Part 1: Awareness
Have you ever wondered why it hurts so much? Why, even when everything seems to be right, there is this constant weight in your chest — this feeling that something is out of place?
Maybe you have tried everything: meditation, advice from friends, ignoring the pain by pretending to be okay — and yet, the suffering remains, like a shadow that silently follows you.
Well, I’m going to tell you something that perhaps no one has had the courage to tell you until now: most of your suffering does not come from the world outside. It comes from within — from what you do not want to see, from the part of you that you have abandoned.
Carl Jung, one of the greatest names in psychology, said, “What you do not bring to consciousness returns as fate.“
And that is exactly what is happening to you.
Life is trying to show you something, but you do not listen.
You run away.
You disguise it with distractions, addictions, empty relationships.
You tell yourself it will pass — but it doesn’t, does it?
Because the pain does not want to be ignored. It wants to be understood.
This post is not just another piece of cheap self-help content.
I am not here to give you ready-made phrases or magic solutions.
I am here to provoke you, to challenge you, to face what you hide — even from yourself.
Give me a few minutes of your time — just that — and I will show you why you suffer so much, and how this can end.
Not with tricks, but with awareness.
Maybe you are at the bottom of the well right now.
Maybe you are on the verge of a breakdown, smiling on the outside while screaming on the inside.
Or maybe you have learned to function with the pain, as if it were part of you.
Whatever the case may be, I have a hard truth to deliver to you:
Suffering continues only because you have not yet had the courage to look at its root.
Carl Jung dedicated his life to mapping this dark terrain — the terrain of the human soul.
He knew that only those who dive into their own darkness can find true light.
So if you are willing to face this with me, I promise you one thing:
By the end of this post, you will not be the same.
Because what you will discover here can completely change the way you understand yourself, your pain, and your freedom.
Let’s begin.
You believe you are suffering because of others: because of your boss, your partner, the lack of money, social pressure, the expectations the world places on you.
And of course, all of this weighs heavily.
But what you still haven’t understood — and need to understand now — is that true suffering, the kind that paralyzes, that hurts even in silence, arises when you disconnect from who you really are.
Carl Jung said that: “the greatest tragedy of the soul is to live a life that is not yours.“
And that is exactly what you are doing.
From an early age, you were taught to fit in, to be accepted, to follow standards.
And little by little, you drifted away from yourself.
You became a character to please, a puppet to avoid disturbing.
You silenced your desires, repressed your emotions, swallowed your anger, suffocated your sadness.
And now, you carry a pain that you can’t even name — a pain that doesn’t scream, but consumes you.
This is the suffering of those who live in disconnect — the suffering of someone who looks in the mirror and no longer recognizes themselves.
You have gotten used to the role that was given to you.
But the soul — the soul feels.
It feels when it is living a lie, and it begins to scream through anxiety, insomnia, apathy, guilt.
Emotional pain is the soul’s alarm, signaling that you are betraying yourself.
Make no mistake: it is not failure that hurts — it is the false expectation you built about who you should be.
It is not loneliness that wounds — it is the emptiness of not knowing who you are anymore when you are alone.
It is not the other that hurts you — it is you, every time you abandon yourself to maintain an appearance.
And as long as this disconnect exists, suffering will continue.
Because you are trying to heal an external wound when the root is within you.
But here is the central point: this pain is a warning, not a sentence.
Jung believed that suffering was the first step of transformation.
Pain exists to push you back home — to your true self.
And this return begins when you stop running away and start listening.
Listening to what has been buried, what has been silenced, what has been forgotten.
Part 2: The Shadow
If you truly want to stop suffering, you need to know it — and face it.
You want to stop suffering, but you keep fighting against the symptoms — and never against the cause.
Anxiety, guilt, anger, sadness — you treat all of this as an enemy, as if they were flaws that need to be eliminated.
But what you don’t know — or perhaps refuse to accept — is that the true enemy is not outside of you.
