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of the video but for now let’s get on with how to listen to your own gut feelings from
the philosophy of Carl Jung. Carl Jung once said ‘Intuition is perception
via unconsciousness.’
Your gut feelings or intuitions are entirely unique to you and can say a lot about who
you are as an individual. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, delved extensively
into the workings of the unconscious, offering insights that can help us better understand
our intuitions and ourselves. Jung’s most famous theory is ‘the individuation
process.’ Individuation is the art of learning how to
recognize your inner and most unique attributes, desires, goals, strengths, and weaknesses. The most vital practice within this process
is the exploration of the unconscious. A part of the unconsciousness is what Jung
called ‘the shadow’ - this contains all the aspects of yourself that you try to push
down and deny, the attributes that you try to pretend you don’t have, even to the point
of convincing yourself. Examples of such traits are explosive anger,
jealousy, envy, greed, pride, laziness, vanity, and more. But suppressing or ignoring these traits doesn’t
make them go away - rather, they grow and fester in the shadows. This is the cause of sudden outbursts, emotional
blowups, snapping at others, unwanted thoughts, unfairly blaming others, and more. In other words: they could be the source of
your less desirable intuitions or gut feelings. Another highly influential source of intuition
are your unconscious archetypes. Archetypes are part of the collective unconsciousness:
a form of unconsciousness shared by all human beings. Jung was of the opinion that certain parts
of one’s personality and traits are present from birth, only waiting to develop, and that
is the reason for all similarities between people across cultures, time, and space. They are the natural tendencies in our minds
that help us understand and react to the world around us. An example of a Jungian archetype is ‘The
Caregiver:’ the human urge to take care of one another. Jung’s teachings on the unconscious and
archetypes are vital to understanding your gut feelings, and how getting to know and
learning to listen to those gut feelings can improve your life. Which is why in this video we’re going to
talk about how to listen to your gut feelings from the teachings of Carl Jung. Get To Know Your Shadow and Your Archetype
Jung says ‘Intuition is not mere perception, or vision, but an active, creative process
that puts into the object just as much as it takes out.’ You can get to know your intuitions by getting
to know your unconsciousness - by analyzing your shadow, by working on your individuation
process. You can do this by utilizing self-reflection,
meditation, analysis of dreams, fantasies, urges, and your own behavior. For example, you can keep a dream journal,
in which you write what you remember from your dreams as soon as you wake up in the
morning. Dreams can tell you a lot about what was going
on in your head before you went to sleep, such as your worries, fantasies, desires,
fears, and so on. If it turns out that you carry a lot of worry
with you, this might affect your shadow and thus your intuitions. You might get the sudden urge to act tougher
than you are to hide your insecurities, for example. Another very standard but very effective way
to get to know your intuitions is to simply reflect on how you felt, acted, and made your
decisions on any given day. Regularly reflect and ask yourself questions
such as, ‘Why did I make this decision?’, ‘Is there anything I wanted to do instead?’,
or ‘What did I feel in the moment?’. You can practice reflection at scheduled times
or whenever you have time, and you can do so by either thinking about it, or even better
write about it, otherwise known as journalling. In this way, you examine your shadow. Getting to know the shadow is a difficult
and never-ending, yet incredibly rewarding process. When you get to know what it is that you push
away, you get to know what drives you the most - and thus, what it is that forms your
intuitions. Another incredibly important part of the unconscious
that influences your gut feelings, are the collective archetypes. It’s crucial to identify which archetypes
you can find within yourself. Examples of the archetypes and the kinds of
intuitions that come to these types of people are the following: The Hero
The hero is a courageous fighter who believes that as long as they work or try hard enough,
that they can achieve anything. Their intuitions would be rooted in stubbornness,
faith in their own abilities, and perhaps, even arrogance. The Caregiver
This is an archetype that almost cares more about others than themselves. Their intuition is to think of others before
thinking of oneself, and their gut feeling is often to say yes. The Creator
The creator is a very artistic and creative type. Their gut feelings are often out there, but
