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healing Archives - Self-Help, Spirituality & Self-Esteem

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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.

Self-Esteem Quotes, Self-Motivation Tips

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Self-Esteem Quotes

Below is a selection of self-esteem quotes spoken from a place of clear awareness describing a main cause of low self-esteem.

People think it is a virtue to disown parts of themselves of which they disapprove. All they succeed in doing is to keep themselves stuck with those parts forever. They have cut off the only means of growth or transformation. Nataniel Branden

The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely. Carl Gustav Jung

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval. Mark Twain

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them. Albert Einstein.

For real self esteem is not derived from the great things you’ve done, the things you won. The mark you’ve made – but an appreciation of yourself for what you are. Maxwell Max

The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself. Mark Twain.

If we really love ourselves, everything in our life works. Louise L. Hay

Some self esteem quotes pointing to what an experience of high self-esteem is like…

Those who are truly comfortable with themselves and their achievements take pleasure in being who they are, they do not need to tell the world about it. Nathaniel Branden

I am an artist of my own creation. I like myself. Sondra Ray

Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives. Louise L. Hay

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Ralph Waldo Emerson

To be authentic, you have to be everything that you are, omitting nothing. Within everyone there is light/shadow, good/evil, love/hate. Deepak Chopra