“Your vision will only become clear when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside; dreams. Who looks inside, awakes.” - Carl Jung

The greatest plight of the modern human is our tendency to direct the entirety of our attention outwards. Most modern people fail to realise that they inhabit two worlds: the outer world and the inner world. They only know the outer world because it is what they see in front of them, so the whole of their attention is given to it. The inner world is less obvious since it is unseen, so it is forgotten and ignored - deprived of attention. It is said that “where attention goes, energy flows” - in other words, it is a life-giving resource. So, when it is directed exclusively outwards, the inner life suffers - it withers and fades.

The reality is that the inner life is the foundational energy reserve for all aspects of life. The more it is neglected, the more the other areas of our life suffer too. Without a rich inner life we will never be rich. Even if we acquire mounds of cash in the outer world, we will never be rich - not in the spiritual sense. We will be left always searching, always trying to fill our inner void by outer means. Chasing more and more, unaware of the futility of our efforts. True richness - richness of the soul - this comes only through developing a rich inner life.

Think about the last time you achieved something you thought would make you happy—a new job, a pay raise, or even a long-awaited holiday. Did it truly satisfy you, or did the feeling fade quickly, leaving you hungry for the next thing? This endless pursuit of outer achievements, without nurturing our inner world, leaves us feeling unfulfilled and restless. Only by turning inward can we find the lasting richness we truly seek.

In this week’s newsletter, we will be taking a deeper dive into what the term “inner life” really means, reflecting on the importance of developing it, and touching on some ways that you can go about doing so.

What is meant by “inner life”?

A person’s inner life refers to their relationship to their inner world. This relationship can be conscious or unconscious. A conscious inner life is conducive to more richness and self-growth, an unconscious inner life is conducive to more feelings of depression, anxiety, and disconnection.

The inner world is the world of the psyche. In contrast to the outer world/external reality - the world of physical objects, social interaction and external events - the inner world refers to our internal reality. It represents thoughts, emotions, fantasies, dreams, and the unconscious. The tip of the inner world are the thoughts and feelings which appear at the surface level of consciousness, but beneath this surface there is an untapped depth of psychic content waiting to be explored.

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung identified two levels of the unconscious mind: the personal and the collective. The personal unconscious is unique to you, and consists of all the repressed and forgotten memories, feelings, perceptions, thoughts and experiences you’ve in your own life since birth (or even conception). It is the layer immediately beneath the surface of consciousness and it must be realised and integrated to achieve wholeness.

The collective unconscious is a deep psychic reservoir of human experience, shared by all and dating back all the way through our evolution. It is deepest layer of the psyche and serves as the source of symbolism in dreams, mythology, art and religion. It is comprised of what Jung called “archetypes” - universal psychic structures which determine the way our species thinks, acts, perceives and understands reality, and account for all the parallels which are observable in myth, art and spirituality across cultures who never interacted with each other. This level of the unconscious must also be realised and integrated if one is to become whole. Jung called this process of integrating the unconscious into consciousness and becoming whole “individuation”.

A person’s inner life refers to their relationship with these deeper parts of their psyche, starting with the personal and moving eventually onto the collective.

Why your inner life matters

As mentioned in the intro, your inner life is the foundational energy reserve for all areas of life. Most people are unaware of the depth of their inner world and live their whole lives at the surface. The problem is, when your entire being exists at the surface, a gust of wind will blow you away.

You need to be deeply rooted in your inner world in order to adequately face life’s challenges and continue to grow to greater heights. As Jung said “No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.” In order to become the most whole, healed, conscious version of yourself, you must delve into the depths of your psyche.

How can you heal from trauma if you never faced it? How can you work towards your dreams if you’ve never realised them? How can you ever know light if you don’t know darkness? Darkness is not necessarily something bad, it is simply unconsciousness (what light shines on, we see. What lies in darkness, we do not see). The problem is, there is a lot of unwanted and uncomfortable things we have repressed into the unconscious, so we are scared to confront it. But, as Jung says “one does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”

How to develop your inner life

To develop your inner life you must face your inner world. There are several techniques to help you to turn your attention from the outside in. Here are some suggestion:

Journaling

Journaling is a fantastic way to confront some of the deeper aspects of your psyche. Particularly in regards to understanding and processing feelings, beliefs and memories. Here are some prompts to help you in the journaling process:

• What past experience still brings you feelings of grief or distress when you recall it today? Explore it. Recall it in detail. Write about the emotions that accompany it.

• What core values guide my life, and are my actions aligned with those values?

• What recurring thoughts or patterns do I notice in my daily life? What might they be trying to teach me?

• What aspects of myself do I find hard to accept, and why?

• What emotions do I tend to suppress or avoid? What would happen if I allowed myself to fully experience them?

Dreamwork

One of the best methods to uncover the ongoings of your unconscious is working to interpret your dreams. As Freud said “dreams are the royal road to the unconscious”. Keep a dream journal and record them as soon as you wake up. Or just take them down in your phone. The sooner after waking up you record it, the more details you’ll remember. The more details, the more you can uncover. Dreams are direct emanations of the unconscious which reveal aspects of ourselves that we are not presently aware of. They are key to developing a rich inner life.

Meditation

Meditation is all about observation. Observing the inner workings of your mind, and realising yourself as the observer, not the mental activity. If you’re new to it, try a simple guided meditation on youtube. Start small, even 5 minutes. Get into the habit of taking some time every day to retreat inwards and pay attention to your inner world. Here’s a quick step-by-step guide based on my own meditation practice:

• Sit down somewhere comfy with an upright back

• Close your eyes

• Begin to focus on your breath

• When thoughts arise, observe them, let them go, and return to the breath

• Keep repeating this process

Final Note

If you’ve read this far, thank you so much for your time and attention. The ultimate goal for Alchemical Awakening is to contribute to and facilitate the spiritual awakening of others. The world is in such a difficult place right now and we need as many people as possible doing the inner work needed to bring outer change. The more of us that can realise we are not just our egos, that we are connected to each other, nature and the Universe at large, the closer we get to spiritual revolution. Remember your oneness with all that is, and allow this knowledge to help you to be guided by love, peace, kindness, compassion and justice for all.

Thank you for reading, much love to you all

AA