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Shadow Work Archives - Self-Help, Spirituality & Self-Esteem

Shadow Work

Zeus Greek God, Archetypes And Myths, Unconscious Personality

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Zeus Greek God

Zeus Greek God as the archetype of the king. The almighty drive for power that might be active in your life right now – or maybe you want it to be.

The word archetype describes what Carl Jung identified as patterns of behaving that arise from the collective unconscious of humankind. The pattern of being is not unique to an individual; it is available to manifest in each of us because we each reflect a part of the whole.

To recognize the ancient Greek god Zeus archetype active within your life look for…

  • stubbornness
  • a strong will
  • leading or wanting to lead
  • bossyness
  • conflicts with authority
  • popular with peers
  • opportunistic
  • desire to be in charge and have power over others

Possible drawbacks to living the Zeus archetype…

  • ignorance or taking for granted family and loved ones
  • having to one day relinquish control
  • ignorance and separation from emotions andauthentic-self
  • constant fear of being overthrown from power
  • only learning there is more to life after some crises

This information has been summarized from the book Gods in Everyman by Jean Shinoda Bolen.

If you recognize your patterns of acting and being in the world from the above list and are curious about what you can do to change, then first and foremost use this information as proof that you are not different, defective or a victim of your past programming.

The above shows the commonality in the human experience when certain innate energies are active. As such begin by accepting that you do indeed own these particular traits and let it be OK that you do.

This will slightly raise your self-esteem and self-acceptance for each trait you own.

If you would like some guidance or clarification, please contact me, I would love to help.

Virgo Moon Sign, Virgo Traits, Astrological Moon Signs

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If You Are A Virgo Moon Sign

A virgo moon sign will have primarily the following traits. Your self-esteem and personal and spiritual growth comes primarily from you acceptance and letting go of any emotional reaction to being labeled something.

Have a look at the list and notice anything which you resist, i.e. it doesn’t fit in with your self-image or you wish it wasn’t part of you.

– Cautious

– Serious

– Logical

– Analytical

– Methodical

– Perfectionist

– Organized

– Persevering

– Quiet

– Unpretentious

– Intelligent

– Good Memory

– Honest

– Dedicated

– Loyal

– Ignore issues to keep the peace

– Plan

– Caring

– Good servants

– Like routine

Then go through all the other astrological moon signs and work your way through those also.  We all posses the ability to display every trait so your sense of self-acceptance and self-esteem is dependent on you embracing all the virgo traits from this moon sign list, and all the other 11 as well.

The Shadow Effect, Shadow Work, Shadow Projection, Human Shadow, Healing The Shadow

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The Shadow Effect Movie

The Shadow Effect is a movie creation from Debbie Ford released in 2009. Along similar lines to the movie The Secret, the movie has known and lesser know individuals speaking about the shadow.

As with any piece of work; a book, movie, essay or poem, it speaks to you where you are at in your understanding.

For someone new to understanding the shadow it will provide some curiosity and intrigue to know more about this important aspect of our-selves.

It does a great job at explaining how the shadow is formed, why the shadow is formed and the resulting effect the shadow has on our lives as we mature.

With some clear examples of well-known and lesser well-known stories of famous and supposedly respected figures in our society acting out their shadow selves – including Michael Jackson – you get to see just what effect the shadow has on our lives.

The Shadow Effect delves deep enough for an audience new to the work and certainly will provide most people with some new awareness of why they behave the way they do and what they can do about it.

However, for me the movie doesn’t go into any techniques with which to own and embrace the shadow.

Time and time again the viewer is told how the shadow-self behaves, how to spot it in your own experience but throughout the whole movie I was left hanging for some explanation of specific techniques to own the shadow.

This is not so much for my benefit but I wonder how viewers new to this work would leave the movie wondering how to go about this work.

I guess it is an age old marketing technique to let people know they have a problem and then provide the solution. I don’t begrudge Debbie Ford this and I have no idea whether it was planned that way or not, however there were many clips of her running her workshop so perhaps there was a subtle advertisement in there.

Nevertheless I applaud Debbie for making this movie in an attempt to broaden awareness of the shadow.

It is important and life changing work. Wherever you are in your awareness this movie will open up some level of awareness.

If you have even a slight interest in personal responsibility for your experience of yourself and life, this movie The Shadow Effect will help.

Watching the movie a few times combined with reading this website and other resources will have your shadow-self owned and your self-esteem changing quickly.

