By keeping quiet, repressing nothing, remaining attentive and by accepting reality: taking things as they are and not as I wanted them to be; by doing this, unusual knowledge has come to me, and unusual powers as well, such as I could never have imagined before. I have always thought that when we accepted things, they overpowered us in some way or other. This turns out not to be true at all, and it is only by accepting them that one can assume an attitude towards them.
So now I intend to play the game of life being receptive to whatever comes to me: good and bad, sun and shadow, that are forever alternating; and in this way also accepting my own nature with its positive and negative sides. Thus everything becomes more alive to me. What a fool I was; how I tried to force everything to go according to the way I thought it ought to go.
-Carl Gustav Jung
7 comments:
I love this! Beautiful, simple and so true.
Bill Wilson had therapy sessions with Carl Jung. So interesting that the 12 steps are based on acceptance and powerlessness. I believe Dr. Jung was an influence as this quote indicates. Thanks for this. It sums up that I cannot force things to be how I would like them to be. I must simply deal with life on life's terms.
Love this and need it engraved on my brain!
guess we all need to print this one
Lori
Love it Barbara! Except for that part about accepting reality :)
Good post Barb and a wonderful summary of what I have learned through alanon.
While I agree with everything my fellow country man says, it makes me wonder if he had to deal with an addicted child.
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