“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence
is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.” - Carl Jung
When we learn about influential and successful people such as Carl Jung,
Sigmund Freud, or - say - Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, William Shakespeare,
Nelson Mandela, and so on, we often feel… a little inadequate. Their lives were so
meaningful. How could ours ever compare? The purpose of life, according to Carl Jung,
has nothing to do with what you achieve. It has to do with who you are and how you act.
According to Jung, the entirety of an individual’s being can be described by
our psyche: encompassing all our conscious and unconscious aspects. At the center of
our consciousness which is everything we are aware of - is our ego. But there
is so much outside of the ego that we do not acknowledge. In the center of our unconscious,
meaning everything that is hidden to us, lies our shadow or our dark side. According to Jung,
in our unconscious lies the key to finding our purpose in life. This is because the purpose
of your life is not something objective or universal: it is something unique to you.
Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, who ended up founding his
own school of psychology, known as ‘analytical psychology’. His philosophy is often referred
to as “Jungian Philosophy”. He has also published multiple books. Most notably:
The Psychology of the Unconscious, Man and His Symbols, The Archetypes
and The Collective Unconscious, Modern Man In Search of a Soul, The Psychology
of the Transference, Memories, Dreams, and Thoughts, and The Relations Between the Ego
and the Unconscious. In this video we will talk about the steps you need to take so that your
dark side can reveal your life's purpose, according to the philosophy of Carl Jung.
Get To Know Your darkness
Jung says “Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who
looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” Everyone has a unique meaning and purpose in life,
depending on who you are and what you want. As a result, you need to know who you are before
you can begin to figure out the purpose of your life. Many people believe they know themselves
well. You might think you’re familiar with your traits, strengths, weaknesses, and desires,
so you might be tempted to dive straight into finding your life’s purpose. However,
In order to truly know yourself, you have to do what Jung called self-realization.
Each person is made up of both conscious and unconscious parts - the aspects of ourselves
we are aware of, and those we are not. The shadow, or dark side, is the hidden
part of our unconscious that holds repressed desires, emotions, and traits. For instance,
your shadow might contain feelings of laziness, envy, or anger, as well as hobbies or interests
that you’re ashamed of or wish you had outgrown. Because the shadow resides in the unconscious,
you’re often unaware of what’s in it; these traits have been repressed and ignored for
so long that they no longer surface in your thoughts. Instead, you tend to over-identify
with your persona - the role you unconsciously play to be liked or appreciated by others.
This persona acts like a mask you wear when interacting with the world, and you may have
multiple masks for different situations. Reintroducing yourself to your shadow
requires genuine effort. Engaging in shadow work, or getting to know your dark side,
as Jung called it, involves regularly stepping back and reflecting on your behavior, thoughts,
and feelings in daily life. This could be done through journaling or meditation. Ask yourself:
Why did I act the way I did? Did it feel authentic? Why or why not? What was my initial
instinct in a given situation? How would I feel if the roles were reversed? It’s about interrogating
yourself as if you were questioning someone else. Jung emphasized that getting to know your shadow
doesn’t mean identifying with it. You don’t have to define yourself by the
traits you usually hide. For example, if your shadow houses anger, you don’t need to
see yourself as an angry person. Instead, simply acknowledge these traits' existence - recognize
and accept that they are a part of you. Another way your hidden shadow traits
often surface is through judgment of others. The traits or behaviors you
despise in others are often the ones you fear in yourself. This is called projection. So,
whenever you find yourself angry at or irritated by someone else’s behavior, take a moment to ask:
Do I ever exhibit this tendency? If not, why not? Could this be a shadow trait of mine? According to
Jung, those who harshly judge selfishness often repress their own selfish thoughts,
and those intolerant of impatience in others may be battling their own impatient tendencies.
By taking time each day to sit down, perhaps journal, and ask yourself these probing questions,
you begin to bring the unconscious into consciousness, truly getting to know yourself.
It’s important to continue doing shadow work regularly; as you change, there’s always more to
discover. Making a habit of shadow work is key to continuously getting closer to a meaningful life.
Work on Yourself
In the words of Jung “I don't aspire to be a good man. I aspire to be a whole man.”
Now that you’ve found out about your unconscious - and perhaps less desirable dark traits,
you might be wondering: How can this help me save my life? In fact, you might feel worse about
yourself after your self-realization, because you can no longer ignore all your ‘bad’ sides. Jung
acknowledged that figuring out who you truly are is an intensely painful and frightening process.