It is within — silent, hidden.
And that is where the danger lies.
Carl Jung called this hidden side the shadow.
And don’t be fooled: everyone carries one — including you.
The shadow is everything you have repressed, hidden, or denied within yourself:
Your unacceptable desires, your forbidden emotions, your contained anger, your silent sexuality, your ambition disguised as humility, your fears that you pretend not to have.
The shadow is formed by the parts you did not want — or could not — be.
But they are still there, living in the dark.
And the more you ignore it, the more it dominates you.
Think of the times you exploded for no reason, or sabotaged an incredible opportunity, or ended a healthy relationship on an impulse you couldn’t explain —
That is the shadow at work.
It infiltrates your thoughts, manipulates your emotions, shapes your decisions — all without you realizing it.
Jung said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.“
Do you think suffering is bad luck? Karma? Injustice?
Maybe it’s just your shadow controlling you.
And it will keep doing that — until you face it head-on.
The problem is that facing the shadow requires courage.
Because you will have to admit things you don’t want to admit.
You will have to look in the mirror and see what you have always tried to hide.
You will have to stop playing the victim and accept that there is a monster inside you —
But that it is also human.
That it is also you.
But here is the most important point:
The shadow is not your enemy.
It is the part of your soul that has been exiled.
And like any renegade part, it just wants to be seen — to be heard — to be integrated.
Jung did not believe in getting rid of the shadow.
He believed in embracing it — in transforming it into strength, into awareness, into power.
Because what you reject weakens you.
And what you integrate sets you free.
In the next part, you will discover what to do with this shadow now that it is before you.
We will talk about the path of courage — the beginning of real healing — and how to take the first step to reclaim your fragmented soul.
Because knowing the shadow is just the beginning.
What you do with it is what changes everything.
Part 3: The Confrontation
You have come this far.
Faced the truth of your disconnection.
Looked into the eyes of your shadow.
And now comes the most decisive moment: the confrontation.
It is not enough to simply understand what lies behind your suffering.
Understanding is the beginning, but healing requires action — courageous, raw, and often painful action.
Because now, you will need to do something that most never do:
Cross the internal hell with your eyes wide open.
Carl Jung was clear:
The journey to the self goes through a path that few have the courage to follow.
And this courage is not the absence of fear — it is movement, even in fear.
Facing the unconscious is walking through a dark territory where you control nothing.
It is letting go of the mask.
Dropping the victim role.
And accepting that there is a part of you that contributes to your own suffering.
This requires brutal honesty.
It requires you to stop lying to yourself.
But what does it mean, in practice, to face the unconscious?
It means starting to listen to what your body screams when your mind insists on ignoring it.
That stomach pain when you are with the wrong person.
That tightness in your chest that visits you when you accept yet another situation that diminishes you.
That inexplicable fatigue that appears every time you force a fake smile.
All of this is the unconscious trying to save you — not destroy you.
You can start with small actions:
Write down dreams.
Observe emotional triggers.
Reflect on patterns that have repeated for years.
Every time something throws you off balance, there is a hidden message.
The unconscious speaks in symbols.
And your task now is to decipher — not in a hurry, not with judgment — but with presence.
With the willingness to truly listen to yourself.
Not to comfort yourself, but to confront yourself.
One of the most powerful ways to do this is through deep writing.
Sit down every day and write as if you were confessing your darkest secrets to yourself.
Write what you feel ashamed to feel.
What you are afraid to admit.
What you have never dared to say out loud.
Because when those words escape the prison of silence, they lose the power to destroy you.
Another indispensable tool is the therapeutic mirror —
Whether with a psychologist or with someone qualified to help you interpret the signals your mind is sending you.
Jung said that the unconscious is not a garbage dump, but a living intelligence.
It wants to show you something.
It wants to heal you.
But it demands that you listen — without filters, without defenses, without excuses.
Do you want to stop suffering?
