We all have shadows—those parts of ourselves that we tend to hide or disown or disavow—because of some underlying belief that they are bad or unacceptable or inappropriate. And even though we might have been somewhat aware of the choices we made to bring these shadows into being in the first place, the fact is that most of our shadows seem to be completely unconscious, and our only awareness of them occurs when we find ourselves “doing things by accident”, or “not being ourselves”, or simply asking ourselves “why did I do that?”. The problem is, this awareness frequently comes too late, and we often find ourselves feeling a lot of shame—and possibly self-directed anger—which only pushes the “accidental behaviors” even further into our unconscious hiding places.
It is clear that our shadows have a lot of energy and power! They are so powerful, in fact, that they are able to continue to trip us up—and this keeps us from growing into the fullness of our true magnificence. But shadows are really nothing more than immature parts of ourselves that are just seeking to give or receive love. They just don’t know how to do that because they learned dysfunctional behaviors at an early age that somehow kept them safe, and they continue to engage in these old coping strategies today—even though such behaviors no longer serve the original intended purpose!
“I Love My Shadow” is all about bringing unconditional love to those immature and wounded parts of ourselves, so that we can love them and heal them, and thereby re-claim the power within them. By loving our shadows, we learn to love ourselves fully and deeply—without conditions or restrictions—and this enables us to live fully empowered lives of authenticity, honesty, and openness. And this leads to hearts full of compassion that we can share with everyone, thereby creating a more loving and harmonious world for all of us.
To find out more, please visit our website at I Love My Shadow.