​The past years have shown that our world is becoming more complex and filled with many nuances, which has been demanding for each of us. Honestly, the complexities are only becoming even more difficult to completely comprehend, especially for regular people who desire a more peaceful, balanced, and simple life (like me, huhu). According to Jung, often judgements made by individuals are influenced by their personality type and makes each perspective heavily relative. Additionally, the current society is still influenced by a patriarchal culture, which can be connected to the functions of the animus. The animus can be defined as an archetype representing the universal masculine aspects. An archetype can be described as universal patterns of behaviour or psychic structures that help to structure our comprehension of unconscious ideas.
 
The animus has been further developed and modified to fit the current socio-political environment, which has led to disconnecting the animus and its counterpart anima from biological sex and any gender. Nevertheless, the current society is still overly identified with their intellect, which often gets associated to animus. As a result of the over-identification, the functions of an overly operated animus have become visible in individuals, people, groups, cultures, etc. The consequences of an over-identification with the animus often lead to misunderstandings. Due to content consisting of opinions instead of reflections, which often are connected to former assumptions that get misinterpreted as factual or absolute truths. An example of an over-identification with the animus can be observed in arguments where both parties believe they are completely correct.
 
The fascinating part of our current society is that we have delved deeper into moral judgements, which has become more challenging in such a complex society. According to Jung, moral judgments are often subject and based upon opinions. Additionally, Jung emphasised that we as individuals have to transform the perceived often or projected negativity/evil within ourselves to contribute to society eventually. As a result of the internal transformation, we are often forced to observe our shadow and, in the end, search for the Self. The Self often represents a more comprehensive and wiser part of our being, which often reveals one's purpose and path in life.
 
The text's main point is that we are currently in a society, culture, and world where complexities are increasing. As a result of the increase of complexities in the world, we have to get clearer on who we are as individuals and our prioritise, which comes from becoming more purpose-driven rather than chasing the shiny object. Additionally, we have become a little critical of what is factual and truthful or based upon opinions and prior assumptions. Last of all, what is calling us forward or can be perceived as our life purpose is often something we can find ourselves during introspection. 

​The word forgiveness has a couple of definitions and can often be challenging to incorporate into our lives. Personally, the journey of forgiveness and self-forgiveness has been turbulent, and forgiveness never healed me instantly. Also, forgiveness is something I had had to deliberately practice over the past couple of years, especially when past resentment, irritation, anger, and frustration emerged. The most significant part of forgiveness is that it helped me move on from the past and start a healthier life. Please acknowledge that I wrote healthier life and not good because the concept of a good life is bullshit. Nevertheless, the battle between resentment and forgiveness is still prevalent, which I have realised is something I have to choose between for the rest of my life.
 
Personally, forgiveness means letting go of resentments and thoughts of revenge, which is a lot more challenging in reality. Mainly, most of us are told that forgiveness often delivers more peace of mind and, to an extent, other positive emotions. Additionally, forgiveness can be an effective medicine for previous emotional wounds and contribute to healing these wounds. On the other hand, forgiveness does not mean we forget the pain that other people have caused, but forgiveness always lessens the hurt and liberates us from the pain caused by others. Besides, forgiveness does not compensate for the individual’s actions or behaviours. Instead, forgiveness delivers peace of mind that contributes to progression in life. Based on personal experience, forgiveness is a personal commitment and prioritisation centred around growth as an individual. As a result of forgiveness, we might achieve more peace and gain compassion and understanding.
 
Forgiveness might even be relevant to ourselves and the times we have caused harm to others, which might even help with forgiving others. The reason behind mentioning self-forgiveness is that we all have done something we are not proud of, and it helps decrease the guilt or shame that we all carry hidden in our luggage. Additionally, self-forgiveness also develops compassion towards ourselves and others, making life more enjoyable and peaceful. 
 
Last, of all, forgiveness is not about the individuals that might have caused harm to us. Instead, forgiveness can be for oneself in order to finally free yourself from hurt, pain, resentment, anger, etc. Forgiveness is there to bring more peace into your life and liberate you from the past! However, you will have to practice forgiveness throughout life because people are not perfect, but you still get to have boundaries.
 
Eventually, I am going to make a mediation focused on self-forgiveness.
In other words, watch out!

​Since I began with self-development, I kept pursuing happiness continuously, especially something I thought was that an external condition would bring me happiness. Nevertheless, I realised that we all assume that we desire happiness and believe that specific conditions would deliver happiness. The previous month I had a breakthrough about the topic of happiness and how I believed in my adolescence that ideal conditions would lead to a more joyful and happy life. Additionally, I have recently turned 25 years old, accumulated various experiences, and have had a non-conventional life, which has led to some gratitude. Nonetheless, the breakthrough or realisation was that I desired inner peace more than happiness.
 
