New Year Resolutions: It isn’t about changing yourself

What if you approached 2013 with a creative spin on the old New Year’s Resolution? What if you took the attitude that it wasn’t about changing or improving yourself, but about becoming more of yourself?

This way of thinking is at the root of Jungian psychology. I like counseling from this perspective because it works from the premise that there is nothing inherently wrong with any of us – nothing intrinsically broken, nothing to heal. That at our core, we are all fine, acceptable, whole and that our life journey, when lived consciously, is about making our way back to remembering this. There is nothing to change, but there is a lot more we could become.

Our struggles and suffering come from complexes – beliefs, emotions and behavior patterns – that complicate our journey. For example, an inferiority complex is an experience of believing, feeling and acting like you are less valuable than other people. When this complex is in the driver seat of your life, you constantly gather evidence proving you are not smart enough, tall enough, rich enough or lucky enough… Then fueled by self disgust, you try to change yourself: “I need to kill this inner critic of mine.” “I need to lose weight/bleach my teeth/buy a new car and then I will be desirable.”

But what if these were just beliefs, not truths? What if there was an Inner You that was greater? That at the center of your being there lived a unique and whole guiding force that was bigger than any inferiority complex or inner child. That this Inner You was bright enough to dull the gripping power of the inner critic and all of your complexes? Jungian psychotherapy is a pathway toward touching into this Inner You. It is a mysterious journey, unique for each one of us, filled with surprising discoveries, challenges and latent vitality. What if your New Year’s Resolution was to set on a path of discovering this Inner You?