I have been talking a lot about "shadow work" during this pandemic, and I understand that can be an elusive topic, so today I would like to clarify what I mean by this. The psychologist Carl Jung taught that everyone has a part of themselves that they try to keep hidden from the world, and he called this the "shadow".
The shadow, which I identify as being a part of our personality that we try to cover up, isn't "bad" per say, it's just something that, for whatever reason, we have flagged in our subconscious as dangerous to our standing in society, and have therefore, oftentimes unintentionally, worked to conceal. As we spend years hiding what we believe could hurt us, we end up in a sort of self-sabotaging prophecy where we habitually stumble in a particular area, despite all will to conquer reoccurring challenges.
This is where the shadow work comes in, and this is where I personally believe that shadow work is facilitated by God, and not by human will, though our will to get better is the first step. From my experience, the shadow self is so integrated into the true self, as I will for now call it, that only an act of Providence can extract the true from the false. Something greater than ourselves has to break the cycle that we find ourselves in. The conscious self, the part of us that wants to heal and move forward in life and in relationships cannot break free from the limitations of subconscious self, which in its function is indeed only trying to help.
Once we have begun the initial journey into healing, and into confession, God will present unique opportunities to bring to light the factors that we buried in darkness that we were not, for whatever reason, able to bring to light on our own power. We might be able to make amends for glaring transgressions to ourselves and/or others, and we might use human will to correct and change our behaviours, but the heart will not be fully transformed, until God reveals the shadow self to us. The shadow self will always protect the underlying reason(s) for the actions that we take or don't take.
This is why for me, and I imagine for many others on the hero's journey, this pandemic has been a holding ground for shadow work. A unique moment in time where we have nowhere left to run and nothing left to distract us. This is where I finally look at decades of cover-up. For some, this pandemic might be a world-wide conspiracy, but for me, it's an exposure of my own deceptions, and to let God, the whistle-blower, reveal the truth about myself.
And this truth is that I created a shadow self as a survival mechanism that had strict parameters so that I could easily control it, and that has become so apparent as I run into these boundaries during quarantine. My shadow self was built to conceal what I could not control in my life, to give me the illusion of authority, but what after time became a blockade to what I truly wanted - acceptance through vulnerability.
Shadow work starts where we arrive at the barriers we put up. It is the destruction of facades, and the induction of authenticity. It is the start of a new life, with openness, love, and compassion. It is the forgiveness of self that we never thought possible, and the recognition that we are all one, all working toward reintegration with God, from where we once came. Shadow work is the release from everything that caused us to do what we did not want to do, so that we can finally begin to live in peace with ourselves and with others.
This is modern recovery, and modern religion. This is the first time in human history where we collectively work to heal mental illness, shame, and trauma, and the first time in our own personal history where we are forced to sit with ourselves and get honest about who and where we are. Shadow work is the permission to be everything we are, and the promise that we can be anything we want.
The shadow, which I identify as being a part of our personality that we try to cover up, isn't "bad" per say, it's just something that, for whatever reason, we have flagged in our subconscious as dangerous to our standing in society, and have therefore, oftentimes unintentionally, worked to conceal. As we spend years hiding what we believe could hurt us, we end up in a sort of self-sabotaging prophecy where we habitually stumble in a particular area, despite all will to conquer reoccurring challenges.
This is where the shadow work comes in, and this is where I personally believe that shadow work is facilitated by God, and not by human will, though our will to get better is the first step. From my experience, the shadow self is so integrated into the true self, as I will for now call it, that only an act of Providence can extract the true from the false. Something greater than ourselves has to break the cycle that we find ourselves in. The conscious self, the part of us that wants to heal and move forward in life and in relationships cannot break free from the limitations of subconscious self, which in its function is indeed only trying to help.
Once we have begun the initial journey into healing, and into confession, God will present unique opportunities to bring to light the factors that we buried in darkness that we were not, for whatever reason, able to bring to light on our own power. We might be able to make amends for glaring transgressions to ourselves and/or others, and we might use human will to correct and change our behaviours, but the heart will not be fully transformed, until God reveals the shadow self to us. The shadow self will always protect the underlying reason(s) for the actions that we take or don't take.
This is why for me, and I imagine for many others on the hero's journey, this pandemic has been a holding ground for shadow work. A unique moment in time where we have nowhere left to run and nothing left to distract us. This is where I finally look at decades of cover-up. For some, this pandemic might be a world-wide conspiracy, but for me, it's an exposure of my own deceptions, and to let God, the whistle-blower, reveal the truth about myself.
And this truth is that I created a shadow self as a survival mechanism that had strict parameters so that I could easily control it, and that has become so apparent as I run into these boundaries during quarantine. My shadow self was built to conceal what I could not control in my life, to give me the illusion of authority, but what after time became a blockade to what I truly wanted - acceptance through vulnerability.
Shadow work starts where we arrive at the barriers we put up. It is the destruction of facades, and the induction of authenticity. It is the start of a new life, with openness, love, and compassion. It is the forgiveness of self that we never thought possible, and the recognition that we are all one, all working toward reintegration with God, from where we once came. Shadow work is the release from everything that caused us to do what we did not want to do, so that we can finally begin to live in peace with ourselves and with others.
This is modern recovery, and modern religion. This is the first time in human history where we collectively work to heal mental illness, shame, and trauma, and the first time in our own personal history where we are forced to sit with ourselves and get honest about who and where we are. Shadow work is the permission to be everything we are, and the promise that we can be anything we want.
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