Carl Jung was an important figure in the world of psychology.
He started his own school of psychology called 'analytical psychology.'
But his influence went even further, touching areas like psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology,
literature, religion, and philosophy.
People often call his way of thinking 'Jungian Philosophy.'
He wrote many books, like 'Psychology of the Unconscious' and 'Man and His Symbols.'
In psychology, Jung is famous for talking about 'archetypes,' which are like big ideas
in our minds.
He also talked about the difference between our conscious mind, the things we know about
ourselves and our unconscious mind, what we don't know about ourselves.
One of his interesting ideas is the 'shadow,' which is the parts of ourselves we hide away
in our unconscious.
According to Jung, being happy is more than just feeling good for a little while.
It's about feeling content deep inside because you accept all parts of yourself, even the
ones you hide in your 'shadow.'
He believed that true happiness comes when you understand and accept all aspects of who
you are.
To find happiness, you have to go on a journey to discover and accept yourself, including
the parts you know and the ones you don't.
It's like finding balance within yourself and knowing who you truly are.
When you do this, you can find a deep and lasting happiness.
So, in this video, we'll explore how to be happy, drawing inspiration from the philosophy
of Carl Jung.
1.
Focus on your mental Health
Jung says ‘Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness.’
To be happy, you need to be healthy, both physically and mentally.
This means eating well, sleeping enough, and exercising.
But mental health is just as important.
When you're not feeling well physically, you might also feel anxious or sad, and when you're
mentally unwell, you can get tired or have headaches.
So, it's important to take care of your mind too.
Many people think they don't need to pay attention to their mental health as long as they feel
okay.
But that's not true.
Taking care of your mental health can help you understand yourself better, set goals,
and feel fulfilled.
According to Jung, the first step to being mentally healthy and happy is to explore your
subconscious mind.
This is the part of your mind where things you're not aware of are stored, like past
experiences, biases, and hidden feelings.
Your conscious mind, on the other hand, is what you're aware of.
To be mentally healthy, you should face your subconscious, especially what Jung calls "the
shadow."
The shadow includes the parts of yourself that you don't like and try to ignore, like
anger or selfishness.
Most people push these parts away, but that doesn't make them disappear.
Instead, they can come out unexpectedly and cause problems in your life.
To avoid this, you need to get to know your shadow.
It doesn't mean you have to act on these negative feelings; it means you should acknowledge
them.
The steps are simple: explore your hidden feelings, accept them, and integrate them
into your life.
For example, if you discover you're envious of someone, admit it to yourself.
Then, think about how you want to deal with that envy.
You might even turn it into inspiration and ask for advice from the person you envy.
In summary, understanding and accepting your hidden feelings is crucial for good mental
health and happiness.
It's the only way to prevent these feelings from causing problems in your life and stop
them from interfering with your goals.
2.
Nurture Relationships According to Jung “The meeting of two personalities
is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there’s any reaction, both are transformed.”
A second vital ingredient to happiness, Jung says, is having good and healthy relationships
with yourself and others.
In order to grow individually, we need other people - to mirror and correct us, for a start.
We contextualize ourselves by comparing ourselves to or contrasting ourselves to others; you
can only consider yourself kind if there are also examples of unkindness out there.
And, more importantly, you can only consider yourself kind when you actually express kind
behavior in your interactions with other people.
So many characteristics of who we are can only shine when we’re with others.
Carl Jung says that one is on their best behavior when they are with the people they love.
We want those we care about to think highly of us, like us, to be happy around us.
As a result, our actions reflect that.
Moreover, other people can help us get to know ourselves, be braver, and inspire us.
Just as Jung said, people can transform one another - and the right people will transform
you into someone better.
When you feel love, you feel good, inspired, capable, and satisfied.
You know that there is someone to cheer you on and celebrate your achievements, which
is motivating, and you know there is someone to comfort you and help you grow when things
go wrong, which is reassuring.
But aside from being fuel in the engine, other people also help you be more creative.
Loving someone causes strong emotions, which in turn transforms into inspiration, creativity,
and ambition.
Having positive relationships with other people doesn't just bring the upside of laughing
with someone, but it improves almost all aspects of one’s life!
What’s more: Jung thinks that a happy life is barely possible without relationships.
They are essential for our motivation and growth.
