"The psyche likes to make deals."

“The psyche likes to make deals.”

Carl Jung believed we are driven forward through our lives in such a way that we might reduce the imbalance of psychic energy between opposing pairs of emotions (such as love and hate). If we love someone too much that we begin to forget to love ourselves, our love turns into hate. It is rebalanced by psychological forces.

I consistently struggle with finding the balance between relaxing and working. Lately, I’ve been working and forcing myself to work even though I have no desire to. This is a hard decision for me. On one hand, there’s tremendous value in showing up every day and keeping habits. On the other hand, my body is telling me something, and if I don’t listen, I’ll pay a price.

So here’s the difficult part: relax and trust that you will be motivated again. Trust that after you relax for a bit, your psyche will launch you back into your work. It’s making a deal with your psyche, saying okay, I’ll relax a bit, but promise me you’ll return to work and be more motivated and focused than ever.