The Shadow

I am not speaking of a dark man movie that was out some time ago. I am not speaking of what follows us that is created by the sun. I am speaking of something entirely different. Something brand new; something many probably have not heard of. Yet I've come to learn that it is something that exists within us.

The shadow, from what I understand, is that deep dark place within us. The part where our hopes, dreams, desires, fears are kept. It is the "real us" that many are afraid of or do not allow to come out and be heard. Sometimes when growing up, our true selves are stifled. Often the church, or other predisposed rules are laid upon us and we are forced by culture, or society to stuff our "true self". This "true self" is our shadow (this theory was fathered by Dr. Carl Jung, famous psychiatrist).

What I have learned is that this part of us never leaves; never dies. We cannot escape who we are. We can pretend to be something we are not; but peace, contentment, I believe, is not entirely possible. What I've been told, is that when the "shadow" is stuffed farther down, it simply comes out in unhealthy ways.

I've done a little research on this tonight. I found this piece that I want to include. It is so stimulating to me:

The Shadow

The Shadow, is a psychological term introduced by the late Swiss psychiatrist, Dr. Carl G. Jung. It is everything in us that is unconscious, repressed, undeveloped and denied. These are dark rejected aspects of our being as well as light, so there is positive undeveloped potential in the Shadow that we don't know about because anything that is unconscious, we don't know about.

The Shadow is an archetype. And what an archetype simply means is that it is typical in consciousness for everyone. Everyone has a Shadow. This is not something that one or two people have. We all have a Shadow and a confrontation with the Shadow is essential for self awareness. We cannot learn about ourselves if we do not learn about our Shadow so therefore we are going to attract it through the mirrors of other people.

Taking Responsibility for Our Lives
(I LOVE this!! Didn't I just write about this just the other day!!! ~ Traci)

The first thing we have to do in order to begin to see our Shadowsides, is to take 100% responsibility for our lives. This is a very difficult thing to do and no one does this overnight so we have to be patient with ourselves.

Being in the human experience, we have all had many painful, difficult experiences where it clearly looks like it is the other persons fault, or bad luck in life or whatever else we want to call it. So taking total responsibility for what appears to come to us is no easy task but it is well worth the effort because when we take responsibility for what happens to us, we can then learn and grow from our experiences and make new choices for ourselves.

Changing our attitude from blame to responsibility will change what happens next in our world. Our destiny is of our own making and what goes on inside of us will be reflected outside of us all the time.

Rebeca E. Eigen

"The Shadow Dance - Understanding RepetitivePatterns in Relationships"

Such good, good stuff... I hope that anyone that reads even a couple of my posts can see that I strive for self-awareness. This article seems to be a treasure chest of wealth regarding self-awareness. I will continue to read. If you'd like to, go to http://www.shadowdance.com/shadow/theshadow.html

One of the hardest thing about learning and growing is realizing that each person chooses their own path (how I love that word: choice). I cannot make anyone become self-aware or want to look deeper and find their shadow. One can try to encourage and lead by example, but the choice belongs to each individual.

My deepest soul prayer is that I will find a man who strives to be so deeply in touch with his own soul. Only then will I know true intimacy and have the love I so deeply crave. I pray that he exists.

Holy Maker, bring the shadow that you created into the light and help me to fully embrace all that I am and all that I was created to be. Only then will I be whole and be a beacon of light for this world that you so deeply love.

"Denial is pushing something out of your awareness. Anything you hide in the basement has a way of burrowing under the house and showing up on the front lawn."~ Howard Sasportas