Am I Ready? - Looking Through The Problem with The Concept of The Unconscious Mind

Am I ready to live alone? Am I ready to be married? Am I ready to have a child? Am I ready to go on to live the next chapter of my life? These are common questions we all have. Its an interesting one.

 

What is ready? I've heard some understand readiness as the mastery of the situation such that entails knowing how to handle every variable possible. That is not exactly what they said, but that's the heart of it. This to me seems inhumane. Man is fallible and imperfect. If this is the standard, if this is your understanding, the question becomes inane since one may never reach this stage, just to be able to progress in life.

I've also heard many versions of this assertion: "You won't understand unless you've gone through it" or "Nothing prepares you for what it actually takes". So, my question is how can you really answer the readiness question with "Yes, I am ready" and to not lie? If we were to assume these assertions, mainly from the elders, to be true, maybe one can never be ready after all.

 

I believe what Carl Jung describes as the unconscious includes a component of the bank of genetic codes yet to be awakened, manifested in neural and psychic function, to meet the need of the person. This should explain why he often says that the unconscious is never known to the person precisely because its unconscious. The detection of chaos, which could be caused by misaligned or competing value systems (which would cause internal confusion) or a missing value system that might be able to deal with the chaos cue at hand, may just be the trigger. Anxiety, or the detection of chaos cues, may then produce an epigenetic incentive to unlock more genetic codes. The manifested psychic function may then start to be practiced dealing with the triggers. If one succeeds, then the functions will be set in stone to handle future triggers of the same variety.

This observation that maybe one can never be ready to progress in life shouldn't be taken as a reason to give up on progression, to cower in fear, or the reason to progress without any regard to the process of growth or to progress as a forever infant. We may need to treat progression as a natural event that actually will make one ready.

 

Training to swim in the pool ten thousand times, trying to become ready to swim in the ocean is a ridiculous notion. One should learn how to swim well enough, then search for an appropriate mentor to teach how to swim in the ocean, dips their feet in the ocean, and start swimming. The necessary psychic function, the attention needed, the perspectives, the imagination, and everything else that comes with the growth experience will never become unlocked just because one dreams of the swimming in the ocean, the next great challenge. Maybe, we should all charge ahead with the right mentor, the openness to learn and change, and the basic ingredients one may need to not drown or get bitten by sharks.

The readiness question will paralyze many in their tracks of adventure. Our modern age of prodigy children, only child with hopes of success, may have created an incentive to fear failure. After all, your parents only had you because of the immense challenge to support a child. You may have internalized the understanding that one must succeed, one must avoid suffering and failure. But, to ask and to incessantly prepare for the next challenge, may just be a counterproductive way to live. 

 

Consider this an idea to ponder.