Carl Jung - How To Improve Yourself (Jungian Philosophy)

Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst,  laid the groundwork for a psychological framework focused on personal growth and self-discovery.  He introduced the concept of "individuation," which is the lifelong journey of becoming  the person one is meant to be and realizing their unique potential. Individuation involves  integrating different aspects of the personality, both conscious and unconscious,  to achieve a sense of wholeness.

His philosophy, often called 'Jungian  Philosophy,' emphasizes understanding oneself for personal development. He authored  several books, such as ‘The Psychology of the Unconscious,’ ‘Man and His Symbols,’ and ‘The  Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious,’ among others. Jung's wisdom offers a roadmap for  self-discovery, helping individuals understand their true selves, overcome challenges,  and enhance relationships.

In this video, we talk about how to improve yourself by  applying Jung's philosophy to your life. 1. Understand Your Subconscious Jung says “Your vision will become  clear only when you can look into your own heart.

Who looks outside,  dreams; who looks inside, awakens. ” According to Jung, one of the most  crucial parts of life is discovering your subconscious - especially what he calls  ‘the shadow. ’ The shadow is the most intense part of our unconscious: in it are all the parts  of yourself that you are in denial about.

These can include character traits you’re ashamed of,  reject, think are bad, and so on. As a result, you try to convince others and yourself that you  don’t have these traits. Examples of such traits are explosive anger, jealousy, envy, greed, pride,  laziness, frightening impulses, and so on.

You might think that suppressing or denying yourself  the freedom to express those qualities makes you a better person but all the things that you try  to suppress don’t actually go away - they fester. What we try to push away tends to come out  uncontrolled in our weakest moments. The shadow is thus the cause of outbursts, emotional  blowups, snapping at others, unwanted thoughts, unfairly blaming others, and more.

For example,  someone who is considered to be a gentle person but who has lots of repressed anger that they  have failed to acknowledge might furiously snap at another in a moment of weakness. These moments  then feel like they come out of nowhere and they have numerous unwanted effects: they might  decrease your confidence, make you feel like you’re not in control of yourself, and might  cause others to want to stay away from you. Or, for example, you might be extra  negative about people you perceive as lazy, because deep down your subconscious knows  that you have lazy tendencies as well, and so without realizing it you bring others  down to try and separate yourself from the concept of laziness.

This doesn’t make you any  less lazy, but does hurt your overall mood, enjoyment of life, and relationships  with others. All in all, suppressed traits influence you negatively, no matter what  and the only remedy is to face them head-on. Facing your shadow means that you  will have to follow three steps: Getting to know your shadow Accepting your shadow Integrating your shadow The question at the heart of the first step is:  ‘Why do I behave the way I do?

’ To get to know your shadow, you can think back to situations  where you feel like you acted badly and analyze them. Did you have a strong reaction to something?  What was it?

And why do you think it caused you to get upset? You might just find the traits that you  are most afraid to have. It’s very hard to become conscious of these reactions because it might  bring up emotions like shame, embarrassment, guilt, and the strong desire to deny them. 

Thus doing so requires a quiet and calm space, an empty mind, and a strong will. Meditation, for  example, is a very good way to do so. Journaling about your feelings and experiences is  as well, or drawing to ease your mind.

Then, when you’ve figured out  what your shadow seems to contain, you have to accept the traits you’ve found  as yours. You cannot look at them with an air of distance - you have to realize that  these traits are a part of you. Questions that might help you doing so are, ‘When do  I usually behave according to this trait?

’; ‘Why am I ashamed of this trait? ’; ‘Where  does this trait come from? ’ And, most of all, realize that you are suppressing again if  you don’t accept this trait as truly yours.

Finally, the last step is to integrate your  shadow into your daily life. This doesn’t mean that you should suddenly give in to all your  selfish, angry, or lazy desires. But instead, when you feel the urge to react in a ‘negative’  way coming up, you can analyze this urge and see if there’s anything useful to get out of it.

Maybe  exploding in anger isn’t helpful during a fight with your partner, but pretending not to be angry  ignores the problem. Instead, acknowledge and accept your anger, ask yourself why you’re angry,  and then use this knowledge to explain yourself better. Or when you have the urge to be lazy and  procrastinate from doing work, ask yourself why you feel so lazy.

Does your work satisfy you or  not? Have you been sleeping well lately? Is there anything holding you back from doing this work? 

If not, it might be advisable to push through, but if so, maybe you’ve now found something that  you otherwise would have ignored completely! Your shadow isn’t here to sabotage  but rather to teach you, if you let it. Acknowledging your shadow makes you  happier and enables you to take actions that are more authentic and effective.

This  is why Jung claimed that working on your subconscious - especially the shadow - is one  of the most vital steps of self-improvement. 2. Work On Your Individuation Process According to Jung, “Individuation means becoming  a single, homogeneous being, and, in so far as ‘individuality’ embraces our innermost, last,  and incomparable uniqueness, it also implies becoming one’s own self.

We could therefore  translate individuation as… ‘self-realization. ” One of the most important teachings of Carl Jung  was his work on what he called the ‘individuation process’ - the process in which a person  separates themselves from a group and becomes a unique individual. When being around other  people, one usually tends to put on an act.