Taurus Moon Sign, Taurus Traits, Astrological Moon Signs

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If You Are A Taurus Moon Sign

A taurus moon sign will have primarily the following traits. Your self-esteem and personal and spiritual growth comes primarily from you acceptance and letting go of any emotional reaction to being labeled something.

Have a look at the list and notice anything which you resist, i.e. it doesn’t fit in with your self-image or you wish it wasn’t part of you.

– Likes security and routine

– Strong willed

– Conservative

– Steady

– Sociable

– Reliable

– Measured

– Persevere

– Affectionate

– Faithful

– Loyal

– Calming and comforting

– Independent

– Self-reliant

– Diplomatic

– Not spontaneous

Then go through all the other astrological moon signs and work your way through those also.  We all posses the ability to display
every trait so your sense of self-acceptance and self-esteem is dependent on you embracing all the taurus traits from this moon sign list, and all the other 11 as well.

Shadow Work, Dr John Demartini, How To Heal Your Shadow

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Shadow Work

Shadow work is counter intuitive because it asks you to love the parts of yourself that you would rather not be there, but as you will read below that is where the power is.

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Demartini Method

Dr John Demartini created The Demartini Method. It is one of the most powerful ways to improve self-esteem that I know of.  The crux of The Demartini Method and The Breakthrough Experience is shadow-work as coined by Carl Jung the great psychologist… Read More

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Discover Gold In The Shadow And Change Your Life

The gold in the shadow can be understood by seeing that just as we protect our sense of self by denying that we possess ‘bad’ qualities, we also do not fully acknowledge that we… Read More

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The Shadow Effect Movie

The Shadow Effect is a movie creation from Debbie Ford released in 2009. Along similar lines to the movie The Secret, the movie has known and lesser know individuals speaking about the shadow. As with any piece of work; a book, movie, essay or poem, it speaks to you… Read More

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Healing Your Shadow Improves Your Life

Healing the shadow is probably the quickest, easiest and most powerful way to increase self-esteem, self-acceptance and self-love. The shadow is a term coined by famous Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. Jung coined the term ‘shadow-self’ to make a distinction between… Read More

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Psychological Projection

What is psychological projection?  Who you think you are; your self-image, ego or id as Sigmund Freud called it is OK with being some things but not OK with being others.  The ego ‘breathes’ by virtue of believing you are an object that is separate from the rest of the world.  In actual fact you are not separate, you are not an object and you are not one particular way… Read More

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What Is The Human Shadow?

Every human being has an idea of what sort of person they are. The human shadow is everything that does not exist within your accepted self image. In reality a human being seems to be a potential to be anything at any time rather than one fixed way. Therefore your self image keeps you trapped… Read More

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Why Is Shadow Work Powerful?

Shadow work derived from the famous Swiss psychologist Carl Jung who coined the term shadow to refer to the parts of the psyche that we are unconscious of.  Anything that is unconscious seemingly has more influence in our lives than that we do consciously.

In this respect you can think of the patterns and agenda of the unconscious like a robot in that they run automatically.  This is good for essential bodily functions like breathing for example but not great for psychological functions such as… Read More

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Own Your Shadow-Self To Improve Your Life

The shadow-self is a very important aspect of your experience of yourself and life. I am going to explain to you in basic terms the crux of the shadow-self and hopefully you will see clearly why it is such a determining factor of your self-esteem. You will no doubt notice that you have a self-image. This is undeniable and this self-image is a construction within your mind of how you are. Because it is so obvious and so familiar and seemingly so real we live life as if… Read More

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Ego Defense: Shadow Projection

Shadow projection is the way in which you can easily spot what human traits are in your shadow.

Your shadow self is that which is unconscious. As we are complete in our potential experience, anything which we deny as being part of us becomes unconscious. What the ego (self-image) does is… Read More

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List Of Archetypes

What is an archetype?  It is very important for your self-acceptance and self-esteem to understand this. Carl Jung created the term Collective Unconscious.  This refers to the tendencies, predispositions, natural inclinations and way of thinking about your self and the world.  You could say these tendencies are natural and arise within you despite the cultural programming of what is good, acceptable and OK. For example… Read More

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Shadow Work, Shadow Projection, Human Shadow, Healing The Shadow, The Shadow Effect

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Why Shadow Work Is Powerful

Who Coined The Term Shadow?

