Talked To Your Shadow Lately?

In Jungian psychology, our shadow is the unconscious parts of ourselves that we repress: weaknesses, fears, unacknowledged or unhealed wounds, desires we do not want to own. In essence, the parts of ourselves we deny or turn away from, that we refuse to recognize. To Carl Jung, our shadows are not necessarily ‘bad’ or ‘evil’, simply repressed. They can contain potentially positive elements: ambitions or creative strengths that have been suppressed for various reasons (discouragement by an impactful figure, fear of failure) along life’s way.

Shadow work is the ‘process of making the unconscious consciousness’, recognizing and accepting what we have hidden, reconciling and acknowledging. We do so by noticing our triggers, what we project onto others and by discerning our patterns of reaction to life’s events. Introspection, reflection, journaling. Only then can we be whole, truly authentic; only then will our shadow cease influencing our behavior.

Closing Quotes:

“A man is whole only when he takes into account his shadow.” – Djuna Barnes, 1892-1982

“Get acquainted with your shadow or find yourself surprised when a crisis emerges.” – MB Dallocchio

“Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.” – Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion (1938)

As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier

Note: Every effort has been made to properly source any 3^rd person material. I am, however, a voracious reader. If anyone finds any unattributed material, pls let me know asap and I will be delighted to give credit where credit is due.
“All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832