Brian Dorn

I have been reading Man and His Symbols, which was edited and partially written by Carl G. Jung. This is my first introduction to Jung’s work, which deals a lot with the psychology of mankind, especially in regards to archetypes and dreams. I plan on writing more about his work in the near future, but I wanted to take a moment to observe how absolutely BIZARRE it is to be psychoanalyzing my dreams from childhood. It’s both exhilarating and scary to discover aspects of my psyche that I wasn’t very (if at all) consciously aware of. I’d imagine this is how Bastian felt in The Neverending Story (a movie full of archetypes!) when he realizes the book he’s reading is about himself. I had to take a break to process all of it, and to enjoy a truly rare breed of adventure. Exciting times, indeed. :D

As the year comes to an end, I find myself reflecting on what 2011 has brought into my life. The truth is, it has, without a doubt, been the most consciously formative year of my life.

I found out during the summer that, for lack of a technical term, I was sick. I was waking up close to clinical hypothermia every morning, which was the result of a massively slow metabolism in recent years, and for making me feel like shit, both physically and mentally. I am currently in the process of recovering. But even though I felt like shit, my life was slowly getting better, and the discovery of some root causes was a natural progression of that.

But what’s the lesson I learned from all of this? It is that living with a system that is unsustainable is no way to live at all. It doesn’t matter if it has to do with relationships, finances, nutrition, work, or physical and mental health; an environment that is not symbiotic will continuously unravel towards failure, all the while causing the degradation of its keeper.

This being said, I guess I’m getting to the real point of this blog entry: my New Year’s resolution. I don’t think I’ve ever made a REAL New Year’s resolution… I mean, one that I’ve REALLY been intent on seeing through. But given my growing appreciation for the peace and harmony that results from a self-sustaining system, I think it makes a lot of sense to consider the topic of adaptability.

In 2012, I hope to become better at adapting. But that doesn’t mean letting others’ crap-beliefs about what I should do, or be, influence me. Adapting, in the truest sense, means changing for the sake of one’s well-being. Letting others dictate to one about one’s life just creates that many more unsustainable systems. When mental health is compromised, physical health is compromised, and vice versa; neither of which is good for the individual OR society.

I hope you all have a wonderful year to come with many, many more. Happy 2012, People. :)