Then you need to stop running.
Because as long as you flee, suffering will continue to chase you.
But when you stop and look it in the face, it begins to change.
It starts to transform.
And then you discover something no one told you:
The pain you fear so much is, in fact, a portal.
And that is exactly what we will explore in the next part:
What is the true role of pain in your life?
Why does it insist on appearing even when everything seems to be under control?
And most importantly — how can it become your most powerful ally on the path to liberation?
Part 4: The Confrontation
Most people spend their lives trying to eliminate pain.
They take medication.
Drown themselves in distractions.
Dive into shallow relationships.
Seek immediate pleasure.
Accumulate achievements and happy posts — all to avoid feeling.
But here’s a truth no one wants to hear:
As long as you try to get rid of pain, it will chase you.
Because pain is not here to be eliminated — it is here to be heard.
Carl Jung saw suffering not as a mistake of life, but as a call to transformation.
Pain is the signal that something is broken inside you — that needs to be seen, cared for, realigned.
It is the soul’s cry, saying: this can’t go on.
Every pain carries a message.
Every anguish is a code waiting to be deciphered.
You just need to stop treating pain as an enemy — and start treating it as a guide.
Think of all the times life forced you to change.
How many of those changes happened in comfort?
Probably none.
It is in chaos that the soul begins to reorganize.
It is in pain that the psyche begs for reconstruction.
And that is where true transformation begins.
Jung said that suffering must be experienced to the end — and only then can it be overcome.
In other words: pain needs to be traversed, not avoided.
Let’s bring this to reality.
Imagine someone who spends their life negating themselves to please others —
Always available.
Always smiling.
Always saying yes.
Gradually, this person begins to feel anxiety, extreme fatigue, unexplained sadness.
They go to the doctor, get tests, take anxiolytics — but nothing resolves.
Because the body is speaking what the mind refuses to accept.
Living in denial of one’s own truth hurts.
And it will continue to hurt — until they stop lying to themselves.
Another example:
Someone who keeps repeating the same pattern in relationships —
Always getting involved with emotionally unavailable people.
Always feeling rejected.
Always ending up with the feeling of not being enough.
This pain is not bad luck.
It is a mirror.
It is life showing — repeatedly — that there is an old wound, perhaps from childhood, that needs to be healed.
And as long as it is not touched, suffering will continue to serve as a reminder.
When you start to see pain as symbolic language, everything changes.
What once seemed like punishment reveals itself as a compass.
Pain begins to point the way.
And as paradoxical as it may seem, you realize that suffering — when listened to attentively — can be the most powerful force of healing.
Because it forces you to stop.
To look.
To change.
And this is where responsibility comes in.
Because now you know.
Ignoring pain is ignoring yourself.
Running away from pain is abandoning yourself.
But if you have the courage to listen to it — with humility, presence, and curiosity — it will lead you to a place you may not even imagine exists.
A place where there is peace.
Not because the world is perfect — but because you are finally whole.
In the next part, we will talk about this place — the other side of pain.
What happens when you stop resisting and start integrating everything you have rejected in yourself?
True healing is not the absence of pain.
It is the transformation of pain into awareness.
And that is what awaits you next.
Part 5: The Integration
There comes a moment, after so much internal confrontation, when something changes.
Not suddenly.
Not with fireworks or dramatic revelations.
But subtly and profoundly — like a breeze you barely notice, yet it transforms the entire climate of your soul.
It’s the moment when you stop resisting.
And for the first time — perhaps in your life — you begin to feel whole.
But what does it mean, after all, to become whole?
It means embracing everything you are — including what you most detest about yourself.
It means stopping the war with your emotions.
Stopping the attempt to be perfect.
Stopping the wearing of masks.
It’s when you understand that your anger, your fear, your sadness, your shame — all those pieces you’ve spent your life trying to hide — are legitimate parts of your existence.