Many people think that by repressing bad parts of themself, by never showing them is a good way
to get rid of them fully; I mean aren’t those who can hold in their anger the most gentle
people? And those who push through their laziness aren’t they most productive people? Well - yes,
and no. While it is good to want to be better, ignoring traits will not make them go away.
Repressing shadow traits often gives those traits more power. They fester deep inside you
and then - when you’re tired, stressed, emotional, or at a breaking point, they suddenly burst out of
you. People that don’t acknowledge their anger are the ones who have scary angry outbursts every now
and then. People that ignore their laziness end up experiencing burnouts. Ignoring something does not
make it go away. So, now that you actually know your shadow, you can finally do something with it.
Whatever you find in your shadow, your dark traits, make them useful. Anger,
for example, is only bad if it is excessive or unwarranted. But when someone genuinely hurts you,
anger can actually help you advocate for yourself. The question you should ask yourself is: when
is it right to act on an emotion, and when is it better not to? When should I lean into my mask and
persona, and when do I not have to? By thinking about your emotions in this nuanced sense, rather
than thinking of them as ‘bad’ or ‘good’, you will improve your life and well-being tremendously.
Envy can be a motivator. Laziness can get you well-needed rest. Impatience can make you more
active… If the context is right! In other words, you have to find ways to integrate everything you
find in your shadow into your personality instead of ignoring it. Your shadow is not
here to punish you but rather to teach you, and your repressed traits are here to stay.
So only if you accept and embrace your dark qualities can you actually improve
yourself. The self-knowledge and ability to use all sides of yourself is what you
need to find out your life’s purpose. Once your shadow is self integrated,
you become more yourself. You will be balanced, harmonious and authentic.
Once you’ve figured out how to use your shadow, you have figured out who you truly are - and
thus it will become much easier to figure out what you truly want and need from life.
Self-improvement is another form of shadow work that never ends; there is always more
to improve. When you continuously keep improving yourself, you are adding meaning to your life.
Take Action According to Jung “You are what you do,
not what you say you’ll do.”
When you know who you are, how you can best handle your dark traits, and what you believe in - you
have to show it. The purpose of life cannot be found in thoughts, but in practice. Jung
thought that self-realization had to be shown in what you do rather than what you say. After all,
you can only say you are a certain way, and want certain things, if you act like it.
This means that you should not live your life reactively; do not only react to what happens
to you, but also initiate something in your life. Instead of waiting for people to befriend you,
go out of your way to make friends. Instead of waiting for that promotion,
come up with a plan and pursue it. And instead of waiting for your life to
achieve the meaning you want it to, make your life meaningful with your actions.
Currently, most of us do live reactively - even those who actively seek out their shadow
and improve themselves. Working on yourself is a great first action one can take, true;
but it is not enough to truly start taking action in other areas of life,
either. In fact, after doing shadow work one might think they can now sit back and
relax. But sitting back in your life is what gets you stuck in meaninglessness.
OK, but how do you start living actively? Simple: by challenging yourself. When you’ve
taken the steps to continuously explore your shadow and improve yourself based on what you
find, you should also keep taking some extra steps. Frequently ask yourself questions like:
What do I believe in? What spiritual or religious beliefs, what moral principles, what values? How
do I act on a daily basis? What do I want to do this year? And the next five years? How do I want
to contribute to the world? What do I expect from others? You could journal about these questions,
or meditate on them. The answers are clear clues as to what kind of actions to take.
You might, for example, want to become a published author. A lot of people do. But
a lot of the people that do want to become a published author also do not take many steps to
achieve that goal. They wait for inspiration to strike, for their agenda to clear up,
and eventually for the book to write itself. They still live reactively; when the time is
just right, the book will just flow out of them… Or so they think! So what would someone
who wants to become an author have to change? An aspiring author that actually takes action would
write on a frequent, scheduled basis; whether they feel like it or not. When they get stuck
they would actively seek out advice or exercises to help them move along.
They would finish a story, if not thanks to motivation, then due to discipline. And then,
they would proactively reach out to people in the publishing industry, such as literary agents.
Of course, many people do not derive meaning from career goals. Instead, their personal
ideas about their lives might be a little more abstract: you might want to positively influence
new generations, for instance. This could be done in many ways; by becoming a parent,
a teacher, starting a charity for youth, becoming a youth counselor, a politician,
and more. It is then on you to decide in what way you want to achieve this goal, and what
actions that requires. Whenever you ask yourself questions about your morals and beliefs, you will
then have to decide what way you can work towards them, and what actions you might need to take.