not in a bad way: they have a talent for quickly thinking of the most creative solution to
a problem. The Rebel
This type of person is someone who likes to make their own rules and ignores limits. Their intuitions are often extreme, destructive,
and on the far end of the spectrum. The Trickster
The trickster is a joker who mainly seeks out enjoyment and good times. Whenever they get into trouble, their gut
feelings would include joking around, bargaining, and playing with the situation they’ve found
themselves in. The Sage
The sage finds honesty extremely important. They’re the type of person who always tends
to seek out the truth and be honest before anything else. And finally
The Ruler The ruler is someone who feels most at home
in a leadership position and who strives for control. Their gut feelings are influenced by this
desire: they are most often alert when they’ve got opportunities to grow their control and
their intuitions lead them to greater positions within their life, society, or company. Doing research on the Jungian archetypes and
trying to determine which ones you see the most in you can tell you a lot about what
types of intuitions you usually get. When you know yourself well - and, for example,
realize that you often act as a caregiver - you’ll start to identify gut feelings
that result from this archetype much more quickly. It’s important to know that you can outgrow
archetypes and grow in to new archetypes when you think of this. Moreover, Jung identified two types of intuitions:
introverted and extroverted. Introverted intuition focuses on rational
thinking and recognizing patterns, while extroverted intuition is about exploring new possibilities. Introverted intuition looks inward for information,
like solving riddles or predicting the future based on current clues. Extroverted intuition seeks outside the box
ideas and solutions, often coming up with creative solutions effortlessly. So for every gut feeling you’ve managed
to identify, you can try to figure out if it was introverted or extroverted. What information was it based on? For example, if you had an intuition not to
take a certain offer, is it because it seemed sketchy, or because you’ve heard something
bad about the person offering it? The former reasoning is introverted - based
on the offer itself - and the latter is extroverted - based on outside information. This way you can find out whether your intuitions
are more often introverted or extroverted, and how you can use that to your advantage. You can also learn to improve either of the
two kinds of intuitions, as we’ll explain later. Your personality, unconsciousness, and intuitions
are ever changing. Thus, your self-analysis should be permanently
ongoing. By paying attention to your subconscious,
shadow, behavior, feelings, and archetypes, and by analyzing all your gut feelings in
hindsight, you’ll manage to get to know exactly what kinds of intuitions pop up in
your head from time to time, and where they come from. 2. Remove What Blocks Your Gut Feelings
According to Jung ‘‘We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.’’ Even when you know what your gut feelings
can look like, you might find yourself unable to act; recognition isn’t enough for action. Individuation is more than simply getting
to know yourself: it also includes accepting yourself and then integrating all parts of
yourself - thus creating one whole. You might have found out that you have helpful
introverted gut feelings as a result of a certain archetype, but you could also have
conflicting intuitions from the shadow. You could even have helpful unconscious gut
feelings from certain aspects of yourself that you push away that are then blocked by
your archetype. Fore example, imagine someone who’s very
trusting and optimistic, which is wonderful, except for when they let people start taking
advantage of them. This might be the result of an archetype called
‘The Innocent.’ Now imagine that this same person has some
distrust or fear in their shadow, which they unconsciously suppress. These ‘negative traits’ could be a useful
source of accurate gut feelings when people mistreat you. So when somebody ends up selfishly using this
person, the person could have a gut feeling coming from their shadow traits that identifies
that this is happening, but the trusting intuitions from the innocent archetype override that
instinct. In other words: if you embrace your innocent
archetype but reject your more ‘negative’ traits, that archetype will always block the
intuitions coming from the shadow, no matter how helpful they could be. And the same is true the other way around:
if you embrace distrust but none of your more empathetic or caring archetypes, you’ll
become someone who never learns to trust or lean on someone else. So how do you make sure that none of your
gut feelings are blocked? According to Jung, the way to individuation
is by integrating your conscious and subconscious. Instead of being two separate sides of yourself,
