People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. — Carl Jung

People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls.

Author: Carl Jung

Insight: We're oddly skilled at staying busy. Work deadlines, social media scrolling, streaming the next series, reorganizing the garage for the third time—all of it can function as a escape route from something much simpler and scarier: actually sitting alone with yourself and wondering who you are and what you actually want. Jung's insight cuts deeper than just being "distracted." He's pointing at something most of us recognize in quiet moments—the things we'll do to avoid looking inward. We might stay in relationships that don't fit, careers that drain us, or friend groups that make us feel smaller, simply because the alternative—confronting what we really believe, what we're afraid of, what we're avoiding—feels riskier than the hollow ache of the status quo. It's often easier to blame circumstances than to admit we're complicit in our own unhappiness. What's worth noticing is that this isn't about guilt. Jung isn't saying you're weak for avoiding yourself. He's suggesting that the things we run from—our doubts, our real desires, our contradictions—are actually the doorway to becoming more whole. The absurdity he mentions? That's just what happens when avoidance becomes your organizing principle. Facing yourself isn't comfortable, but it's usually simpler than whatever elaborate system we build to escape it.

Source: Psychology and Alchemy, p. 99, 1944