The Challenge and Art of Discerning One's True, Authentic Voice

6 March 2022

Jung said: “Somewhere right at the bottom of one’s own being, one generally does know where one should go and what one should do. But there are times when the clown we call “I” behaves in such a distracting fashion that the inner voice cannot make its presence felt.”

It can be so hard to hear this voice and also to not get swayed by what others are doing in their lives, or telling us what we should do, or the myriad of inner-voices based on our past and childhood. Let alone resist the cultural pressures to fit-in and be "normal".

To learn to hear and discern our own true inner voice takes great patience and practice. We have to be willing to take the time, to be gentle with ourselves and to decipher what's me and what's coming from internal or external others.

It's also vital to hone our somatic awareness skills as our body will guide us to our Yes of No in terms of choices and directions, but again, we have to decipher a true, heart/soul-based Yes/No from one based solely on fear and defence, which only ever further contracts our lives.

As Jung further cautioned: “The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.”

We have to find and follow our own unique recipe, no matter how different or unusual that may look, as to do otherwise leaves us at the behest of false-voices and drives, pushing us in the wrong direction and for the wrong reason. It's really the old dichotomy of head//ego/logic, versus heart/soul/Self that we must grapple with over and over at each new stage...

Angela Dunning, 6th March 2022.

Quotes by C. G. Jung from 'Modern Man in Search of a Soul'.