It is quite possible to survive when living reactively - but it
is not possible to find meaning in a reactive life. Meaning requires action.
Embrace Fear
Jung once said “Where your fear is, there is your task.”
One of the main reasons people live reactively is not mere laziness and often not even a lack
of motivation. Most of the time, the avoidance of action results from fear. Action requires risk,
which can be scary. When you have an idea for a book, you have to risk being disappointed by
your own writing in order to get it down on paper. Once you’ve written a book,
you have to be ready for many rejections if you want to get it published. Every single
action you can take can result in something negative. You need to be brave to be active.
Bravery does not stem from a lack of fear. Fear is not to be avoided; if you do, it would go back
into your shadow and rule your life even more. Instead, it should be acknowledged. When you
have to take a certain action but feel unable to do so, ask yourself why. Are you scared?
What are you scared of? What are the things that could go wrong? And how could you deal with them?
Fear is often contained by preparation. But do not confuse preparation with rumination or anxiety:
focus only on likely scenarios, not outlandish ones. When you want to publish a book,
be prepared to be rejected by many agents, or even to find no one interested in representing it,
but also be prepared to find an agent or to have it published. Do not, however,
ruminate about how agents and publishers might reject you, or about someone stealing
your book idea, or about being laughed at. Those thoughts are unlikely and unhelpful.
By analyzing your fear and handling it in the form of preparation,
you’ve already dealt with a great deal of it. The feeling will most likely never fully disappear,
so when you’ve done what you can to minimize your fear, there is only one thing left to do:
dive into the deep. Bravery requires you to face your fears rather than get rid of
your fears. Nobody who has ever done anything special has done so by avoiding what they’re
scared of. As Jung said, where your fear is, that is where your next task is. Once you know
what you’re scared of, you also know what is likely to give your life the most meaning.
Accept The Bad
In our final quote from Jung for this video, he says “Even a happy life cannot be without a
measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.”
Let’s see: you know yourself, you’re always improving yourself, you’re taking actions and
taking risks. Is this the recipe to a perfect life? No. Nobody’s life is perfect. In fact,
the most influential people in the world have often experienced the most hardships. And this
is because the most influential people are typically the ones that take the most risks,
do not let bad situations get them down, and push through no matter what.
So, accepting the bad and disappointing things in life is integral to finding meaning and purpose.
In fact, meaning is dependent on it. A life that consists solely of triumph and joy is
not a meaningful life, because joy is only as impactful as it is if you also know sadness.
You cannot win unless defeat was also an option. There can be no light without dark. This means
that whenever something bad happens to you, you have to recontextualize it: do not despair,
but rather think: whatever good happens from now on, will feel even better now. Aside from
contextualizing the good in life, misfortune and mistakes are only opportunities to grow.
Every time something happens, your reaction to it tells you something new about yourself.
Bad things, then, are integral to your self-discovery - and it's helpful, too,
when it comes to getting to know your shadow. Nobody finds out they should try to be a little
more pragmatic unless they’ve failed to be at some point. And - nobody finds out they’re
resilient and strong unless something in their lives has required them to be.
Let’s say your novel gets rejected by all the publishing houses you’ve sent it to.
Or you gave up your stable job to go back to school but you’ve failed. Sure, you now have
more context to enjoy good things later on in life. You’ve learned something. But does this
give your life more meaning? The meaning of life, according to Jung, does not lie in achieving those
goals you set yourself; it is in the taking of action and self-discovery. With this,
he means that your life does not become meaningful because you’re a published author or a successful
politician. It derives its meaning from what you did to get there. And thus, even those who end up
not getting there, now know they are the kind of person that takes action. They’re uniquely
and unapologetically themselves - and that, in and of itself, is the most meaningful part.
Adding meaning to your life never ends - you have to keep discovering yourself,
your goals, and taking action. You will continue to experience
good and bad things. And this is what makes your life so special:
your unique combination of disappointment and joy, your unique actions and attempts,
and your determination. Always be proud of what you tried - that is where the purpose comes from.
And finally, appreciate all the good in your life. Whatever you have achieved, no matter how
little it is, be proud of it. Whatever works out for you in life, be grateful for it. And
no matter what happens, know that your life has a purpose as long as you’re the best you you can be.
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