you should be able to be optimistic and trusting without being naive or blind. This can only be done when you accept all
parts of yourself. This, of course, is much more difficult than
it sounds. Getting to know and accepting all parts of
yourself is frightening. For example, the idea that you’re actually
a deeply jealous person, or that you’re secretly selfish, or a bit of a liar - you
probably can’t imagine embracing these parts of yourself. However, every ‘bad’ trait has a positive
side to it. Fear and distrust can protect you from dangerous
situations, anger can make you more assertive and help you advocate for yourself, jealousy
or selfishness can be an ingredient for ambition, et cetera. Even in the example just described, with intuitions
from the shadow being overtaken by intuitions from an archetype, the shadow played a helpful
part. And, moreover, it’s impossible not to have
any negative traits. The reality of the situation is: the shadow
is only frightening and unhelpful when it’s unacknowledged and unaccepted. Accepting it is the best way to let it help
and benefit you. So instead of denying or working against traits
you’d rather not have, ask yourself: in what situations have these traits helped me? In what situations could they help me? How could I balance my traits? Your shadow side and archetypes are here to
teach you. They are there to show you who you are, why
you are the way you are - and how that could be a good thing. All shadow and archetype traits are traits
that could be positive, if only you use them right. So question yourself, think of how to use
them right, and never ignore or push them down. 3. Cultivate the ability to have Your Gut Feelings
In the words of Jung ‘Intuition doesn’t say what things mean but sniffs out their
possibilities. Meaning is given by thinking.’ By daily, weekly, or even only monthly exercises,
you can sharpen your mind and cultivate the ability to have quicker and more beneficial
intuitions. Intuitions, as said before, are the result
of our personal and collective unconsciousness. So by exploring your unconsciousness in different
ways, you train your intuitions. A few activities that can help you cultivate
your introverted intuitions are the following: Try and view your problem from different perspectives;
someone who thinks very differently from you, your future self, a character from a movie
- or whoever else you think could be helpful. Meditate and try to examine your inner world. One of the most important aspects of meditation
is to witness your thoughts as if you were an outsider: you acknowledge them, and then
let them go. By doing so you can’t distract yourself
or get lost in unimportant matters, but you’re still thinking. And this way, eventually some thoughts may
arise that seem entirely new and original to you. Thoughts that you would never have had otherwise. Make art. Carl Jung believed that things like drawing,
journaling, metaphors, and storytelling could help you come to new insights. If you have a certain problem, it might help
to draw the situation or write a fictionalized short story about it. This creates both a certain distance and overview
of the situation that could help you reconsider it in an entirely new way. A few activities that can help you cultivate
your extroverted intuitions are the following: Expose yourself to new situations often. Try things that you’ve never done before,
speak to people outside of your own social circles, and ask others for their opinions
more often. Doing so will give you a whole range of new
ideas and perspectives that you would never have known existed otherwise. Broadening your horizons means broadening
your mind - which means that you have way more knowledge to draw from if you ever have
a problem that needs solving. Again, make art. Mindmapping, for example, is an excellent
way to try and think outside the box. By brainstorming on paper, you challenge yourself
to fill the page with as much information as possible and thus try and exhaust all the
knowledge you might have. Try to relate as much as you can to your current
problems, and you’ll find that the paper tells you more than you ever knew before. Make a list of ideas and try to combine them,
even if they initially don’t seem to go well together. Examples of making new combinations like that
could be using two opposing colors in a drawing and trying to make it look good, using two
weird ingredients in a recipe and trying to make it taste good, using two items of clothing
that don’t fit together and trying to make it work as an outfit. But aside from this kind of daily practice,
it might also help to try and combine various aspects of all the solutions to a problem
you can think of, and use that as a basis to create an entirely new solution that’s
the best of all worlds. Of course, none of the insights you attain
thanks to these activities are gut feelings or intuitions - after all, they didn’t come
