u/This_Ad9129

I have gotten this type of feedback/directive variously on this forum that as a woman who struggles with relating to and attracting men, I need to get in touch with my animus, woo/seduce the animus, befriend the animus etc etc.

As a direct way of doing this I am told to do active imagination or journaling.

Is there ANY better or more detailed explanation of what the fuck it means to get in touch with my animus? I have tried imagining conversations or stories involving what I imagined is my animus, but it had very very limited impact on me. I feel like I'm totally missing something, I can understand the anima/animus in an abstract academic sense when I read or listen to Jung lectures, but in a practical sense of improving my own life, it honestly feels way too abstract.

I have done internal family systems work (parts work) which has been super effective , but no specific "animus part" has ever naturally shown up.

I have been feeling a lot of "one step forward, two steps back" lately. Some days I feel IPF has changed my life. Then my social anxiety returns, or I get rejected romantically for the millionth time and I wonder if it has really made a difference at all or if it's all just a big placebo and the "differences" I feel are due to other circumstances in my life changing.

I'm definitely better *at doing IPF* in that the visualizations are easier now, but in terms of life impact, just fuzzier and harder to say.

Has anyone else felt this? Like any examples of where you felt like you were making progress then had a setback? I mostly just want to feel that I'm not alone in feeling like progress is not linear and you sometimes lose faith in the process.