Carl Jung’s Eudaimonia: The Key To Happiness

Eudaimonia means to have luck, wealth or happiness. Carl Jung thought we should all promote this concept within ourselves. To achieve this, he says that you must first connect with your own daimon. A daimon is an internal genius, an archetype that controls your unconscious passions and motivations. It is your essence and you should listen to it more often.

If there is one thing we see in abundance almost everywhere (bookstores, social media, even fashion) it is the need to be happy. All the ads on TV tell us that if we drink a certain soda or have a certain phone, we will feel new, wonderful feelings. It is a vision of happiness these days that has an almost imperative tone.

In this postmodern world, the feeling of having to be happy ironically leads to misfortune. Remember, for example, what Nassim Nicholas Taleb says in his book ” The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable “: We still believe that the world is filled with white swans. We believe that all we need to do is make enough of an effort. Then everything they promised us when we were children will be fulfilled.

But according to Taleb, our world is incredibly complex. So complicated that when we see a black swan, we do not know how to react. We are vulnerable because we do not know how to deal with something unexpected or uncertain. So we will never find happiness if we look outside ourselves. We must strengthen our character, our daimon, as Carl Jung himself said.

Eudaimonia and the importance of knowing yourself

One of the heirs to Carl Jung’s legacy was James Hillman. This Jungian analyst was the one who immersed himself in the concept of archetypes and more specifically, the idea of ​​the daimon.

In his book “The Soul’s Code” he reminds us of the importance of connecting with your inner genius or “demon” to have a full and truly happy life. To better understand this interesting theory, let’s take a closer look at what Professor Hillman is talking about in his book.

What is a daimon?

• Daimon comes from Greek, which means demon. However, it does not have a negative connotation. In fact, it symbolizes the highest essence of a human being. In Aristotle’s ethics, the daimon was virtue and wisdom in the most practical sense.
• Carl Jung explained that the daimon lives in our unconscious mind. It controls our actions, motivates us, whispers ideas, inspires us and gives voice to our intuition. But modern society and the pace of life distract us. It is common to distance oneself from this inner voice.
• Education aimed at uniformity and the labor market does not value originality. It shrinks the ability to bring out your inner spirit. But this device is full of vitality. It has enormous potential and wants more than anything else to unleash its creative potential. But often we do not dare to give it the space it needs.

Daimon and eudaimonia: it’s a matter of bravery

Dr. James Hillam believes that few things are as important in this life as learning to listen to the spirit, the magical, colorful unity that lives in our motivation. As written in the temple of Apollo in Delpfi: “know thyself”.

• When you stop looking outside yourself for answers and stop worrying about what others want or want, you will finally be on your way to knowing yourself. Only then can you make contact with your daimon .
• That said, embracing eudaimonia is not always easy. Sometimes your daimon will have things that the people around you do not understand. Maybe a lawyer will not work on laws and regulations anymore. Maybe he really wants to be an artist. Maybe the famous artist does not want to create more. His daimon asks him to do humanitarian work. Your daimon may want you to be more independent, to find your own freedoms that you dare not ask for.

Eudaimonia takes a lot of courage. Your daimon is restless and hungry for new experiences. Therefore, if you do not listen to the inner voice, the daimon will punish you. As Carl Jung reminds us, if you are not able to listen to the needs of the daimon , your soul becomes ill. Why? Because going against your desires and motives makes you unhappy.

How can you grow eudaimonia?

You know that nothing is as important as self-knowledge. Connecting with your desires, your essence, identity and personal values ​​is a way to embrace your daimon and recognize it. However, it is not enough to just say “I know you are there.” You have to release it to create, to be expressed.

Cultivating authentic eudaimonia will mean making changes. It means putting away what the outside world puts on you in terms of obligations and responsibilities. Instead, learn to create your own reality. You must be fully aware of the complexity of the environment, where uncertainty and unforeseen difficulties are constant.

Your daimon wants things. But to achieve eudaimonia, you have to deal with situations where it is not so easy to express yourself.

With that in mind, it’s a good idea to remember what Immanuel Kant once said: If you want to be happy, you have to learn to be smart . In other words, you choose the best methods to maximize your best well-being. It is quite clear then, that neither the method nor the result is easily achievable.

But one advantage is that you always have Jungian therapy to help you. The goal of this therapeutic approach is to bring you closer to eudaimonia. The therapy aims to help you single out your originality and power to be happy in your own way.