The Shadow
In transpersonal, when we speak of "the shadow" we refer to the unknown aspects of our psyche, the repressed part of our personality, the aspects of ourselves that we find difficult to recognize that lie in the hidden side of our being.
The shadow develops in the first 7 years of our childhood, it is a vital stage that determines our behavior and personality for the rest of our lives, it is formed through our interaction with the world around us, and reference figures such as parents, relatives, teachers.
During this stage we are in recording mode, storing everything we observe, from behaviors to ideas that will eventually become beliefs, responsible for shaping our perception, experiences and external world. We also find within the shadow contractive or expansive emotions, values, skills, etc.
According to scientific studies, people spend 95% of their day on autopilot, responding and reacting automatically to external stimuli, which are nothing more than the projection of our inner world, without applying full awareness of them, falling into a repetitive circle, harboring the same thoughts, the same emotions and reacting in the same way and consequently creating the same experiences and reinforcing limiting beliefs that allow us to express ourselves authentically.
The good news is that we can break the repetitive cycle, being able to install new "programs" in our psyche and dissolving those that do not benefit us.
According to Carl Jung "The shadow is only dangerous when we do not pay due attention to it", that is why in Transpersonal we use the tool of self-observation, presence and mindfulness to get in touch with it.
How do we connect with our own shadow?
As philosopher Ken Wilber states, "What we love or loathe in others are but qualities of our own shadow."
There are different ways to give light to our shadow, to know which are the aspects that compose it. Just by the simple fact of observing it, we are already becoming aware of it, taking it out of its darkness and bringing it into the light, being able to re-program it, allowing us to move forward from full consciousness.
One way to recognize it is by listening to the feedback of others, when we listen to the "criticisms" of our closest environment, the one who knows us best, how others see us, gives us a lot of information about ourselves.
An example is when a brother tells us that we are acting selfishly and we get angry, because we do not think that we are selfish at all but on the contrary, and we give it an exaggerated importance affecting us emotionally, then we have to take into account that here a quality of our shadow appears. This is because as children we put selfishness in the sack of the shadow in order to be accepted by the group, and being part of our shadow and not being aware of it, it turns out that from time to time, our own shadow acts by itself and emerges.
Another way to recognize the shadow is to analyze our own projections, these can be negative or positive, therefore it consists of analyzing what we like or dislike in others, as we apply it we are freeing ourselves from burdens that do not belong to us, giving light to those aspects of our psyche that only asks us to recognize and integrate those parts, gradually allowing us to get in touch with the power of now, a state of pure potentiality where all possibilities exist, where we connect with our pure essence and from that light we manifest the life we long for, where inner peace reigns and we surrender to the flow of life.