However, Jung argues that our happiness is actually not inherently dependent on other
people, you should not be lost or hopeless without other people around.
We don’t need to be universally liked or praised in order to be happy.
Indeed, having enemies or people who dislike you shouldn’t get in the way of you being
happy, either.
Moreover, we should be able to help ourselves when necessary.
That said, we do need some people ‘on our side,’.
Human beings are social animals for a reason.
Love and support from those we love creates a sort of motivation, bravery, and creativity
that’s hard, if not impossible, to cultivate yourself.
Jung also acknowledges that having negative or difficult relationships with others is
detrimental to one’s happiness.
It’s important to maintain healthy relationships and know how to leave one when that does not
work out.
One of the biggest traps in your relationships with others is projecting: we often project
things we do not like about ourselves onto others.
If there is envy in our own shadow, we suddenly become experts on identifying envy in others
- and severely judging them for it.
As a result, we repress and deny our own tendency to envy even more.
As Jung says, by dealing with your own darkness, you can better deal with that of others.
All aspects of happiness play into each other, so by working on your own mental health, you
automatically work on bettering your relationships with others.
And, by working on your relationships with others, you automatically get to know yourself
better too.
3.
Appreciate art and nature
In the words of Jung “Nature seemed to me full of wonders, and I wanted to steep myself
in them.
Every stone, every plant, every single thing seemed alive and indescribably marvelous.”
According to Jung, one of the most essential skills to learn in your life is the skill
of appreciation; appreciation of all beauty to be found in life.
In the most general sense, beauty is perceived to be an aesthetic pleasure.
However, to leave it at just that would do the value it brings into our lives injustice.
Jung considered our ability to appreciate beauty to be a vital part of life.
One important ability that helps with appreciating nature and art is the ability to take things
slow.
So many of us rush through life in a hurry; we’re always chasing after another deadline,
trying to be productive.
Your ride to work is perhaps the most mundane and boring thing about your day; but if you
were to leave a little earlier, drive a little slower, and take the time to truly look around
you, you would find so many sights and thoughts that could bring you both joy and insight.
Every aspect of life can be wonderful if we give it consideration - only, we rarely do
so.
Another helpful strategy is to train ourselves to appreciate typically beautiful sights like
sunsets and paintings.
When one practices appreciation enough, they’ll find that they automatically have a much easier
time starting to appreciate more mundane things, too.
And as such, our appreciation for our lives grows.
In the end, you should be able to appreciate almost everything and anything in your life.
This can help your personal growth tremendously.
When we see the beauty in things, we can also see the beauty in ourselves and those around
us.
Appreciation of beauty is a great way to draw out your unconscious too; when you feel certain
things at a certain sight, there is most definitely something in your unconscious that makes you
feel that way, and which is worth exploring.
Jung talked about a fascinating concept called "archetypes."
These are like secret ideas that all people have, even if we don't realize it.
You can find these ideas across all areas of human expression
like stories, art and even religion.
So, when something strikes you as beautiful, it might be because it reminds you of these
hidden ideas that are inside all of us.
It's like that thing touches your heart and feelings that we all have deep inside.
Imagine this: when you see a rainbow or a gorgeous sunset, it often makes you feel happy,
right?
Well, that's because these beautiful things connect with the feelings we all share.
Even if we don't talk about these feelings all the time, they're there in our hearts,
and beautiful things bring them out.
So, when you look at something beautiful, it's like a magical moment where you connect
with those common, deep-down feelings.
It's a bit like meeting an old friend you didn't know you had.
And when you connect with those feelings, it can make you feel really happy and connected
to the world around you.
It's like a little happiness boost that comes from recognizing something beautiful that
we all share deep inside us.
One of the most important sources of beauty, according to Jung, is nature.
Nature is all around us, effortlessly, and is breathtakingly beautiful to anyone who
looks at it long enough.
Human beings are natural beings; we were born in nature.
We belong to the nature of this planet.
Our fabricated reality - with cars and companies and smartphones and deadlines - cannot make
us happy.
We need nature.
Appreciation of nature will help us appreciate everything else in life.
Moreover, appreciation of beauty sparks creativity, which Jung celebrates highly.
Creativity is one of the driving forces of humanity; it not only causes new inventions,
but also new art, new ways to express oneself, new theories and ways to live life.
4.
Set Professional Standards
To quote Jung “It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.”
