So what is your shadow side?

[FairyCrystal]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Exactly....why on earth would I want to embrace this?
Recognize this so-called shadow self, that I have never heard of, btw...and say, "Nope, not for me. Scram!"
Choices...always choices.

Embrace the good, the kind, the beautiful....that's what is to be embraced.

Nice thinking.
Thing is, everyone has 'darker' feelings and thoughts as that is simply part of being human. Everyone experiences anger, resentment, self-esteem issues, judgement and so on.
If you ignore and neglect that it gets/remains suppressed in the subconscious, and guess what: our subconscious controls us and what we do and think and how we react 95% (!!!) of the day.
It's only the remaining 5% of the conscious mind that is attempting to stay focused on nice things and ignore the rest.

Also, the subconscious processes things at the speed of light whereas the conscious mind is very very slow.

So do the math if you don't look at and learn to accept what's in your subconscious. If you do, you won't get knee-jerk reaction to life anymore, and those will blow right through the veneer of 5% of the conscious mind.

[FairyCrystal]

Originally Posted by Lorelyen

My shadow side is the unknown me. It emerges in response to something and acts against what I believe my path to be. It needs looking at rather than pushing back. There are still things that seem to relate to old wounds. I think it was Linda Falorio who warned against letting the dark side fester away inside people. It will surface sooner or later in unsavory ways.

Dealing with it doesn't mean you have to erase it. It's sometimes enough to know it's there and accept it as part of one's lot.

That.
And yes, you don't have to erase it, although if there's things that hinder you a lot they'd best be healed at least a bit.
But it's mostly about accepting those parts of yourself. If you acknowledge it, it already becomes softer, less of a saboteur.

I know in the end it's likely the idea to get to what was described as a master without a shadow.
But personally I think that aiming for that won't help much as the gap between where we are and that is way too big. It'd be discouraging to go for that.
I prefer to go for knowing & accepting shadow parts of me. I find that challenging enough as I notice I don't want to look at certain things.

[FairyCrystal]

Originally Posted by Altair

It's fascinating how different the replies are, and people think they ought to 'deal' with the less savoury parts of themselves. Elimination, control, surrender, embrace, etc. You get so many different replies from different traditions. I am generally not in favour of 'control' as this indicates some sort of inner battle and if you're battling yourself I don't think you can win anything. It's all about giving things a place, which reduces taboos and can give room for actual improvement..

I view the so called 'shadowy' characteristics in the same manner as I view so called lighter characteristics. They are verbs, and verbs change from moment to moment, they may feel similar yet are never perfectly the same. I am not too familiar with Jungian psychology, so I checked what 'shadow self' is about (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_(psychology)), and as a quick glance I honestly don't think most of it would (necessarily) be harmful stuff. We may actually totally repress things that are beneficial to us and others..

And this is a side track, but what's up with the language of it all here? Shadow is 'bad' as opposed to 'the light'..? Once again it shows our language is perhaps hinting at sun worship. But 'light' can be very disturbing, as can 'order' be. The most orderly societies were/are run by dictators, who are 'out in the open' for all to see, being the 'light', whereas actual goodness may be cast back into the shadows. Think about it, how language already may determine the outcome of your answer..

I don't think of the Shadow as bad. It's the parts of you that you don't want to see and thus push to the subconscious. Some things in there may be considered bad, but others needn't be at all.
Not acknowledging these things is bad for you yourself hence it being important to get them out of the subconscious.

There are things that could be considered bad. For instance in certain circumstances everyone could kill or hurt someone else. But I don't think for most of us this is in the Shadow? I think that's part of the Reptilian brain which is wired for survival and self-defense.

[JosephineB]

Originally Posted by Lorelyen

Whether borrowed or arrived at independently a few authors have come to the same conclusions: Linda Falorio; Michael Bertiaux; maybe others.

In fact while just checking if Linda Falorio was author of the remark, I happened to notice a book "Tarot Shadow Work" (subtitle: Using the Dark Symbols to Heal) and the intro seems to be about just that. Until someone does grapple with these issues/entities/energies one can never claim to be wholly spiritually developed. As you say, they're there and may not emerge until something evokes them. There'll be some uncomfortable moments but if they can be brought into the light and dissipated healing does seem to be the result.

The implications of Freud's statement, his theories, are apparent in the world today, the West anyway - there's a huge mood of anger building up that one of these days will explode. How much of it is down to suppression of self-expression? Censoring people's ability to express themselves simply pushes problems back underground.
.

I agree with what you've wrote.

I wasn't making a criticism about Linda Faloria stealing his idea or anything. Just reminded me that's all.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by FairyCrystal

If you ignore and neglect that it gets/remains suppressed in the subconscious...

Actually it doesn't, and this is my
different angle on this,
(ha, not trying to start something here, but...) this isn't about sweeping emotions under the carpet to later resurface.
You do acknowledge and feel the icky feeling of
anger or whatever....and you deliberately say, "No".

This is a way to re-program the tapes playing in our subconscious mind...
making actual pathways that become habitual paths in our brain ...(re: Caroline Leaf's work...also Dr. Bruce Lipton and Dr. Candace Pert).
These paths are reinforced when we believe unconsciously thatwe must act with anger or jealousy
or shame; 'It is normal' ....That is what we have always done......but, No.

