How do we know that we are silently sabotaging ourselves?
We can begin to get clues when we become conscious and watch our own behaviors. When we feel the need to criticize or judge others, we do so in order to feel better about ourselves.
If you consider that when you make judgements about others, you are projecting how you feel about yourself, you can learn a lot about yourself. Carl Yung called this shadow work. We continuously see in others that which we are hiding from. This is great news since it means we can learn and grow by turning our judgements and critiques of others back on ourselves. If, for example, I am with someone who I feel is incredibly negative and tell them so, I could try and ask myself instead, where am I being negative?
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” Albert Einstein
The concept of “Perception is Projection” which has its roots in Jungian psychology, tells us that what we see outside of ourselves is, at some level and in some way, a reflection of who we are inside. That applies equally to the things we like about ourselves and to the things we do not.
Carl Jung asserts that we all have a shadow self which is made up of the elements of our personality we do not like. Sometimes we dislike them so much that we repress them and deny their existence. But they are still there and they’re still at work, silently sabotaging.
When we understand that the environment outside us is only a reflection of the environment inside of us. We can learn to use the adversity, challenge or problem we are facing in a constructive and positive way and grow from it rather than place blame there.