characterizations that don’t reflect our fullness.”
So, who are you?
How do you stay in your fullness?
What do you do to get to know yourself better?
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