The Ouroboric Loop That Eats Itself

...instead of birthing new life

I’ve noticed something over years of being with people in pain: those who extend their hand for connection as well as support often do better.

I’ve also noticed it when people fall away from my life and become more isolated. Their worlds shrink gradually until there’s no one to call in times of need or distress. Maybe their partner is there but no one else.

There’s a capacity that looks less like grit and overt strength and more like permeability and capacity to receive care and support. Isolation from those who care about us or who can support us- what I’ve heard experts refer to as diseases of disconnection- can be a gradual creep in the direction of more entrenched mental, physical and spiritual suffering.

I want to be precise about which kind of withdrawal I mean, because Jung was insistent that regression of psychic energy away from the outer world isn’t automatically a problem. He thought of it as the basic condition for creative work or a necessary phase of development. His preferred image for it was closer to fencing than to defeat: reculer pour mieux sauter, falling back to get better footing before the next leap. Going in, for Jung, could be exactly how a person came back out carrying something. The rhythm of retreat, then return with the treasure, isn’t the loop I mean.

The loop I’m referring to, one we all can get caught in, is a more treacherous kind of regression. In one, we turn inward to metabolize. The other we turn inwards into a looping system that acts more like a hamster wheel of energy, not allowing new healthy energy in to create the alchemy necessary to turn outwards again with refreshed awareness or potential.