I feel so attracted to him, oh God, and I know he likes me too. But, I do not tell him because I am afraid. Today all of us are going camping and I'm so relieved he isn't here. We go to the camping site and everything is going well. We are having fun, the food's aroma is all over the place. Suddenly we hear screams from the jungle, and my intuition tells me to go but I restrain myself. Two of the others volunteer to go, and boom! Another round of screams ensue. So, two others also follow suit and go to the jungle. Screams get louder. Then, I take a step but my friend rushes into the jungle.
I can hear an eerie voice, "5 down, 1 to go." Am I hallucinating or… screams ensue again. I am afraid but I gather enough courage and walk in. The breeze is extra gentle and everything slows down. It is so quiet and serene that I can hear my heart beat. It is so beautiful. "Wait, why am I not screaming yet?" I am afraid again, and it seems that the whole jungle is screaming and screeching again. The jungle seems like a tunnel.
Maybe a portal to another dimension? The thought calms me. It seems like the jungle is about to end and I spot a lake. I look at it and see the reflection of my friends gathered around me. I look around. I am alone. I stare at the reflection and they turn into shadows and start screeching. My shadow faintly tells me "Calm down. Face your fears." I'm shaking but I gather courage and tell them to stop. They stop. The other shadows disappear. I think someone died. I wake up with a start and sweat trickles down my face.
It's the voice inside my head that was screeching, not me. Once I face myself, everything calms down. It's beautiful. I'm not afraid anymore. At least not of myself. Maybe nobody died. Maybe my fearful self just merged inside the calm.
The story above makes an attempt to explain the Jungian concept of the shadow self. The shadow self or shadow can include everything outside conscious awareness and it maybe positive or negative. According to Carl Jung, "Everyone carries a shadow and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is."
The shadow is described as instinctive and irrational which is why it is prone to psychological projection in which a perceived personal inferiority is seen as a moral deficiency in the other. The shadow may appear in dreams and visions and interactions with the shadow in dreams may shed light on one's state of mind.
HOW CAN WE WORK WITH THE SHADOW?
The shadow personifies everything a subject refuses to acknowledge about themself. The goal of shadow work is to integrate the shadow with the conscious self so we can express ourselves as a whole.
The first step toward shadow work is identifying it through becoming aware of the recurrent emotions that we feel. An effective is to write them down as soon as we experience them to gain an unfiltered insight into ourselves.
The unconscious is not just evil by nature, it is also the source of the highest good: not only dark but also light, not only bestial, semihuman, and demonic but superhuman, spiritual, and, in the classical sense of the word, “divine.” – Carl Jung
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