I recently discovered Individuation, a self-healing process formulated by Carl Jung. I’m no psychologist and I haven’t read a lot about it yet, but I know enough to be able to appreciate and scratch the surface of this process myself.
At its core, it is the process of facing your ‘Unconscious’. It is a part of our psyche that Jung calls as our ‘Shadow’. The part that is normally suppressed and hidden in some corners of our minds.
The process (also called as ‘Integration’) involves facing and accepting that unconscious part, as an inseparable part of our consciousness. By doing so, we become ourselves, wholly.
Intuitively, it does make sense to ‘be yourself’. Because if there would be no dichotomy between who we are and who we portray ourselves to be, there would be lesser ‘internal battles’ (example: unexplained anxieties, self sabotage, and bursts of anger).
It resonates closely with the proverbial wisdom of “know thyself” that we find in some form or the other at the core of most religions and philosophies.
Whether you call it ‘Individuation’ as per analytical philosophy or ‘know thyself’ as per your ancestors’ wisdom, deeply reflecting on who you truly are is a good way of navigating yourself through this labyrinth called life.
I am extremely new to this, but I hope that these reflections untie some knots in my own psyche and provide me some answers that I’ve been looking for.