can you learn to love your shadow?
Poetry Oracle: Week of July 15th
Welcome back to the Self Love Confidential Poetry Oracle, where the universe sends you the message you need to hear right now by way of a poem from one of my books.
If you’re struggling with some aspect of who you are, this week’s Oracle is for you.
Page 128 of Self Love Poetry: for Thinkers & Feelers, get your copy here.
What is your shadow, you may ask. The shadow self was a term first coined by famed psychiatrist Carl Jung. Jung believed the shadow self represents the unconscious, and often repressed parts of our personalities. The parts of ourselves that our conscious mind deems negative and so we hide, judge or completely ignore them. Our shadow self is comprised of traits, desires and even emotions. Jung believed that even though we try to repress our shadow selves, and are often even unaware of these aspects of who we are, the shadow nonetheless shows up and influences us. Until we embrace and integrate our shadow, we cannot experience the wholeness or growth we all so deeply crave.
Shadow work is taking the time to identify, accept and integrate these unseen or undesirable aspects of ourselves so that we can achieve self-awareness, and ultimately, authenticity.
For me, there is so much about my shadow that I’m learning. I’m also finding that it is the things other people do that trigger me the most that reveal my own shadow. For example, I’m deeply triggered by people who prioritize themselves and set boundaries (two things the outward-facing martyr in me has a lot of trouble doing). But my shadow it seems, my shadow wants to be put first. To speak freely about what she is comfortable with. To set limits around what isn’t okay. Like my poem suggests, I’m trying to see the art in all of this. I am discovering who I am (both consciously, and unconsciously) and making room for all of it. More than that, I am learning to love all of me.
I hope this week, you take a moment and get to know your shadow. What you find may be your masterpiece in the making.
