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I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few years becoming acquainted with my “darkness.”

I’ve gotten to know my fears, and I’ve sat with buried sadness, anger, and pain. So many things that were unconscious to me have become conscious, through simply sitting with myself and feeling into all of my emotions, through being willing to be present with all of it.

I’ve learned that there is so much power in simply being present with ourselves, that there is so much power in self-awareness—in becoming aware of ourselves, all of ourselves, including our fears, our pain, and our less “nice” parts.

We can’t change anything in our lives if we’re unwilling to allow ourselves to see what isn’t working, if we’re not aware of what isn’t working, if we refuse to become aware.

We can’t learn about our fears if we refuse to acknowledge them; we can’t figure out what lies beneath our uncomfortable emotions if we refuse to feel into them.

We don’t know what we don’t know, but once we see, once we become aware, we can choose how we want to consciously move forward.

While some of Carl Jung’s quotes feel a little too dark, or rather, it sometimes feels like he emphasizes the “darkness” too much, I can’t help but also feel the truth in his words; it’s also been my experience. We can’t truly grow or heal or become conscious, if we refuse to acknowledge, feel into, or learn from our “darkness.”

If we want to change anything in our lives, we have to look within.

Life is not all dark, but it’s also not all light—and if we want to live with consciousness and move toward the light, we also have to become aware of and learn from our “dark.”

We can’t release something if we don’t know that we’re holding it.

Here are 15 Soul-Healing Quotes from Carl Jung:

1. “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

2. “Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

3. “I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”

4. “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

5. “You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.”

6. “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.”

7. “We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.”

 8. “People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls.”

 9. “There’s no coming to consciousness without pain.”

10. “The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.”

11. “Wholeness is not achieved by cutting off a portion of one’s being, but by integration of the contraries.”

12. “How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also if I am to be whole.”

13. “Where wisdom reigns, there is no conflict between thinking and feeling.”

14. “I don’t aspire to be a good man. I aspire to be a whole man.”

15. “The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego, the second half is going inward and letting go of it.”

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