"Life is an echo. What you send out,comes back. What you sow, you reap. What you give, you get. What you see in others, exists in you."~ Zig Ziglar.
With psychological development, we identify with a certain personality type. With this said, we tend to disown personality traits and emotions that do no cohere with our approved self made image. We will never experience collective or personal wholeness until we accept, understand, befriend and integrate our "shadow self."
Your "shadow" is the side of your personality containing parts of yourself that you don't want to admit to having. Our shadow self contains aspects of ourselves that we have disowned. Since we experience the shadow as “non-self”and external we often unconsciously “project” it onto the outside world.
It's our unconscious side at first. When we become self aware we then recognize our shadow self. Often the shadow is thought of as negative, this isn't really the case. Your shadow is what you perceive as bad, weak or dark about yourself, therefore hiding and denying it from yourself and others.
One person's shadow self may have elements of manipulation, anger, fear, laziness, cruelty or rage, you may also hide your strengths like: independence, emotional sensitivity or personal power.
“Shadow boxing” is the projection of repressed anger. Instead of being angry at something, we unwittingly project our subconscious anger and experience it as others being angry at us. Similarly, instead of feeling like we are rejecting, we feel rejected. Instead of feeling hatred, we feel hated.
We can become more balanced and whole when we recognize and face our shadow.
For instance, if we fully accept our sadness, we can also fully accept our joy and be able to find a middle ground of contentment. If we face and accept our anger, we can set boundaries in place to protect us against our triggers.
When you know and accept your shadow side you will also improve relationships in your life.
What we can accept and understand about ourselves, we are then able to accept and understand in others. This gives us compassion and empathy towards others in similar situations. When we deny and repress things about ourselves, they do NOT disappear. Instead, they can grown into power and fear and cause us even more difficulties throughout life. Our repressed shadow self will often do this thru psychological projection.
The Shadow & Psychological Projection
Psychological projection is when we attribute an unconscious feeling, emotion, thought or even talent of our own onto another person. For instance, you might feel like everyone around you is selfish and lazy. You blame them for never getting ahead in life because they are too self absorbed to help you. If you looked at yourself authentically and honestly, you would likely find it’s YOU yourself who have a tendency to be inactive and self centered not them.
We not only repress and project negative qualities or emotions, as well as positive ones.
Because of this, we may experience an inflated admiration for certain people. This is why shadow boxing can detract from the quality of life you are experiencing. When we are at war with ourselves we experience the world as inherently evil or dangerous. We tend to demonize others hen in actuality we are really demonizing ourselves.
When you look at what you are constantly blaming others for tends to be a direct route to your shadow self. What are the things you don't like in other people? Does this characteristic exist within yourself too? Can you think of a situation where you did something similar?
Casting Light on Your Shadow & Projections
1. “I am this, but I can also be that.”
One way to become aware of your shadow is to start understanding and integrating your self-descriptive qualities. When you have done this, go through the list and consider situations when you reacted or thought in a way contrary to that trait. If you feel a strong inner resistance to participate in this exercise, this demonstrates your unwillingness to confront and embrace your shadow personality.
2. What bothers you most?
Another way to become aware of your shadow is by noticing what things bother you most about others. It's your own frustrations that annoy you the most which have been denied as part of yourself. For example: you may denounce another as being judgmental while you are bling to your own tendency to judge others. By opening up your eyes to see and reclaim lost parts of yourself, you can become more compassionate, understanding and empathetic towards others with similar traits.
3. Reversing the direction of the emotion:
Here are some examples:
~ “Hateful people” may be better understood as “I hate.”
~ “He was judging me” may point to the fact that “I am judgmental.”
~ “People reject me” may be better understood as “I reject others.”
~ "Others are angry" may point to "I am angry."
Your perception is your reality!
Once you become aware of your own shadows that awareness is very powerful. Awareness and anything can't co exist. Awareness is more powerful than your ego, your emotions, your thoughts and your feelings. Awareness is what gets you back home to your soul purpose. Once we have the awareness of what we are doing, we can laugh at ourselves and dissolve the destructive emotion quickly. By embracing our shadows, we can be more patient and understanding of not only ourselves but others. When we acknowledge the "good" and the "bad" parts of ourselves, we no longer feel like we need to defend a certain self image of ourselves.
How to know your shadow Self?
Our shadow is usually the first things we face when we start spiritual healing sessions. I provide a safe space where you can talk to me non judgmentally and confidently about everything and anything. As i'm not personally invested in your life, often times my clients will blurt out things that they didn't even know they were thinking or feeling. Getting it out of you is one of the first steps to healing and knowing yourself.
Would you like to explore your shadow side in a safe, friendly environment with a professional spiritual healer? I am available for online booking please contact me directly at: fromanotherealm@gmail.com
Face whatever is holding you back head on and it no longer has power over you, you have power over it! Awareness and anything can't co exist. Awareness is more powerful than your ego, your emotions, your thoughts and your feelings. Awareness is what gets you back home to your soul purpose.
You can use your pain and turn it into power. If you are willing to work on where your pain comes from, the lesson to be learned and turn your knowledge into action, you can use your suffering to turn you into a stronger and wiser person! I look forward to working with you on your spiritual journey.
Love & Light,
Namaste ~ Paulina
Hello, my name is Paulina. I went through a spiritual awakening journey in 2018. I am in touch with my higher self and want to help you find yours. Until your higher self kicks in let me be your guide back home. Book 1:1 sessions with me: fromanotherealm@gmail.com#shadowside #shadowwork #shadowboxing #psychologicalprojection #psychologicaldevelopment #shadowpersonality #unconscious #innerwork #spiritualgrowth #spiritualjourney #spiritualhealing #spiritualhealer #holistic #naturaltherapy #soulexpansion #soulgrowth #lifecoach #professionalhealer #fromanotherrealm #froanotherealm
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