This can be completely unintentional, but it happens  anyway. You laugh at jokes you don’t find funny, you pretend to be enthusiastic about something,  you act more important or more confident than you actually are, you lie that you’re doing well when  you’re not, et cetera. Being out in the world can, often, feel like an acting performance.

We  present ourselves to other people in a way that makes sure they will see us in a way we want  them to. Carl Jung called this the ‘persona. ’ This persona can roughly be described as ‘a  mask,’ like an actor would wear on stage.

The persona is the way you present yourself in social  situations and the impression you try to make on the rest of the world. According to Jung, we  develop our persona early on in our childhood, when we learn about social rules and manners and  form connections with other people. Our persona often doesn’t consist of just one mask, but rather  multiple masks, depending on the situation you find yourself in.

You might act differently among  friends than at work, but both could be parts of your persona. When you overly identify with  your persona you disappoint yourself constantly, because it’s just not who you authentically are.  It’s damaging to your confidence and self-image, and it increases the hold your shadow has over  you.

Thus it’s incredibly important not to fixate on an idealized version of yourself, and instead  work hard to see yourself for who you really are. The way to individuation, according to Jung, is  by integrating your conscious and subconscious. Doing the shadow work, as we discussed earlier,  and finding out what is part of the persona and what is truly you.

This doesn’t mean that you  have to get rid of your persona; a persona can be very helpful in your social image. For example,  a persona helps you stay professional at work even when in actuality you are fed up with something,  it helps you prevent escalation of conflicts, pass job interviews, and generally ‘grease  the wheels’ of social interactions. But it’s important to personally know the difference  between your persona and the rest of you, and also to exercise full control over your  persona, instead of having it control you.

If you find through reflection that you do have  some angry tendencies that you try to suppress, then you don’t have to start acting angrily all  the time or express your anger every time it bubbles up. Instead, you can ask yourself  in each situation: would my anger help me right now? For example, when you’re at work  and your strict boss does something wrong, anger probably wouldn’t help.

Instead,  channeling your anger into taking a more constructive form of action, such as having a calm  conversation with your boss, would be more useful. However, if you have a friend who keeps  canceling plans at your inconvenience, maybe expressing your anger will help them realize  that you truly are bothered by it and that they can’t walk all over you. In both cases, you  use your anger in a way that benefits you, either by expressing it or having  it motivate you to do something more helpful at that moment.

If you get to know  your urges and your persona separately and try to integrate them whenever possible,  you will start to take actions unique and beneficial to you. You will both be more  yourself and put yourself first more often. The outcome of this individuation process is  to find your true Self.

The Self stands for who you are, past, present, and potential future.  It’s full of opposites peacefully co-existing, such as the unconscious and the persona.  The Self is ever-evolving, and thus the individuation process is never truly over: you  have to keep working on and exploring yourself.

Continuously exploring your subconscious, your  persona, and the Self is the key to individuality. However, individualization is not an easy  process. It requires deep dives into your subconscious and a lot of self-care.

You have  to learn how to analyze your emotions, behavior, motivations, and reasoning. This can be done  after social interactions but is best done in solitude when you have the time and energy to  sit down and truly think or even write about it. 3.

Take Care Of Yourself To quote Jung, “Your soul is in great  need, because drought weighs on its world. ” Doing shadow work and engaging in the  individuation process are extremely beneficial for your mental health. And one of  the most important things you do is take care of yourself well.

That said, it’s important  to note that one cannot turn inwards if one’s external circumstances aren’t sufficient.  You can only worry about who you are if you don’t have to worry about more basic  needs, such as food, relaxation, safety, amongst others. In other words: you have to find  a stable basis for your life before you can even begin doing any other work on yourself.

You  have to have a goal - whether it’s educational, in the form of a job, or family-oriented -, you  have to have a home, people around you that care about you and can help you. In other words: you  have to take good care of yourself. This means eating healthy, sleeping enough, exercising,  and taking time to de-stress every day.

Jung had many tips for how to improve your  external life. First of all, he stressed the importance of setting professional boundaries  and standards. These standards shouldn’t be big and unreachable.

You might not end up with  that job or in a situation you’d wanted, but you can always try to see the light in  your work. Having your dream job isn’t a necessary requirement for taking pride in your  work. Instead, to find that feeling with the work you do have, ask yourself the following  questions: Are you trying your best?

Is there any way to put a personal touch in your work?  What parts of the job do you see reflected in your work? Of course you’re not limited to these  questions, but they’re a good start.

The point is that these standards should concern you just as  much as if it were a task you’d rather be doing. Another good lesson to put into practice in your  external life is finding balance. Just like your Self consists of balanced opposites, so should  you try to do so in your life.

For every hour you work, make sure you get enough rest. For every  moment spent socializing, make sure that you also spend time alone. Eat food that makes you feel  good as well as that is healthy.

Don’t sleep too much but definitely don’t sleep too little. While  financial security is a basic need, wealth is not - and trying to chase after it will likely  become destructive in the long run. Something that can help you find balance in a busy and  demanding world is to start building a routine, follow schedules, or to at least set daily or  weekly goals for yourself.

