The basic 'ignominious thing' that happens to us as we adapt to society is that we take up the identities or roles that are provided for us and then - after this successful act of adaptation - we forget that this isn't who we really are....

Where power prevails then there is no love, and vice versa, says Jung, and the same can of course be said for connection. It's the same thing. Our culture is all about control, all about the use of power, and what this means is that there's no room left for there to be actual connection between people. That's the type of world we have created for ourselves...

We almost always 'live above ourselves', trying to anticipate what we can't anticipate, guessing what we can't guess, assuming what we can't assume. We exist in this thing called 'adult mode', in other words. The more we do this the more problems we make for ourselves however, since living above ourselves (and not be 'on the level' with ourselves) is the same thing as 'living  an unreal life'. 

Once we move into alignment with the collective mind then all the jibes and digs cease and instead we get to feel that we belong, that we are accepted and approved of and all of that. If - for whatever reason - we aren't able to conform successfully (if we can't pull it off correctly) then the negative reinforcement (the 'punishment') will continue until we do. 

Psychological work does not involve 'forcing ourselves to be a particular way'. That isn't psychological work - that's simply fear. Whenever we find that we are either trying to suppress or promote some particular state of mind then that's fear, then that's a 'mechanical reaction'. Psychological work is when we're actually interested in where we are, not when we're super-busy trying to get somewhere else...

We know fair bit about physical sickness these days, but frighteningly little (if anything at all) about Jung refers to as 'sickness of the soul'. We don't acknowledge that there is such a thing. This doesn't mean that we won't 'learn about it in time', it just means that the 'learning' will occur against our will, via a shed-load of grueling mental suffering.... 

We conflate 'mental health' and 'control' (or 'regulation') such that - as far as we're concerned - the more control we have the better off we will be, mental health-wise. This is clearly not the case - the more we try to control or regulate ourselves the more brittle, rigid and reactive we become. Control precludes spontaneity and without spontaneity life turns into a mere mechanical chore - it becomes a futile 'meaningless task' that we have to validate as best we can with our nonsensical ideologies and beliefs. 

Society pretends to be one thing, but really it's quite another.

Western mindfulness is 'mindfulness with an agenda', the problem here being that when mindfulness has an agenda then it isn't mindfulness. It's not mindfulness but control.

No one ever improved their mental health - as we like to say - by 'seeking the advantage'. when we seek the advantage then this isn't to our advantage. 'Nothing fails like success', says Alan Watts....