4 Carl Jung Quotes That Make Me A Better Human Being
What a Swiss psychologist had to say about owning your life and making the most of it
My earliest memory of knowing anything about Carl Jung is from a quote that hung in the bedroom of my cousins who were adopted out of foster care. Over their bed hung the quote:
“I am not what happens to me. I am what I choose to become.”
For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved that quote and wondered in the back of my mind about the context behind it.
Fast forward several years, and here I am as a Human Development & Family Science student at Auburn University — learning all about Carl Jung and the history of psychotherapy.
Here are a few of his other quotes that have since changed my life and ultimately made me a better person for understanding:
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
This line gets me at my core. Other people make me uncomfortable sometimes because they make me face the things I dislike the most about myself. It makes sense, right?
Any modern Marriage and Family Therapist would point you, with an understanding of this concept, to the idea of internal family systems theory. Essentially, it’s the theory that we all have various “parts” inside of ourselves and that they get activated in certain situations.
I’ve often said about certain friends whom I don’t always get along with, “Some part of them activates some part of me and it isn’t pretty.”
When we get into social contexts and witness ourselves reacting to those around us, upon some digging, we can figure out what’s really going on inside of ourselves — what we care about and how we wish to move through the world.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
While psychoanalytical theories have little clinical ground to stand on, and what the internet hails as all-healing “shadow work” is suspicious at best, there’s something to be said for figuring out what’s going on in our subconscious.
We make thousands of decisions every day that we never think about. Maybe it’s worth taking a step back and trying to figure out what’s actually going on underneath the surface.
Otherwise, we might return again and again to patterns, habits, decisions, and people who aren’t serving us — simply because we never stopped to pause and question why we’re doing what we’re doing.
True self-awareness is a virtue so many people lack in this world.
“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.”
Who am I if I cannot practice what I preach?
We say far more with our actions than we do with our words. Words are cheap — actions actually have a cost and show true commitment to the cause at hand.
As a person striving to be virtuous and moral, I have to take a second to look at what my actions say. At the end of the day, I’m not what I claim to be, what I might write about myself in an autobiographical statement or a series of entires on my LinkedIn profile. I am what I get up every day and intentionally choose to do.
“Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or idealism.”
Some addictions pass us by under the radar. Whether they be the ingestion of a certain kind of entertainment, or interpersonal drama, we’re all falling prey to something trying to captivate our attention that’s less than ideal.
The question is whether or not we let it take the reins or not.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sacrificed good in life or a beautiful moment or a meaningful connection with someone because I’m so latched on to rule-following or idealism that’s keeping me trapped.
Addiction is all around us, big and small, and no matter what our poison is, we would all do better to be aware of it and attempt to cut it out of our lives.
I hope this collection of Jung quotes has been insightful and encouraging to you. Best of luck today!
