Conquer The Shadow

Unfortunately, there is no doubt that human beings are, in general, less good than they imagine or what they want to be. Everyone carries a shadow, a dark region of the personality that is unknown and that the ego does not want to recognize. –Carl G. Jung.

The shadow, according to the analytical psychology of Carl Jung, is the collection of repressed aspects of your identity. By suppressing and denying this shadow, you avoid the possibility of becoming your best version.

We must face it and integrate it into our conscious part.

He who fights with monsters, be careful not to become a monster himself. When you look for a long time into an abyss, it also looks into you. –Friedrich Nietzsche.

During childhood, the personal shadow develops in all of us. Through reference figures such as parents, family members and teachers; and from our own experiences and learning, we define what is appropriate behavior and what is not.

Each culture defines differently what corresponds to the shadow: aggression, ambition, sexuality, intense emotional expression, etc. Some validate these behaviors and others banish them.

In one way or another, all those feelings and abilities that we have denied ourselves and do not recognize in ourselves (jealousy, aggressiveness, guilt, cruelty, depravity, greed, pride, cowardice…), we have been pushing away to that dark side that becomes our shadow.

In this way, having rejected them and removed them from our conscious mind, we will only be able to see our shadow through the traits and actions of others, we will only be able to realize it outside of ourselves, projecting it onto others.

Repressing this content does not make it disappear. Locking them in the unconscious only makes them act autonomously, influencing our thoughts, emotions and behaviors, making them destructive and self-destructive.

Facing this shadow is a terrifying test, because encountering oneself is one of the most unpleasant things. Go on stage, put yourself under the spotlight and be subjected to the criteria of the judges.

The process of integration with the shadow begins by recognizing these dark parts of our personality, and seeing them as something necessary and vital to our being.

This process is difficult, since most will not admit that they are not a completely virtuous, selfless, and kind person.

But one must learn to know oneself to know who one is.

However, the shadow also shows a number of good qualities: normal instincts, appropriate reactions, realistic intuitions, creative impulses, etc.

By integrating it with our conscious part, we also gain access to all these qualities. Jung called the culmination of this process “individuation.” Become yourself. Self-actualize.

✍️ Practice:

• Recognize your selfish, destructive and immoral impulses. How can you channel them in a positive way?
• Maintain a continuous state of analysis. When you feel angry, sad or envious, ask yourself: of all the emotions I can feel, why have I chosen this one?
• Take a moment and analyze the moments in which you have suffered the most in your life. Write about them. The last love breakup. The last failed project. The last time you were sick. What happened? How did you feel at that moment? How do you feel now? What has it made you learn?