Shadow work derived from the famous Swiss psychologist Carl Jung who
coined the term shadow to refer to the parts of the psyche that we are
unconscious
of.  Anything that is unconscious seemingly has more influence in
our lives than that we do consciously.
In this respect you can think of the patterns and agenda of the
unconscious like a robot in that they run automatically.  This is
good for essential bodily functions like breathing for example but not
great for psychological functions such as trying to accept old hurt or
trying to get your parent’s approval.  These will not stop no
matter how much time has passed.

Why Do Things Run Unconsciously?

For several reasons things run unconsciously, be it because you
experienced something that you were not able to process at the time or
be it just because in our society the external world is more
distracting and attractive than the internal world for most people.

If something is conscious to us we have out impartial awareness upon
it.  As we do this for longer periods of time such as in contemplation more and more
of what is taking place automatically becomes obvious to us.  Then
we can choose to change it.

Unfortunately we don’t seem to widely realise that what is within
affects what we experience without.

What Does This Have To Do With Shadow Work?

Shadow work is extremely powerful and changes things in your experience
of life quickly. 
What people notice when they do shadow work is inner peace and a
quietening of what some people call the inner critic or the
judge.  You experience less contraction away from other people,
less irritation and less wishing other people would change.

What this requires is self-reflection and higher consciousness of what
is taking place within your experience.  If there is something
about a person that irritates you or something that makes you feel they
are superior then what is
actually happening is you
are projecting onto this other
person something that you have not accepted about yourself.

What If The Other Person Really Is That Way?

There are a couple of ways of looking at this.  You could hold it
that these people are coming into your life and showing up as they do
because you have this unconscious, unaccepted trait.  Or you could
completely own that you create this person in your reality.  Or
you could accept that maybe this person is really like this but your
irritation is all your doing.

For example in an ideal world you would completely accept and love in a
compassionate way even the most despicable character.  Any trait
about
this despicable character that you have a body felt hatred or dislike
of is your shadow.

By this I mean that person does not automatically come pre-packaged
with these feelings that you experience.  They just are as they
are.  Whatever you feel or interpret this person to be is your
doing.  You won’t be doing this automatically as a thought out
process but it will be automatically occurring unconsciously. 
This
is your shadow self being projected
outwards and therefore holds huge clues to your self discovery,
personal and spiritual growth.

What is required is for you to look within your life and potential life
and completely accept that this trait is a reality or a possibility
within your life.  This is what we mean by healing the shadow.

To learn more about shadow work read about The Shadow Effect movie by Debbie
Ford.

Shadow Self, Shadow Work, Shadow Projection, Human Shadow, Healing The Shadow

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Own Your Shadow-Self

To Improve Your Life

The shadow-self is a very important aspect of your experience of yourself and life. I am going to explain to you in basic terms the crux of the shadow-self and hopefully you will see clearly why it is such a determining factor of your self-esteem.

You will no doubt notice that you have a self-image. This is undeniable and this self-image is a construction within your mind of how you are. Because it is so obvious and so familiar and seemingly so real we live life as if we really are that way.

Think back to childhood or even imagine yourself growing up and the pressure to conform to particular ways of being was persistent, sometimes explicit, sometimes subtle but always immense. You quickly learned what was acceptable and what was to be never heard or seen in your household and society.

The problem is that these traits which you learned were never to be seen or heard don’t actually go away. How can they? Where would they go? They have nowhere to go and I will talk more about that in depth in other pages. So as they can’t disappear, in order for you to have them appear to have disappeared you shove them out of conscious awareness.

Cue the self-image and its opposite the shadow-self.

So what you end up with is a whole lot of traits and characteristics that are acceptable to Mum, Dad, society, teachers and you in one mental construct called the self-image and everything that is not OK is said to be in your shadow.

Why Is This Important?

This is important for your self-esteem and experience of life because you can try really, really hard to feel better by swapping some of the self-image traits around, making some more prominent, working to improve some and working to have more people see certain traits or whatever.

However, at the end of the day the self-image is just a made up idea. It still has no basis in absolute reality as the conscious being you are. You can swap and change and tinker with the self-image all you like, and some people do for their whole miserable life.

You will never experience self-acceptance, self-love and self-esteem until you finally turn and face all those traits you shut away in the shadow-self, acknowledge them, embrace them, welcome them, make it OK that they are there, see the benefit of them being there, love them and accept them.