According to Jung, the happiest people are those who have certain standards for their
work life.
When you enjoy your job, which takes up the majority of your waking hours during a regular
week, you are much more inclined to enjoy life.
Of course, having a job you enjoy isn’t possible for everyone; circumstances rather
than choice can force one into a job.
However, Jung has some experience with this himself.
When Jung was little, he wanted nothing more than to be an archeologist.
He was incredibly interested in discovering and examining the past of the earth.
However, when it was time for Jung to go to university, his family couldn’t afford to
send him any further than the University of Basel, which didn’t teach Archaeology.
As a result, Jung ended up studying medicine there rather than archaeology somewhere else,
and this had him ending up in the field of psychiatry.
Despite pursuing a path that didn’t initially catch his interest, Jung managed to connect
his current field with his other interests: he adjoined his passion for history and anthropology
with his current work in psychiatry and, as a result, invented a whole new way of practicing
his area of expertise: analytical psychology.
Instead of bending to the standards of the time, Jung made the field he worked in bend
to his standards.
As a result, he tremendously enjoyed digging into the depths of the human mind - almost
as much as he would have enjoyed digging into the dirt.
While Jung’s story might seem a bit too aspirational for the common man, it’s important
to remember that there’s a very easy-to-follow piece of advice to be found within this story;
link your current work to your passions.
If you work in fast food or grocery stores, you might want to see what interests you most.
Are you a hobby baker?
Perhaps you could work in a bakery!
Are you really into movies?
Maybe look out for a job opening at the local cinema!
Standards for work, then, concern the standards you set for yourself in the current work you
do.
Look for the highlights in your work.
So standards don’t necessarily have to be big and unreachable.
Maybe you can’t manage to work for a certain company or get a specific position, but you
can always try to see the light in your work.
When you work at a place that inspires you - such as surrounded by fresh bread or movie
posters, you’ll will find your work more meaningful; after all, you’re helping people
enjoy the products that you yourself appreciate so much!
As a result, you’ll feel more productive and needed than if you were selling products
you don’t care for.
And those who feel important in such a way, feel more satisfied, and thus happier.
Having your dream job isn’t necessarily a requirement for taking pride in your work
- but taking pride in your work is absolutely required for general happiness!
Ask yourself: how do I see my values and hobbies reflected in my job?
And how can you maximize those?
How can you improve your work using those as motivation?
Enjoyment of your work will follow.
5.
Seek higher guidance
In our final quote from Carl Jung for this video, he says “In all chaos there is a
cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.”
Everyone needs something to believe in.
Without religion, spirituality, science or philosophy, our lives can seem entirely dull
and - most importantly - random and unfair.
As Jung put it, life can be impossibly hard without a certain comforting viewpoint that
can help you cope.
Finding a religion, spiritual viewpoint or philosophy helps you make sense of the chaos
that is the universe.
There is always a pattern and deeper meaning to find.
And how can we work on personal growth and happiness if we have no lens through which
we see life in general?
Explicitly allowing oneself to believe in something bigger, whether that’s a God,
idea, scientific principle, or anything else, helps to ground oneself and contextualize
your experiences.
This doesn’t mean you have to become religious or a philosopher - no.
It just means that you shouldn’t view life as meaningless.
Find a goal to work towards or ideals to adhere to.
Someone who believes in nothing at all can be defeated by every single blow life throws
their way.
But someone who has a ‘higher guidance,’ so to speak, always knows where to turn to.
Someone who believes in karma has a greater motivation to do good, someone who believes
in hard work has a greater motivation to try hard, and someone who believes that the world
is fundamentally unfair has a greater motivation to try and work towards fairness.
Each belief motivates - and no motivation comes from not believing in anything.
So, find your inner voice; if you think of yourself as someone who has no inclination
towards religion, spirituality, or philosophy, then think harder.
Reach deep into yourself.
How do you act on a daily basis?
Do you follow certain moral rules?
What do you expect from others?
When you sit yourself down and ask yourself questions like these, you’ll find that the
answers can lead you to an overarching philosophy that you subconsciously follow.
This, too, is a form of shadow work.
Finding this philosophy gives you the power to consciously transform it into the most
effective version it can be, and helps you to both motivate yourself and look at life
in a helpful way.
By finding what you believe in and why, you help yourself become the happiest version
of yourself.
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Thanks so much for watching.