It’s Time for a Reality Check

The other day I was in my own head — worrying, stressing, and overthinking. I felt overwhelmed, unmotivated, and unproductive— which in turn, made me feel guilty that I hadn’t accomplished as much as I thought I should have that day. Each moment of forced focus (aka staring hopelessly at the screen) just brought about more frustration.

But then, something happened. I was planning to concede to distractions (aka YouTube videos) to cope with my stress when I stumbled upon this short video: Become Who You’re Afraid To Be | The Philosophy of Carl Jung.

The video talks about people being afraid to be their true selves and expose the parts of themselves that they don’t necessarily like. This leads to living with both the conscious and unconscious self; the conscious self shows the world the “acceptable” parts that we want everyone to see while the subconscious self suppresses the areas we deem as unacceptable. Much of this suppression and inability to face the reality of the unlikable parts lead to doubt, insecurity, and inaction toward a better self. It then goes on to illustrate how one can overcome their own self-doubt by facing their “shadow” or their unacceptable parts in order to reach self-acceptance. After reaching acceptance, one can go beyond potential and into actual steps for improvement.

Watching that video sparked an idea that helped me to push through my period of frustration. Although probably not unique or original in any way, this short exercise was therapeutic for me. I’m sharing it in hopes that it might help someone else.

Step 1

I took out a pen and my notebook and jotted down the words “Reality Check” at the top of the page. Under this heading, I wrote down all the realities of myself and my situation that I needed to face. These are all the realities that I quell to avoid accountability and to default blame on outside people and circumstances. These are all the truths that are hard to admit because they reveal the unpleasantries that make me, well, human. Here’s a glimpse into some of the…