The Shadow
What is the Shadow?
The shadow is the inferior part of our personality. It is also known as the dark side of human nature. The shadow harbors lower emotions we usually don't want to feel, such as fear, anger, insecurity, shame, and doubt. The shadow includes a person's repressed desires, memories, thoughts, and feelings. Events in childhood that made us feel ashamed of ourselves form a shadow. If not felt and integrated into our consciousness, these emotions go underground and resurface later in our lives. The dangers of this are that the contents of the shadow may wreak havoc and sabotage our development and the lives of those around us.
How the shadow shows up in our lives
The shadow is difficult to spot in our waking days. Even people who have worked on their shadows for years still fall victim to the immense power of this archetype now and then. Suppose we are not actively making an effort to be conscious. In that case, we don't even realize we are under the influence of our lower nature. Sometimes, we react in a way that isn't how we ever behave, and after a moment of rage towards someone we love, we say I don't know what came over me.
A good example of the influence of the shadow is someone seeing their co-worker get a promotion instead of them, and that person feels bitter and resentful and may even have unconscious fantasies of harming that co-worker. When we get into a relationship with another individual, we may feel inferior, think we aren't good enough, and question whether they love us when we're with them. Another trigger for the shadow is when we are with people who seem talented in areas where we feel lacking. Feelings of insecurity and inferiority are the two primary emotions present in the shadow.
Collective Shadow
An example of the shadow in Western civilization is that of grind culture. You know, the work hard, play harder people. The belief many have adopted is that to be a person worthy of acceptance and respect, you must suffer doing work you absolutely abhor. Suffering is seen as noble and gives us a sense of pride and accomplishment. We force ourselves to do something we hate in order to feel good and equate that to success. Another example of the shadow in the collective is the thin and fit culture. All over social media are influencers of healthy eating and exercising. While I don't see an issue with a healthy lifestyle, the ideal of a healthy-looking body image has become an obsession. It has become more about our appearance than what makes us feel good internally.
There is a shadow of steroid use, particularly in males. The use of drugs to enhance our appearance and masculinity is most likely compensating for some inferior part of the male personality. We struggle to be with our inner world of conflict, so we have to intensify the outer world and literally jack ourselves up, enhancing our external. Trends taken to the nth degree are part of our collective shadow.
The highest collective value in the West is money. Society teaches us to work hard, make a lot of money, and surely you will be happy. We've been doing this for a very long time. Do people really look like they are getting happier? Businesses such as Amazon attempt to make the world a more efficient, clean space and make buying more manageable for people. Though more convenient, does Amazon help the environment with all the plastic it puts in the ocean or transportation that adds to the pollution in our atmosphere? Hasn't Amazon created a more dependent society that has become overtly comfortable consuming more products than we need?
We all know climate change is real, yet we collectively turn a blind eye to it and hope that before it gets too bad, we will be dead by then. We turn the other cheek to global crises and poverty because it's happening over there, not here.
The Shadow in Healing Circles
Yes, even communities that promote holistic healing and are religious have shadows. A prime example is Bikram Choudhury, founder of Bikram yoga, which is a form of hot yoga. Bikram was accused of sexually abusing and racially discriminating against his students. People of power sometimes abuse and exploit vulnerable, desperate people seeking healing from trauma and difficulties. Bikram developed a global brand, and people were willing to pay him thousands of dollars. He was most likely a man not in control of his lower nature. A man under the influence of his dark side will succumb to the lustful, devious impulses of his psyche and act them out, harming others and his soul. It is natural to have impulses and desires; we are human, after all. The thing is, every impulse does not require acting out.
Another form of the shadow is in communities such as churches like Scientology. Cult leaders promise you a spot in heaven; all you have to do is provide a monthly fee and do what they tell you, and you will be cleansed. There are self-proclaimed self-help gurus and fitness influencers on Instagram. The unconscious message of these folks is, if you live like me, you can look and feel like me because my way is the right way. Just think positive thoughts and work away your negativity.
Unfortunately, plenty of people in the healing community are in it for the money and power. They seek control, fame, and dominance over people. I don't want to scare anyone, there are also tons of communities out there who are heart-centered and truly do their work with good intentions. People need to earn a living, so money is involved. Still, the best healers put their egos aside and keep the community's best interests in mind.
Integrating the Shadow
The shadow must be integrated and is the first archetype a client faces in the psychotherapeutic realm. If not integrated, we see the effects that it has on us. Psyche is a powerful force, and the dark contents inside of us demand our attention. If we choose to ignore them and push them out of our view, we will suffer immense consequences. Shadow is where anger, shame, doubt, and aggression stem from.
The best way to start integrating the shadow is to be honest with yourself. Become more reflective of your actions. Inquire into your dark side by observing your outward behaviors. And when you do fall victim to the unconscious, don't beat yourself up or become discouraged. The shadow is like a small child who needs love from his mother. When you turn from the shadow because you find it to be a nuisance and inconvenient, you turn away from the child in you.
Dream work is a good tool for working with the shadow. The shadow shows up in our dreams as a thief, a robber, an altercation we get into. Being chased or stalked. Dreams, where the individual avoids conflict or complex emotion, are where the shadow reveals itself in dreams. Paying attention to your dreams is a good way to gain insight into your shadow side.
We have the ignorant belief that the problems we face in our world are other nations trying to destroy us. We are so quick to point the finger and blame. It has always been us vs. them. When will it just be us?
This hate, anger, and violence does not stem from out there, somewhere far away. It stems from your own heart. You must look at it and own it. It all begins with each one of us. As long as we continue to blame others for the problems in the world, we will never attain the peace we know we can achieve. But, it has to start with the individual to have a ripple effect and spread into the world. We unconsciously project our hatred and ugliness onto others to avoid feeling it ourselves.
The Creative Potential of the Shadow
Up until this point, we've discussed the shadow as evil and destructive. But, the shadow is not inherently good or bad. It has the potential for those things. But it also has the potential for creativity and growth. The hate, shame, and guilt can be transmuted into love and used to birth a new reality for an individual. Exploring the artistic side and newfound Talent of an individual. The shadow is where the child version of you is. The stage of childhood is when we are closest to the divine. Closest to God. At this stage in your life, before the world conditioned you to be a person with a name and a social role, you had the strongest connection to the spiritual world. You had the vital spark and the joy of being alive in you. That still exists in you; it isn't lost but maybe forgotten. It dwells in the darkest part of your psyche, where we have the most challenging time looking. But as Carl Jung said, "One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."