Carl Jung: We Don’t Heal, We Let Go
Pain only hurts the person carrying it.
Iconic psychologist Carl Jung said something that flipped my idea of healing from pain. If healing is not getting over something, what did Jung mean? He thought we don’t solve the past or erase pain.
We simply release them.
We let go of the things we’re holding onto — resentments, fears, guilt, and old stories that no longer serve us.
“We don’t really heal anything; we simply let it go,” he said.
It sounds simple.
But Jung’s wisdom is life-changing.
Most people hold on to the past because, in a complicated way, they feel it’s part of them. They’ve built identities around experiences that took a part of them away. They hold onto things, feelings, or memories that hurt and keep replaying them over and over again.
It’s like being stuck in a loop.
“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar. ” — Thich Nhat Hanh
The bad news is that when I hold onto hurt, I keep myself stuck. Jung’s perspective is that letting go is an act of self-compassion. It’s giving myself permission to move forward without dragging the weight…
