The Shadow: Healing Through Revealing

Named by Carl Jung in 1917, the shadow concept encompasses the accumulated repressed aspects of the self. In the May 2023 issue of Science of Mind magazine, Rev. Dr. Jim Lockard explores this concept, writing, “The act of repressing is like shoving the unwanted characteristic or urges into a sack (our unconscious mind). As children, and often as adults, we don't have the ability to properly integrate these unwanted aspects, so we stuff them. The problem is they remain active in the unconscious and surface in ways that don't serve us.”

When we repress our shadow, Lockard explains, “we project onto others,” perhaps with strong responses to otherwise mundane events. “The process of becoming civilized or cultured is a prime driver of shadow,” he says, “as it requires repressing urges and behaviors deemed unacceptable. Often, the more civilized or cultured someone is, the larger their shadow.

“The best way to tell if you are in shadow projection is to notice your own strong emotional reactions to the behavior or appearance of others. Absent the shadow repression, you may simply notice it and move on.”

Lockard offers insights into shadow work and says, “To realize our authentic self, which is our soul's agenda, we must be open to deep revelation and release. We must be willing to look at the darkness within. Shadow work moves us toward a realization of our wholeness.”

Tips for Getting Started

on Shadow Work

In her blog on the website Better Up, researcher Maggie Wooll examines shadow work and its importance. “We all have traits that we're proud of and traits that we don't feel so confident about,” she writes. “Some of these traits may trigger or embarrass us, so we hide them from public view. These parts make up your shadow self, and it longs to be heard.”

Echoing Lockard's messages in Science of Mind magazine, she writes that “repressing your inner shadow can have dangerous consequences. Most often, the shadow manifests as our triggers — emotional reactions that we haven't fully dealt with, but bubble up to the surface under the right (wrong) circumstances. It takes training, self-awareness, guidance and courage to help you face your shadow self in a healthy way.”

To help you get started, Wooll offers tips on taking the first steps to help you integrate and accept each part of yourself:

• Decide whether you want to do this work on your own or with a therapist, counselor or practitioner.
• Practice spotting your inner shadow when it appears.
• Reflect on your childhood and how those experience play out today.
• Don't be embarrassed of your shadow or seek to shame it.
• Meditate on issues that trigger your shadow.
• Start an inner dialogue and keep a journal about what you learn.

Learn more at https://www.betterup.com/blog/shadow-work.

Meditation on Giving and Receiving

By Ernest Holmes

Today, I receive the gifts of heaven. Today, I know that even as I ask, I shall receive. Therefore, I meet life in joy and gladness. I expect to be guided and intelligently directed in everything I do. I expect to meet good, love and friendship everywhere I go.

And even as I expect to receive, so I desire to give. It is my sincere desire that everyone I meet shall be blessed, that everything I touch shall be made whole. It is my desire that joy shall flow from me in peace and happiness, bringing a sense of well-being and comfort and assurance to those around me.

Lifting up my own thought to the secret place of the Most High within me, I feel that I receive a benediction from heaven and with it the gifts of life, which I freely distribute. And I know that as I gladly give of myself to others, so shall something from them come back to me, to go out again, blessing and healing.

And now may the Presence of the great and Divine Giver become real to us, and may the gifts of heaven be received by us and may the good we possess be shared with others.