Let’s Take Another Look at the Shadow
Many of you have commented that you enjoyed the June feature on Debbie Ford’s work relating to the shadow effect. Here is more information and a fun quiz that can help you understand how your shadow may be operating in your life.
“Today I will walk in the light and my consciousness will be illuminated. My thoughts will be guided and my way guarded, for I know that in my light there is no darkness. In this Divine Light there are no shadows.”
Ernest Holmes, 365 Science of Mind, published by Tarcher/Penguin.
What Is The Shadow?
By Debbie Ford
Imagine that there is a part of every human being that has the power to be our teacher, our trainer, and our guide, leading us to strength, creativity, brilliance, and happiness. Imagine that this part of us is just waiting to be seen, to be heard, and to be embraced. But it is not patient, and when left unexamined and ignored, this part of us has the power to sabotage our life, destroying our relationships, killing our spirit and keeping us from fulfilling our dreams. So what is this mysterious part of us, buried deep inside our consciousness? It is our human shadow.
Our shadow, formed long ago, contains all the parts of ourselves that we have tried to hide or deny, the parts we believe are not acceptable to our family, friends, and most importantly, ourselves. It is made up of everything that annoys, horrifies, or disgusts us about other people or about ourselves. It holds all that we try to hide from those we love and all that we don’t want other people to think about us or find out about us. As the great Swiss psychologist C. G. Jung says, our shadow is the person we would rather not be.
From its invisible home deep within our psyche, the shadow wields enormous power over our life. It determines what we can and cannot do, what we will be irresistibly drawn toward, and what we will do almost anything to avoid. It dictates our attractions and our repulsions and determines what we will love and what we will judge and criticize. Our shadow controls how much success we’re entitled to create or how much failure we’re doomed to experience. The shadow is an oracle that predicts all of our behaviors, driving the way we treat those around us—and how we treat ourselves.
But our shadow can only wield its power over us when we keep it in the dark. And instead of something to be denied, feared or rejected, the shadow has our most treasured gifts, the essence of who we are. When we bring light to the darkness, we find the fundamental parts of our true self buried inside—our greatness, our compassion, our authenticity. And as we explore this part of ourselves we most feared, we become free—free to experience the full range of our humanness, free to bask in our glorious totality, free to choose what we do in this world. Our shadow delivers us the blessing of our entire self.
When we make peace with our shadow, our lives transform. We no longer have to pretend to be someone we’re not. We no longer have to prove we’re good enough. We no longer have to live in fear. Instead, as we find the gifts of our shadow and revel in all the glory of the true self, we finally find the freedom to create the life we have always desired.
Copyright © 2010 by Deepak Chopra and Rita Chopra Family Trust, Debbie Ford, and Marianne Williamson. Reprinted by permission of HarperOne.
www.theshadoweffect.com
How is the shadow effect at work in your own life? Click here and take a quick quiz to find out.
