When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate. That is to say, when the individual … does not become conscious of his inner opposite, the world must perforce act out the conflict.

C.G. Jung

A lot of the time, we are not fully conscious of everything that is going on within us; our unlived life, or the parts that have been formed by the unlived lives of others,  is out of sight but exercising influence over our choices. We can see this sometimes when we look back at decisions made or life choices and wonder why we ended up in a certain place. Or when we see repeating patterns in our relationships. Jung suggests that if we do not attend to what is going on inside us, things or people appear in our outer lives in accord with that inner dynamic, and the outer choices we make reflect this inner drama. He suggests that the more we ignore the inner issues, the more we act them out in the world  around us. If we do not do this work, we risk remaining on the surface of life, rather than than incorporating our opposites into healthy choices.