Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume 5, Issue -6, 1 December 2020 | Página 18

The Individuation Process ( and Why It ’ s Crucial For Our Mental Health )

Tell me what you know of that is not inside the soul ? Take a pitcher full of water and set it down on the water — now it has water inside and water outside . We mustn ’ t give it a name ... If you want the truth , I ’ ll tell you the truth ; Listen to the secret sound , the real sound , which is inside you .
~ Kabir ( Ecstatic Poems )
It ’ s in our human nature to want to divide where we end and others begin . Yet only once we ’ ve established healthy boundaries can we discover and experience the common waters of Spirit that Kabir mentions above . As the philosopher Teilhard de Chardin eloquently put it , “ We are not human beings having a spiritual experience . We are spiritual beings having a human experience .” Learning to live life from this perspective makes all the difference by welcoming this vast ocean into the small pitchers of our lives . Remembering that we are spiritual beings helps to remind us that despite our struggles as individuals , there ’ s an untameable drop of Spirit within each of us . Although we may try to block this wellspring of Spirit , we can never fully cease the flow of it . This sacred wellspring flows through all of life , and it longs for love , harmony and wholeness .

The Individuation Process

Psychologist Carl Jung once coined the term individuation . He defined it as “ a slow , imperceptible process of psychic growth ” that gradually results in “ a wider and more mature personality .”
Individuation , then , is the lifelong process of growing into wholeness ( https :// lonerwolf . com / whole /). Unconsciously , on a personal and collective level , we are all inherently striving towards self-realization ( through the constant process of growth . Individuation is a process that can be compared to the growth of an oak tree from a single acorn . The acorn represents us and our potential . The oak tree ( that is born from the acorn ) represents totality : the fulfillment of our potential . In this way ,
individuation is essentially the process of embodying our true potential , calling , and authentic selves .