This will give you an idea of what you need to do in the day or week  ahead and will allow you a better overview of when you have time for certain things, and when you  should spend time and energy on other things. Having an overview in the form of schedules or  goals will help you find balance in your life: they can help you plan to reach your  basic needs without going too far. Lastly, Jung preached the practice of admiration. 

One of the most essential skills to learn in your life is the skill of appreciation. Jung  considered our ability to appreciate beauty to be a vital part of life. If you are unable  to appreciate what’s beautiful and good, you’ll never feel satisfied with what  you have and never feel like you have your basic needs met.

According to Jung, one  of the best ways to cultivate this ability was to observe art and nature. So, for you  to be able to work on self-improvement, your subconscious and persona, you have to take  good care of yourself and meet your basic needs. 4.

Reflect Every Day In the words of Jung, “To find out what is truly  individual in ourselves, profound reflection is needed; and suddenly we realize how uncommonly  difficult the discovery of individuality is. ” One of the most important goals to set for  yourself and ways to take care of yourself is to take the time to reflect every day.  Reflect on your day, what you did and why, how you felt and why,and how it compares with  other, similar days or situations.

Remember that this is also an incredibly important  step when it comes to shadow work and the individuation process. Reflection can be done  in the way of meditation and seeing what comes up in your head. But it can also be done by  just taking the time to sit or journal and ask yourself specific questions.

The things Jung  recommends you reflect on are the following: Your worldviews and beliefs. What are they? Why  do you have them?

What do they say about who you are as a person? Do they hinder you in your  day-to-day life? If so, how do you change them?

Your actions and what motivated them. How did  you behave today? Are there any acts that stand out to you?

And if so, why? And what motivated  your actions? Do they feel authentic to you?

Why or why not? Who do you want to be? Did you  work towards that goal today?

If not, why not? What stopped you? What personality traits do you  find despicable?

Why? Can you find traces of them in yourself? Try to be as honest as possible.

Your dreams. What did you dream of the last few nights? Could it symbolize anything  about your own life?

According to Jung, dreams say a lot about your subconscious  - often, they reveal hidden emotions or feelings that might be bothering you without  you even knowing. By analyzing your dreams, you will bring them to the surface. And finally, Archetypes.

Jung theorizes that people’s personas are made up of human archetypes, such as The Mother or The Hero. Which archetypes do you identify with and why?  And are these behaviors destructive or helpful?

By journalling, meditating, or just  thinking about these questions, you’ll get to know yourself in ways  that will be completely new to you. And when you get to know yourself, you  know better how to care for yourself, what your shadow looks like, what your  persona looks like, and who you truly are. 5.

Find Meaning In Your Life In our final quote from Jung  for this video, he says; “The sole purpose of human existence is to  kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. ” Considering the world to be completely  arbitrary, unfair, or even cruel, is becoming more and more common. While  this might feel natural and logical, this is a fatal flaw, according to Jung.

Whether  or not it’s true, completely surrendering to that idea is one of the most negative things  you can do. Finding something to believe in, Jung argued, is one of the most motivating  and healthy approaches to life you can take. It was his view that someone who believes  in nothing at all can be defeated by every single blow life throws their way because there  is nothing to cling to.

See an overarching belief or meaning as a branch that you can grab when  you’re about to fall over a cliff. The branch holds you up. It could save your life.

You need  something to hold onto. When you have that, you will always be able to make a certain sense  of the chaos in the universe, your life, and yourself. It gives you something to believe in and  there’ll be a deeper meaning to everything you do.

How can we work on personal growth if there’s no  specific lens through which we see the world? In Jungian philosophy, if the world is completely  arbitrary, then so are we. If the world is cruel, then there is no point in trying anything at all. 

But this is not true - we have complete power over ourselves, whatever our circumstances are. So,  Jung says, it’s absolutely necessary to find something through which to see the world. This  doesn’t have to be a religion, although religion is a perfect example of such a view-point.

Other  lenses through which you could see the world include spiritual viewpoints not associated with  a religion, a certain philosophy or psychology that resonates with you, or even broader  scientific principles like evolution or entropy. Explicitly allowing yourself to believe in  something bigger helps you to ground yourself and contextualize your experiences. Someone who  believes in karma, or the importance of kindness has a great motivation to do good deeds, and  thus feel good about themselves.

Someone who believes that hard work will be rewarded has  great motivation to work hard and try their best every single day. Someone who believes  that all people are just looking for love and to be loved has a good way of understanding other  people’s behavior and how to achieve things when it comes to other people. Each belief motivates  and helps you further in life.

Ultimately this means that whenever something bad happens  to you or things don’t work out the way you expected them or needed them to, there is a  viewpoint that can bring you comfort - either by explaining how things ended up this way, or by  outlining a possible new plan of action for you. If you enjoyed this video, please make  sure to check out our full philosophies for life playlist and for more videos to  help you find success and happiness using beautiful philosophical wisdom, don’t forget  to subscribe. Thanks so much for watching.