#46 - Carl Jung's Insights: Transcend The Past, Step Into Your Future

My take on Carl Jung's insights, stepping into your future by becoming who you could be and reconciling with the past.

Carl Jung said, “What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the key to your earthly pursuits.”

It’s so powerful when you, in the most productive sense of the expression, ‘let your mind wander’. And I mean really let it wander. Get rid of all the distractions that are disallowing it to go where it actually wants to go and you’ll learn a thing or two. Either those lessons will be difficult because they’ll reveal some potential truths that are difficult to come to terms with or — which is also just a liberating — they’ll bring to the table what underlay your conscious experience up until that point. I believe there is so much truth in the unconscious. We just have to remember to listen to it and the more disconnected we get, the harder that becomes. Harder, but not impossible and if it is harder, then it is all the more worthwhile. Yes, Carl Jung was right about me in that my “earthly pursuits” lay hidden beneath a pile of A4 paper, pens — ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’ and Microsoft word software but this personal realisation did not necessarily come about when I read what Mr Jung had to say. I knew writing was for me — and I really knew — when it saved my life. In ‘Yes I’m fine, just tired’, I spoke about my ten tools that truly helped me through that rough trot. Learning about anxiety and mental health disorders proved more than worthwhile but it was the learning through writing, about objective and subjective truths that proved to be the game changer. After a panic attack one night, my mum told me to write my thoughts down as a way to to come to an understanding about what the real, internal issues were and I never looked back. Things take time and I lied to myself, even on paper, for many months before I could stare truth in the face but the journey began with those first, written words. What did you do as a kid and what’s really helped you when life gets in the way? What did you learn? Maybe therein lies your “earthly pursuits”? Enjoy!