Critical Thinking: How can someone change the world by ‘healing their inner wounds’?

According to Robert Johnson, a Jungian analyst and author, Carl Jung was often asked if humanity would survive. Here’s what Robert had to say in relation to this question: “People often asked Dr. Jung, ‘Will we make it?’ referring to the cataclysm of our time, he always replied: ‘If enough people do their inner work.’

Now, if the average person in the west were to listen, they might have a hard time understanding how “inner work” will help the planet. In fact, the term “inside work” might not mean anything to them.

self alienation

Someone like this is likely to live in a very extroverted society; and focuses mainly on what happens externally. As a result of living in such a place, it will be normal for them to have a weak connection with their inner world and a strong connection with what is happening in the outside world.

When it comes to what’s going on inside them, this could typically be a mystery. Furthermore, it may not even occur to you that you have both a conscious and an unconscious mind, and that it is the latter that has the greatest impact on your life.

a natural response

With this in mind, if you wanted to change the world, it would be perfectly normal for you to try to change what is happening ‘out there’. Focusing on what is going on inside them and dealing with them would be seen as a complete waste of time.

What is also likely to play a role in this is that one will most likely see themselves as nothing more than an observer of their reality. Therefore, if you are separate from everyone and everything and have no effect on what happens ‘out there’, changing your inner world is not going to help the planet.

no time for games

From their perspective, the only way they will be able to change the world is if they do something. Playing with what happens internally will not have the same impact as getting involved in politics or being an activist, for example.

There will be many other people who are trying to change the world, which will validate what they believe. Throughout their lives, there is also a very good chance that they have constantly received the message that it takes money and power to change the world.

bad advice

So for someone like that, what Carl Jung said is not going to be of any use to those who really want to change the world and serve their fellow man. For people like this, they will have to go out and do their part.

Given Carl Jung’s understanding of human nature, an answer like this is unlikely to surprise him. After all, he said that “‘People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own soul.”

a deeper look

If human beings are mere observers and their inner world has no effect on their outer world, then changing their inner world would have no effect on the outer world. Of course, doing an “inside job” to change the world would be distracting and prevent the real work that needs to be done from getting done.
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However, what if this is nothing more than an illusion and what is happening ‘out there’ is an expression of what is happening internally? However, not only in people’s conscious minds, but also in their unconscious minds.

cause and effect

So if someone is having an active effect on your reality and is not merely an observer, it will be essential that they do “their inner work”. If they don’t do this, what is within them will continue to co-create and sustain the disharmony and dysfunction that is ‘out there’ and they, along with most other human beings, will see it as being outside. of your control.

As Carl Jung once said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will run your life and you will call it destiny.” in this case, what humanity as a whole has not made conscious of will direct their destiny and most, if not all, will see it as destiny, the wrath of mother nature or an act of God, for example.

self-victimization

Therefore, since much of humanity does not understand the connection between the inner and outer world, much of the population will continue to believe that someone or something out there is doing things to them. When in reality, the external world will reflect what you need to resolve within yourself.

When it comes to the “inside work” that needs to be done to change what is happening on the outside and ensure the survival of the species, it will relate to working on the baggage that each person has picked up during their adult life, childhood years, while they were in his mother’s womb, what he inherited from his ancestors, and traumas from past lives.

The journey of the warriors

Going within and working through the layers and layers of pain that have built up is not easy; it’s much easier for someone to try to change what’s going on ‘out there’. The challenge with this is that while this can be done with the best of intentions, it will most likely come from a place of resistance, and what is resisted is what will often persist and even grow.

This is not to say that doing things in the external world is a waste of time, but if you don’t take care of your own baggage and come from a place of resistance, your actions are not going to be as effective as they would be. be otherwise And if you have a strong need to make the world a better place, you will want to be as effective as you can while on this earth.

conclusion

That said, even though “inside work” may sound a bit airy and seem like nothing more than a distraction from what really needs to be done, it is incredibly important. Ultimately, it shows how much of an effect each individual on this planet has on the world.

Lastly, when someone does the “inner world”, they will have less need to avoid themselves. Then it will be easier for them to do things that really serve the planet, instead of just doing things that really are a way of keeping their own pain at bay and avoiding themselves.

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