to you spontaneously. However, all of these activities serve as
a sort of training for your mind. The more insights, knowledge, and ways of
effective thinking you have, the more your mind starts to use all of that unconsciously. If you teach yourself to think outside the
box, your gut feelings might start to come from somewhere outside that box, too. Other activities that Jung recommended are
set times a day for reflective journaling, engaging with nature, or spending time now
and then acknowledging your bodily sensations. All of these practices can help to sharpen
your mind, reveal more of your unconscious, and thus cultivate your intuitions. The more you work on your mind, the more helpful
your gut feelings become. 4. Don’t Get Lost In Your Gut Feelings
In our final quote from Jung for this video, he says ‘Intuitives are often very poor
because they never wait for the harvest.’ Finally, a tricky part: there will always
be unhelpful gut feelings. This has been discussed before, when we talked
about how positive gut feelings can be blocked by more negative instincts, but sometimes
we just have an unhelpful gut feeling, with no better alternative in sight. Our unconscious houses lots of attributes,
not all of them pretty, and they can manifest in the form of obstructive or harmful intuitions
- so just because you’ve learned how to act on your gut feelings doesn’t mean you
should constantly do so. For example, anger can result in helpful intuitions,
but also very destructive ones too, such as the urge to isolate yourself or to alienate
people. And the caregiver archetype can give you some
wonderful intuitions, but you also have to ignore your own needs and feelings in favor
of those of others. Thus, intuitions are not something to blindly
give in to. One of the most difficult things about your
gut feelings is mistakenly giving in to one that ends up being unhelpful. Another risk is when an intuition does seem
beneficial, but there’s an alternative that’s even more beneficial. In determining the legitimacy of a gut feeling,
rational thinking is paramount. What is your gut feeling telling you, and
does it make logical sense? What are the benefits and downsides of your
gut feeling? You can also have a situation in which the
most rational-seeming option doesn’t feel right. In that case, think further. Why doesn’t it feel right? What is it about this option that makes you
feel hesitant? If you can’t seem to think of it, then try
other ways of tapping into that unconscious feeling: try meditation, drawing, writing,
or mindmapping to name a few options. The answer might come from an unexpected corner
- but don’t make a decision unless you understand why you’re making this decision. For example, imagine that you get offered
a new job that seems good and has better pay, but it doesn’t feel right. After some inward searching, you might find
out why: maybe you’ve once heard something pretty bad about the company, maybe there
was some suspiciously ambiguous phrasing in the offer letter. Both are potential red flags for your future
circumstances in this job, and realizing this could help you avoid a bad situation altogether. But maybe your ‘bad gut feeling’ turns
out just to be anxiety and insecurity, because you’re not sure you’re worthy of the job. In that case you should try to fight this
feeling and turn your anxiety into a challenge for yourself: accept the job and see how you
do. Then, there is the case of alternatives. Maybe your intuition tells you to do something
that also makes logical sense and you make the decision just like that! This, however, is something Jung discourages. Even if it seems like the best option, it
might not be - there might be new, other options out there that your intuition didn’t focus
on. So whenever you’re about to make a decision,
give yourself a little time to think it over. Again, mindmap, make art, meditate, and see
what comes up. Are there unforeseen consequences to consider? Are there alternative pathways that haven't
been explored? Only after exhaustively pondering all possibilities
can you confidently determine the best course of action. Only if you’ve contemplated all options
that you could think of, do you know whether your preferred option is the best one. Moreover, someone who always gives into their
intuitions without giving themselves some time most likely is someone who doesn’t
plan or practice patience - two abilities that are very important aspects of achieving
your goals. Spontaneity can be great, but very destructive,
too. Thinking is what truly gives your intuitions
power, because by assessing your intuitions you gain control over them instead of the
other way around. No matter how helpful and insightful intuitions
can be, you have to determine their helpfulness and insightfulness first. In other words: don’t let your gut feelings
keep you from waiting for the harvest. As we mentioned at the beginning, this video
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