Why we love our shadows!
Why we love our shadows!
Contrary to what you may think, shadows should be loved. Here's why.
Contrary to what you may think, shadows should be loved. Here's why.
In our previous blog titled 'Inner work is not just shadow work', we explored the below definition of shadow work and tapped into a little bit of how it not only encompasses negative aspects of ourselves, but also begs us to explore those positive aspects that we may have left behind for one reason or another.
'Shadow work' is the search and recovery of those aspects of ourselves which we have disregarded, disassociated from, or in any other manner discarded, with the goal to reincorporate those aspects back into ourselves with love.
In the above mentioned blog article, we illustrated the impact of continuously casting aside parts of ourselves using a 'light with a dimmer switch' as a metaphor. In summary, the less and less of ourselves that we have available to create with, the less and less brilliant our creations are, to the point where, once the light goes out, that is equivalent to our creations become completely devoid of any brilliance, and they too go completely dark. And we see this happening around the world.
An easy example of this is in how we build buildings. There are plenty of visual reminders of buildings built hundreds of years ago having so much character and unique features, whereas the buildings we see built today often have very generic cookie-cutter features and no character at all. This isn't by coincidence. Those buildings are likely being built by people who have continuously cast aside parts of themselves, parts of their creativity, to fit into the mold of society or the mold of their professional career such that less of their own energy, creativity, and brilliance, is used to create those buildings and thus we have an onslaught of drab buildings that won't have the same unique features or character for future generations as current generations see in the older buildings of our present times.
Since we have a definition of what 'shadow work' is, it would be beneficial for the remainder of this article to also have a definition of what 'shadows' are to work with as well.
'Shadows' are those parts of ourselves that we cast away, bury, or set aside, due to either not wanting to face them, attempting to control their ability to freely exist, or in response to some external influence.
Shadows are not relegated to being the negative parts of ourselves. They are also the positive parts of ourselves that we leave behind as we move on in life.
When we create shadows, we subtract those shadow aspects of ourselves and we move onward in life with those parts missing. Sometimes we may lament over those aspects being gone, but often times we compartmentalize their existence and try to move on in life as though those parts of ourselves never even existed. Every shadow we create chips away at us, and until we reintegrate them back into ourselves, we will always be living life with missing parts of ourselves and we will never feel whole.
The reason we love our shadows is because they are parts of us. "Good" or "bad", they make us who we fully are. To love our shadows is to embrace what they mean for us even if they may be looked at by others as being less than desirable. There is a reason we were born the way we were born, and every part of us that we were born with was given to us for our highest good. If we love ourselves, we must also be willing to love our shadows because they are also us and, thus, we choose to reintegrate our shadows with love.
We help people do their shadow work as well as other facets of their inner work over at our website at www.InnerWorkMadeSimple.com. Please join us there to learn more about our mission, and let us help you on your inner work journey.
In our previous blog titled 'Inner work is not just shadow work', we explored the below definition of shadow work and tapped into a little bit of how it not only encompasses negative aspects of ourselves, but also begs us to explore those positive aspects that we may have left behind for one reason or another.
'Shadow work' is the search and recovery of those aspects of ourselves which we have disregarded, disassociated from, or in any other manner discarded, with the goal to reincorporate those aspects back into ourselves with love.
In the above mentioned blog article, we illustrated the impact of continuously casting aside parts of ourselves using a 'light with a dimmer switch' as a metaphor. In summary, the less and less of ourselves that we have available to create with, the less and less brilliant our creations are, to the point where, once the light goes out, that is equivalent to our creations become completely devoid of any brilliance, and they too go completely dark. And we see this happening around the world.
An easy example of this is in how we build buildings. There are plenty of visual reminders of buildings built hundreds of years ago having so much character and unique features, whereas the buildings we see built today often have very generic cookie-cutter features and no character at all. This isn't by coincidence. Those buildings are likely being built by people who have continuously cast aside parts of themselves, parts of their creativity, to fit into the mold of society or the mold of their professional career such that less of their own energy, creativity, and brilliance, is used to create those buildings and thus we have an onslaught of drab buildings that won't have the same unique features or character for future generations as current generations see in the older buildings of our present times.
Since we have a definition of what 'shadow work' is, it would be beneficial for the remainder of this article to also have a definition of what 'shadows' are to work with as well.
'Shadows' are those parts of ourselves that we cast away, bury, or set aside, due to either not wanting to face them, attempting to control their ability to freely exist, or in response to some external influence.
Shadows are not relegated to being the negative parts of ourselves. They are also the positive parts of ourselves that we leave behind as we move on in life.
When we create shadows, we subtract those shadow aspects of ourselves and we move onward in life with those parts missing. Sometimes we may lament over those aspects being gone, but often times we compartmentalize their existence and try to move on in life as though those parts of ourselves never even existed. Every shadow we create chips away at us, and until we reintegrate them back into ourselves, we will always be living life with missing parts of ourselves and we will never feel whole.
The reason we love our shadows is because they are parts of us. "Good" or "bad", they make us who we fully are. To love our shadows is to embrace what they mean for us even if they may be looked at by others as being less than desirable. There is a reason we were born the way we were born, and every part of us that we were born with was given to us for our highest good. If we love ourselves, we must also be willing to love our shadows because they are also us and, thus, we choose to reintegrate our shadows with love.
We help people do their shadow work as well as other facets of their inner work over at our website at www.InnerWorkMadeSimple.com. Please join us there to learn more about our mission, and let us help you on your inner work journey.