OUR WHY AND HOW

by John van der Steur

Inner Work for Outer Change

Polarities are real, and they are everywhere:

Light-Dark, Ebb-Flow, High-Low, In-Out, Rest-Movement, Hot-Cold. The list is endless.

One of the great paradoxes of life is that the purpose of polarities is not to polarize but to harmonize.

There exists in our world an illusion of power. The illusion is that one pole of a polarity is better than the other:

One is right, the other wrong

One is good, the other bad

One is strong, the other weak

This approach leads to division, conflict, and instability:

“A house divided against itself, cannot stand” -

~ Abraham Lincoln

The value of the psychology of Carl Jung is that it is a psychology of polarities.

“Life is born of the spark of opposites.”, he wrote.

Question:

Where can we find what unites polarities, what holds them together?

Answer:

Our center.

Who are we if we do not know our center? There has never been, nor will there ever be another you. So get to know yourself, and find your center.

Your center is where you find your purpose and where your life becomes a unique and authentic act of being, an act of service to mankind.

It is the unity that transcends the diversity of the polarities of your personality.

Without this center, transformation cannot take place.

It is where the polarities of the personality lose their autonomy, their self-centeredness and become connected to the greater whole of your being.

Aligning your personality with your purpose is what this work is all about. This takes place in four essential steps:

1. Know Your Self

2. Understand Others

3. Define your Purpose

4. Execute: Live, Love, Learn and Laugh

“Every advance, every achievement of mankind, has been connected with an advance in self-awareness.”

~ Carl Jung