“I have frequently seen people become neurotic when they content themselves with inadequate or wrong answers to the questions of life. They seek position, marriage, reputation, outward success of money, and remain unhappy and neurotic even when they have attained what they were seeking. Such people are usually confined within too narrow a spiritual horizon. Their life has not sufficient content, sufficient meaning. If they are enabled to develop into more spacious personalities, the neurosis generally disappears.” C.G Jung
I spent my morning teaching mindfulness and self-compassion to a group of women. It was awesome. Exposing others to a new way of relating to their inner and outer lives is unbelievably rewarding. Mindfulness and self-compassion is the content that has given my life tremendous meaning. I left that group feeling connected, grateful, spacious and deeply contented.
Later in the day, as I was doing errands, I felt such a different vibe. As I looked around, I noticed the women around me were staring at clothes and buying clothes, and no one looked happy. Every woman seemed to be on a kind of mission, searching for something to want. It’s like flipping through a catalog, turning each page in the hopes that on the next page there will be something to desire, something to buy.
I spent so many years with inadequate and wrong answers to the questions of life. I have a closet full of clothes, too many degrees, and a long list of ex-boyfriends, to prove it. When I discovered mindfulness, my whole way of being in the world was turned upside down. I began to feel less constricted and more spacious.
How about you? There’s still time to change your answers.