"It's easier to try to be better than you are than to be who you are." —Late renowned Jungian analyst Marion Woodman, from Coming Home to Myself, by Marion Woodman and Jill Mellick (Conari Press, 1998) It may be safer and easier to live on automatic, letting the roles we have chosen for ourselves lead the way. But the soul calls us deeper, letting us know through our dreams who we really are, what we really want and need. Are you bent on staying in control, rising to every duty with perfect aplomb?
Be prepared for dreams of overflowing toilets, said Woodman. But no worries. All that sewage is just letting you know that you're human: You're pissed you have to go to work. You're too tired to do the laundry.
You don't want to smile at the person who's just said hello. Jungian wisdom says that acknowledging these kinds of less-than-perfect feelings (easier said than done, I know) will most likely keep you from wading your way through an imaginal flooded bathroom.
As you grow into greater self-acceptance, you might find your nighttime wanderings take you, instead, to a wide-open field, or to a large living room with high ceilings—places your psychic self can stretch out, run around, and just be.
Photo by Bruno Mira
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