And when you integrate them, instead of rejecting them, something miraculous happens:
Suffering begins to dissolve.
Carl Jung called this individuation.
Not in the sense of becoming special or different —
But in the sense of becoming yourself.
Without distortions.
A complete human being.
Real. Authentic.
And this authenticity does not arise from pride, but from acceptance.
It’s not about finding yourself —
It’s about discovering yourself.
And only those who have the courage to enter the ruins of their own soul, and rebuild what has been broken, can truly find themselves.
At this stage, you realize you no longer need to hide your pain — because it does not define you.
It was the path, not the destination.
You look back and see that every crisis, every fall, every emotional collapse had a purpose:
To strip you of the lie.
To force you to abandon the illusion of control.
To compel you to shed what was false — so you could then clothe yourself in truth.
And this truth is not comfortable.
It does not spare you from vulnerability.
It demands presence.
It demands choices.
Because now that you know your shadow…
Now that you understand the role of pain…
Now that you feel the power of being who you are…
You can no longer live on autopilot.
You will begin to see clearly: who uplifts you — and who drains you.
You will stop accepting what you once accepted, just to avoid conflict.
You will start saying no without guilt.
You will finally say yes — to yourself.
This internal change is silent — but overwhelming.
It’s not about becoming a new person.
It’s about ending the betrayal of who you have always been.
And at this point, you discover something no one taught you:
You didn’t need to heal to be worthy of love.
You just needed to accept yourself.
To stop living in scarcity.
Because the peace you sought outside was waiting within.
Part 6: The Resposibility
Beware.
This is the point where many people settle.
The pain has passed.
The patterns have changed.
Life begins to flow.
And then the temptation arises — to stop there.
But there is one more step.
A step that Jung considered essential.
Because individual healing is not complete until it transforms into contribution.
What do you do with your light after crossing your darkness?
How do you live — now that you are awake?
This is what we will explore in the final part:
The conscious choice to live differently.
To not just survive, but to exist — with purpose.
With awareness.
With responsibility.
Because now that you have been reborn, life demands more from you.
Now you know.
You can no longer pretend you don’t understand.
You heard every word.
Felt every truth pierce deep like a blade.
And yet — you stayed.
That already places you among the few.
Most run when the truth starts to hurt.
Most choose to keep sleeping.
You didn’t.
You stayed.
And because of that, you now have a choice before you:
To continue repeating the old patterns that drag you down…
Or to finally take control of your own existence.
It doesn’t matter how much you have suffered.
It doesn’t matter what was done to you.
What matters now is what you will do — with all of this.
Because the pain you have carried for years can turn into strength.
The emptiness you tried to fill with everything and everyone can become fertile silence.
And the traumas that marked you don’t have to be a prison.
They can be the starting point for your greatest liberation.
But understand something crucial:
The awareness you have awakened here comes with a price.
Because once you see, you can no longer unsee.
Ignorance is no longer a comfortable option.
You have been called to live at another level.
And living at this new level requires responsibility.
It requires that you no longer betray yourself.
That you accept nothing less than you deserve.
That you do not hide behind excuses or old fears.
You don’t need to be 100% ready — no one is.
What you need is to decide.
To choose, every day, to live consciously.
To look at yourself with firmness.
With compassion.
With truth.
And most importantly — to act.
Because knowledge without action is just another form of self-deception.
Carl Jung said that individuation — this process of becoming whole — is a journey for a lifetime.
And today, perhaps, was your first real step on that journey.
Perhaps, for the first time, you understood that you are not broken.
You are in process.
Under construction.
And the suffering was not a punishment.
It was a calling —
A cry from your soul for you to come back home.
Now tell me:
What was the point of this post that hit you the hardest?
What truth shook you inside?
Comment below.
Write as if it were a commitment to yourself.
When you verbalize, you anchor.
Give Me 23 Minutes And You’ll Never Suffer Again – Carl Jung – psyphoria
