Own Your Shadow

Part 12

Own Your Shadow

We all tuck away aspects of ourselves which we feel are bad, shameful, painful, scary, inappropriate or unacceptable - perhaps our tears, anger, envy, grief, painful memories, or certain desires or longings.

Our shadow is rarely as fearful and hideous as we imagine it to be - and it often holds 'nuggets of gold' such as our courage, laughter, creativity and joy, since we often grow up feeling embarrassed about our best and highest qualities. Sooner or later, we need to reclaim these lost parts of our wholeness: our dark and light Shadow.

If you look at your strongest or weakest qualities, the opposite probably lies in your shadow - such as the character with a egoist shadow, or the peacemaker with an aggressive Shadow. If you consider what you admire in others, or what irritates you most, you can be sure that those qualities belong to your Shadow Self.

Our shadow can even leak out in horribly antisocial ways.

Dark side isn't necessarily bad, but it can become so if it is completely denied. Dark just means hidden from the light; it simply needs to be owned, so that its gifts can be released.

Honoring your shadow does not mean you have to act it out, fully and completely. It means allowing yourself to come into balance - so if you're a health food freak, you probably need to have an occasional slice of chocolate; if you're a pacifist, you need to own and honor your anger and see its positive side or you can allow yourself a 'nasty' morning once in a while, even if you just swear at a wall! As Jung noted, extremes tend to turn into their opposites - so we need to acknowledge our 'other side'. 

Stop judging ourselves and others for being Human, give up the need to be 'perfect' and feel more at ease with your emotions. This self-love also unblocks the pathways to our inner wisdom. Honor every part of your wholeness.