As mentioned, I realised there was a desire for inner peace instead of happiness in my current age. On the other side, I realised that I did not desire to pursue happiness but rather harmony, balance, peace, and especially peace through the stillness of the mind. Stillness can be described differently based on the individual we ask. However, peace means tranquillity and liberation from inner conflicts in this context. Coincidently, during my early twenties, I participated in a program about ancient Egyptian energy healing, which referred to ‘Maat’ as the most essential aspect of life. The term ‘Maat’ often gets associated with the ancient Egyptian goddess and her specific attributes. Such attributes and responsibilities contribute to peace, harmony, balance, order, and justice.
 
The main lesson I received from the program was to choose peace over the pursuit of happiness, which often is influenced by societal and cultural conceptions. Additionally, I had another realisation that I needed to find what made me feel content instead of what others meant would bring me harmony or “happiness”. In other words, the true self revealed itself and made me realise that I did not desire completely the societal script, which often is a relationship, career, children, fancy home, etc.. Rather, there was an internal voice, or one might call it vocation that redirected me to become and express myself more creatively than in the past. Hence, I began with the development of the current website and YouTube. Lastly, I was able to feel more peaceful than ever before, and it gave me more appreciation for the newly acquired harmony.  
 
Happiness depends on conditions, people, experiences, etc. Also, happiness is a temporary emotional state, and often it gets associated with more pleasurable feelings, which is limiting. The law of polarity is significant in the pursuit of happiness, which means that each aspect of life and our world has two opposite sides. For example, happiness is dependent on less pleasurable emotional states such as sadness because they only exist because of each other. Additionally, the law of polarity is visible in Yin, Yang, black, white, good, bad, etc. As a result, I am asking, can you find peace in these fluctuating emotional states and not judge them simultaneously? Because that is where we will find peace, tranquillity,  and harmony. 

​The recent years I have continuously been on a healing journey meaning that I attended various forms of therapy, healing sessions, self-development classes, mediations courses, etc. To be specific, I began my healing journey when I turned seventeen and mostly read books and listened to audiobooks that focused upon self-development. Additionally, I began attending therapy with a psychologist that primarily focused on cognitive behavioural therapy. To be honest, my psychologist helped me to an extent, and I improved significantly during a short period. However, after three years, when I turned twenty, I realised I had to try something else, which led to various alternative practices. Such as specialised acupuncture, meditation, yoga, shamanic energy healing, and other forms of therapy. Mainly, I desired to become healed from the traumatic events I had lived through and experienced as negative, which would finally bring me more peace and fulfilment.
 
After seven years, I realised that I and maybe even we have constructed a trauma-focused narrative, which often emphasises on the hurt, suffering, oppression, and injustices experienced. In the first term of my graduation year, I chose to take a module called Refugee Voices and Narratives, which was based on an interest in the topic and because it did not have any exams (No need to lie, I am not perfect 😊). Nevertheless, the module was interesting and made me reflect upon my journey, especially when I did the weekly readings for the lectures. The main text that had a significant impact on me was Beyond the discourse of trauma: Shifting the focus on Sudanese refugees, written by Jay M. Marlowe. To summarise the text, Marlowe argued that most studies related to refugees often connect to them being traumatised or psychologically harmed in academic environments. As a result of the correlation to trauma, other positive factors that helped Sudan's lost boys survive often get ignored. Such factors as their abilities to survive, creativity, adapt, and preserver harsh conditions and lengthy journeys by foot, previous identities, values, and lessons learnt from past relations.
 
The lost boys of Sudan are Sudanese children that were forced to leave to their country of origin due to the emergence of the civil war in 1987. Approximately 20 000 children fled to Ethiopia in order to survive and escape enrolment into one of the armies. The Sudanese children had to walk several thousand miles and had several casualties and deaths. After their lengthy journey, some of the children were able to reach the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. Additionally, these children had to survive hunger, thirst, wild animals, illnesses, and a hostile environment in Ethiopia before being redirected to Kenya. To be honest, trauma-focused narratives are required in these specific situations as well because these individuals survived and experienced horrendous circumstances. Additionally, traumatic events significantly impact an individual's psyche and life, which requires adequate support and guidance. On the other hand, these individuals survived and preserved these challenging events, which suggests they are emotionally and intellectually vigorous. Also, Marlowe mentioned that people are not completely passive when encountering or experiencing a traumatic event because they choose to respond through their adaption, persistence, and counterreaction to adverse events and impacts.
 
The lesson I received from the Lost Boys was to reframe my past experiences, which mostly were given a negative context. As a result of the negative frame, I became heavily focused on the injustice, oppression, pain, and suffering experienced. Additionally, I forgot much of the creativity, persistence, relationships, camaraderie, joys, challenges, and victories experienced that had an impact on who I became. The Lost Boys taught me that we are not weak. Rather, we are strong and capable of surviving horrendous events, which we can turn into something more than just pain and suffering. Lastly, I ask you to reflect upon your past and reframe any event in a manner that could benefit you.