So what is your shadow side?

[Rayden_Greywolf]

For me that one parable of the whole "two wolves inside us, light and dark, and the one you feed the most wins" was very helpful in identifying and understanding my shadow self more. To me, the Dark wolf inside us is our pain, fear, and anger and at times it can lash out and do us and others harm. The Dark wolf feels that nobody can understand its frustrations and so it must rebel, fight, and hurt in order to be heard. The Light wolf in us wants love, joy, and healing, but it doesn't always understand the actions of the Dark wolf, both its own opposite and the Dark wolf in others. Therefore it must work with the Dark wolf, letting it express its pain, while also hoping to learn from and ultimately heal it (the pain, I mean).

In the end, while these two wolves ultimately do fight and misunderstand each other, we have to do our best to empathize with both of them and learn to allow cooperation and understanding. Both wolves will feel equally "true" to the individual. Personally, I struggle with believing in both a loving, good universe while also feeling like my deep emotional pain is proof that those things aren't real. Both seem true, but I have to work towards a balance.

[Aethera]

Originally Posted by Rayden_Greywolf

For me that one parable of the whole "two wolves inside us, light and dark, and the one you feed the most wins" was very helpful in identifying and understanding my shadow self more. To me, the Dark wolf inside us is our pain, fear, and anger and at times it can lash out and do us and others harm. The Dark wolf feels that nobody can understand its frustrations and so it must rebel, fight, and hurt in order to be heard. The Light wolf in us wants love, joy, and healing, but it doesn't always understand the actions of the Dark wolf, both its own opposite and the Dark wolf in others. Therefore it must work with the Dark wolf, letting it express its pain, while also hoping to learn from and ultimately heal it (the pain, I mean).

In the end, while these two wolves ultimately do fight and misunderstand each other, we have to do our best to empathize with both of them and learn to allow cooperation and understanding. Both wolves will feel equally "true" to the individual. Personally, I struggle with believing in both a loving, good universe while also feeling like my deep emotional pain is proof that those things aren't real. Both seem true, but I have to work towards a balance.

I am familiar with the having 2 wolves inside us, one of light and one of dark. Very well put, as well~ I see them as sides that have to learn to be friends, and the dark side of the wolf has to work together with the light to heal - if they want to find harmony and balance.

[JustBe]

Originally Posted by Lorelyen

That's honestly the best way to regard it. As you get to know your Mrs/Mr Hyde and they may not be such a bad person after all!

Hi Lorelyen

I think becoming your own best friend ties into all of this.

The shadow is not really you, but through it’s inception, it can become you, it can also live within as an unconscious/unknown creation that affects you in many ways we live and create in the world.

I witness many silent unspoken shadows in people that they themselves cannot see, or feel yet, but the more open in feeling and seeing you are to your own, those eyes and feelings in clarity, become very aware of others and what comes through them.

Even good loving, caring people can carry pain deep down unaddressed and even as we may not see it affecting others, it can affect them, in a myriad of ways, where that kind of suppression and imbalance will play out.

Through my own views in this way, I see why if one is on this journey to heal and grow, then looking more directly at the nature of the shadow and truly bridging it, as an integration and transformative process, one then, is no longer contained by its constant arising.

In this way we do make friends in peace of all this baggage, with ourselves.

The true self becoming your truest friend. The transformation becoming a transmutation into wholeness more directly.

One can know intellectually they are complete, but the shadow does and will create the reality of everything we are and hold within.

The shadow seeks to be known, to reveal more of you beyond its containment.

Originally Posted by django

Christianity has a long tradition of the Dark Night of the Soul, especially mystic Christianity.

I'm very aware of that; it does not replace anything I said.

JL

Originally Posted by Greenslade

My apologies. I had a temprary lapse of reason there but didn't mean any offence. I guess I'm coming to the stage where.... Anyway, I made a retraction of sorts further up.

There was no offence taken at all, GS. All fine.

JL

[django]

Originally Posted by janielee

I'm very aware of that; it does not replace anything I said.

JL

I think the concept of going through the dark to the light is so foreign to you that no matter what I say I don't think you'll accept that it is valid. I believe the exact opposite, to me this is the only valid way.

[LadyMay]

The shadow is everything 'unacceptable' in yourself that has been repressed. But there are often gifts that can be used for good when it's accepted. For example, my shadow holds a lot of anger and rage because it has never been considered an acceptable emotion. As a result I have found myself chronically disempowered. By accepting that anger I can learn to channel it towards positive change, because it is basically energy that is saying "this thing is not right", so its true impetus is actually to make things right instead.

That is my own example of the shadow and how it manifests in my own life.

Originally Posted by JustBe

Through my own views in this way, I see why if one is on this journey to heal and grow, then looking more directly at the nature of the shadow and truly bridging it, as an integration and transformative process, one then, is no longer contained by its constant arising.

In this way we do make friends in peace of all this baggage, with ourselves.

For me personally, this is Spirituality at its finest.

[Aethera]

Originally Posted by LadyMay

The shadow is everything 'unacceptable' in yourself that has been repressed. But there are often gifts that can be used for good when it's accepted. For example, my shadow holds a lot of anger and rage because it has never been considered an acceptable emotion. As a result I have found myself chronically disempowered. By accepting that anger I can learn to channel it towards positive change, because it is basically energy that is saying "this thing is not right", so its true impetus is actually to make things right instead.

That is my own example of the shadow and how it manifests in my own life.

I see the shadow side in a similar manner, and anything that is seen as not accepted, and with any negative emotion, can be anger, shame/guilt that's kept there cause of some experiences, along with sadness is kept there. Cause some seeing expressing sadness as a show of 'weakness', even if one may feel vulnerable in those moments, it doesn't mean that they are weak. I do agree with how you see that once aspects of them become 'friends' with those aspects the subconscious then can transmute it and can turn it into positive energy for doing good that can be used in the conscious mind.

Doubt in the Creator
follows your heals
this creates a shadow of fear
this pollution begins in the mind

So when one comes to faith
and transition, from faith in to TRUST
in the Creator, one becomes whole

This is how I see it
A ho, mitaku oyasin (All is related or All is my relative)