Shadow Projection, Shadow Work, Human Shadow, Healing The Shadow, The Shadow Effect

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Ego Defense: Shadow Projection

Shadow projection is the way in which you can easily spot what human
traits are in your shadow. Your shadow self is that which is unconscious.  As we are complete in our potential experience, anything which we deny as being part of us becomes unconscious.

What the ego (self-image) does is project these unconscious traits out onto the world including specific people you come across.

This is all the work of the brilliant psychologist Carl Jung who coined the term the shadow.  Why this is cool is that you can use this knowledge to be vigilant and responsible for ALL that you experience, including they way you experience other people.

Everything that irritates us about others
can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. Carl Jung

What the ego seems to do is take anything that we learned not to be, such as rude and mean, and project that out onto someone or the world as a whole.  Anything that is repressed within does not go away.  The trick is to see and accept exactly where it is coming from rather than where it appears to be coming from.

If you don’t accept that a part of your potential and experience is being rude then someone or a group of people will be burdened with your shadow projection of this rude trait.

It happens all ways.  It is tricky to see and even trickier to remember when we are faced with another individual who grates against us.

If someone is annoying to you or you think you are so much better than them or so much inferior then the challenge is for you to contemplate what is it that you are projecting onto them.

What word would you use to describe them that perfectly fits why you have this contraction away from them.  Ordinarily in a perfect world you would accept everyone as they are and experience peace in
their presence.   If you are not then there is something about YOU causing you to experience this absence of peace.  Once you have this word that describes what it is about them you dislike or like then you go within and recall situations where you have been that trait.

This is no time for further ego defense but rather brutal honesty.  The type of honesty that comes from impartial watching.  Just as if you were a scientist observing the data you observe yourself and accept that in the past there have been one or two times when you have done the same thing, or, accept that given a certain set of circumstances you would behave the same as the person who is the subject of your projection.

Rather than being a certain, fixed, object it might be better to think of yourself as potential.  Given your environment and your influences you have the potential to be anything from a thief and murderer to the holiest saint.  You are not one way.  You are not an object that is called Jane, Julie or Dave.  This is why you need to accept everything about yourself and everything that you could imagine ANY human being doing.

Each time you move a potential trait from the darkness (unconscious denial) to the light (conscious acceptance) it removes the need for the ego to project this trait onto anyone else and this is the process of healing the shadow.  This allows you to experience more peace inside and out.

Shadow projection seems to be a strategy by the ego to maintain the illusion of being a certain way.  It probably does this because you have no awareness of being connected to the whole being that you are.

Sagittarius Moon Sign, Sagittarius Traits, Astrological Moon Signs

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If You Are A Sagittarius
Moon Sign

A sagittarius moon sign will have primarily the following traits. Your self-esteem and personal and spiritual growth comes primarily from you acceptance and letting go of any emotional reaction to being labeled something.

Have a look at the list and notice anything which you resist, i.e. it doesn’t fit in with your self-image or you wish it wasn’t part of you.

– Sharp mind

– Quick thinking

– Spontaneous

– Loves freedom

– Optimistic

– Kind

– Gentle

– Likes using intellect

– Love outdoors

– Lacking diplomacy

– Good natured

– Kind

– Honest

– Quick temper

– Quick to forgive

– Overwhelming desire for movement

– Adaptable

Then go through all the other astrological moon signs and work your way through those also.  We all posses the ability to display every trait so your sense of self-acceptance and self-esteem is dependent on you embracing all the sagittarius traits from this moon sign list, and all the other 11 as well.

Scorpio Moon Sign, Scorpio Traits, Astrological Moon Signs

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If You Are A Scorpio Moon Sign

A scorpio moon sign will have primarily the following traits. Your self-esteem and personal and spiritual growth comes primarily from you acceptance and letting go of any emotional reaction to being labeled something.

Have a look at the list and notice anything which you resist, i.e. it doesn’t fit in with your self-image or you wish it wasn’t part of you.

– Likes emotional drama

– All or nothing

– Afraid of betrayal

– Suspicious

– Loyal

– Protective

– Intuitive

– Passionate

– Fearless

– Intimidating

– Jealous

– Possessive

– Ambitious

– Vulnerable

– Intelligent

– Ambitious

Then go through all the other astrological moon signs and work your way through those also.  We all posses the ability to display every trait so your sense of self-acceptance and self-esteem is dependent on you embracing all the scorpio traits from this moon sign list, and all the other 11 as well.