How much of yourself can you refuse to accept?
Carl Gustav Jung - “The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.”
Adah’s notes: We can accept others’ merits and faults (such as our friends, colleagues and family members) completely but accepting ourselves without question stops us from growing. From time to time we need to challenge our understanding of who we are by asking questions such as “Am I good enough? Can I refuse to accept my current weaknesses as part of me? If I can, what changes are needed to get a ‘better’ me?”
Questions lead to actions. If we don’t start questioning ourselves, how can we make correct changes to ourselves? Questioning about our shortcomings helps us to be more conscious about who we are right now and who we choose to become in the future.
This may be very hard because we are “insiders” to ourselves. One Chinese saying goes “Those closely involved cannot see clearly but the onlookers are clear-headed.” We are too closely involved in our own merits and weaknesses to see them clearly. But others cannot help us because they don’t really care or dare. An objective perpespective is needed when we look at ourselves. It has to be cruel and we need to have the courage to put ourselves under a microscope invented by ourselves.
An introduction to Carl Gustav Jung:
“Carl Gustav Jung (German pronunciation: [ˈkarl ˈɡʊstaf ˈjʊŋ]; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of Analytical psychology. Jung’s approach to psychology has been influential in the field of depth psychology and in countercultural movements across the globe. Jung is considered as the first modern psychologist to state that the human psyche is “by nature religious” and to explore it in depth.[1] He emphasized understanding the psyche through exploring the worlds of dreams, art, mythology, religion and philosophy. Although he was a theoretical psychologist and practicing clinician, much of his life’s work was spent exploring other areas, including Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, sociology, as well as literature and the arts. His most notable ideas include the concept of psychological archetypes, the collective unconscious and synchronicity.
Jung emphasized the importance of balance and harmony. He cautioned that modern people rely too heavily on science and logic and would benefit from integrating spirituality and appreciation of unconscious realms. He considered the process of individuation necessary for a person to become whole. This is a psychological process of integrating the conscious with the unconscious while still maintaining conscious autonomy.[2] Individuation was the central concept of Analytical Psychology.[3]“
The above 2 paragraphs are from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung .
February 4th, 2010 at 4:05 p
We are looking for an image of Carl Gustav Jung suitable for the cover of Issue 100 of Synchronicity Magazine. The theme for this issue is “Synchronicity”. We look forward to your reply.