This is the power we have to make new pathways, that then become habits...
to react and feel compassion rather than irritability, understanding and calm instead of anger and so on.

We are not leaves blowing in the wind of emotions...having to be effected
by the external things that happen.
We are powerful beings with the rudder of our lives in our hands.

Christians, or Paul had a term...''renewing the mind'.
ACIM might call it a Mind Shift...undoing the Ego Thought System to
the Holy Spirit's Thought System.

Picture this scenario, anyone:
2 cars in a parking lot both got hit and dented.
Mr. X walks out screams and stumps.
Mr, Y, the Buddhist walks out...looks up and says, "What a beautiful day."

What was the difference...yrs practicing of detachment?
A knowledge that nothing in this world is worth fretting over?
A knowledge that this world isn't even real?
Or
a dozen other reasons....who do we want to be?
We have that choice.
That's my point. It takes effort and desire.
And then you merrily go down the stream of the new pathways you made.

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Actually it doesn't, and this is my
different angle on this,
(ha, not trying to start something here, but...) this isn't about sweeping emotions under the carpet to later resurface.
You do acknowledge and feel the icky feeling of
anger or whatever....and you deliberately say, "No".

This is a way to re-program the tapes playing in our subconscious mind...
making actual pathways that become habitual paths in our brain ...(re: Caroline Leaf's work...also Dr. Bruce Lipton and Dr. Candace Pert).
These paths are reinforced when we believe unconsciously thatwe must act with anger or jealousy
or shame; 'It is normal' ....That is what we have always done......but, No.

This is the power we have to make new pathways, that then become habits...
to react and feel compassion rather than irritability, understanding and calm instead of anger and so on.

We are not leaves blowing in the wind of emotions...having to be effected
by the external things that happen.
We are powerful beings with the rudder of our lives in our hands.

Christians, or Paul had a term...''renewing the mind'.
ACIM might call it a Mind Shift...undoing the Ego Thought System to
the Holy Spirit's Thought System.

Picture this scenario, anyone:
2 cars in a parking lot both got hit and dented.
Mr. X walks out screams and stumps.
Mr, Y, the Buddhist walks out...looks up and says, "What a beautiful day."

What was the difference...yrs practicing of detachment?
A knowledge that nothing in this world is worth fretting over?
A knowledge that this world isn't even real?
Or
a dozen other reasons....who do we want to be?
We have that choice.
That's my point. It takes effort and desire.
And then you merrily go down the stream of the new pathways you made.

I see we think alike again.

[Unseeking Seeker]

***



***

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Actually it doesn't, and this is my
different angle on this,
(ha, not trying to start something here, but...) this isn't about sweeping emotions under the carpet to later resurface.
You do acknowledge and feel the icky feeling of
anger or whatever....and you deliberately say, "No".

This is a way to re-program the tapes playing in our subconscious mind...
making actual pathways that become habitual paths in our brain ...(re: Caroline Leaf's work...also Dr. Bruce Lipton and Dr. Candace Pert).
These paths are reinforced when we believe unconsciously thatwe must act with anger or jealousy
or shame; 'It is normal' ....That is what we have always done......but, No.

This is the power we have to make new pathways, that then become habits...
to react and feel compassion rather than irritability, understanding and calm instead of anger and so on.

We are not leaves blowing in the wind of emotions...having to be effected
by the external things that happen.
We are powerful beings with the rudder of our lives in our hands.

Christians, or Paul had a term...''renewing the mind'.
ACIM might call it a Mind Shift...undoing the Ego Thought System to
the Holy Spirit's Thought System.

Picture this scenario, anyone:
2 cars in a parking lot both got hit and dented.
Mr. X walks out screams and stumps.
Mr, Y, the Buddhist walks out...looks up and says, "What a beautiful day."

What was the difference...yrs practicing of detachment?
A knowledge that nothing in this world is worth fretting over?
A knowledge that this world isn't even real?
Or
a dozen other reasons....who do we want to be?
We have that choice.
That's my point. It takes effort and desire.
And then you merrily go down the stream of the new pathways you made.

And there is another way, which is also NOT SUPRESSION.

It’s called Truth, the way of healing and Light. Shadows aren’t fought, nor are they repressed, re-trained or even harnessed; they are seen, felt, released and healed - liberated and in that liberation only Spirit shines forth. This is not a way of mind programming, it’s a path of divine realisation in this life. This very real path.

JL

Originally Posted by iamthat

Going back to the subject of the shadow side of each one of us, I sometimes see references to the idea that a true spiritual Master does not cast a shadow. Some people seem to take this literally - ie a spiritual Master outdoors in the sun would not cast any shadow. I wonder if the origins of this belief are symbolic - the true spiritual Master has completely freed himself or herself from the shadow self.

Incidentally, in some esoteric traditions it is taught that at a certain stage of the spiritual path there is a struggle between the Angel of the Presence (a term for the Soul) and the Dweller on the Threshold. This Dweller is defined as "the sum total of all personality characteristics which have remained unconquered and unsubdued, and which must be finally overcome before initiation can be taken.". This could be interpreted as the shadow self finally being released and the Initiate can then stand in the Higher Self.

Peace.

The initiate also has choices. Light, palpable, emitted from the true.

[Rah nam]

Why can't the shadow side not something great, a talent we did not develop, don't pay attention to?