The acceptance of our shadow PART 1
Introduction
I have a beatiful history of panic attacks, depression and anxiety disorder and one of the most frequent advice i received was: "Accept it, don't fight it and it will pass."
Of course, for those of you who have experienced panic or anxiety, you know how demotivating it is to hear such an advice and also how hard it is to actually do it in a state of panic or fear.
Yet slowly i come to understand this sentence better and better and i want to share it with you guys.
The Shadow
WARNING:(The "Shadow" is a term coined by and used mainly by Jungian Psychology. I will not remain 100% true to the terminology and thus will advice everyone interested in precisely Jungian Psychology to look elsewhere. This is my own humble understanding.)
People say to accept, but accept what? I do believe that the "what" is the shadow mentioned throughout the whole post. So let's look at it.
The first important step in accepting the shadow is actually defining the shadow. So what is it?
The shadow is simply the blockage of light and the reflection of the object blocking the source.
By this definition two new terms arise.
The light and the object blocking it.
I find it quite reasonable to define the light as the love source and the shadow the fear, as both of this emotions are the ground basis for everything else. The two primordial, the yin and the yang. The object is the I. The person experiencing life, or the light and shadow.
Thus, the shadow is something we fear and the light is something we love.
The next step is to recognize what the light and shadow represent in our individual life. It is an absolute fact that love and fear differ from person to person. One person can love the snake, while another fears it.
But we are not speaking of such trivial things of course so what are possible shadows ?
It is crucial to understand that symptoms, such as: migraine, breathlessness, panic, fear, sadness, depression and even diseases such as schizophrenia, bipolar and even cancer (quite a strong saying i know) DO NOT represent the shadow.
Every symptom or disease are a message to us. So even if we cure ourselves of the symptoms or diseases, but do not understand the message, then new ones will surely come. This time they can be even worse.
The message itself is really hard to describe, as it is more than often a really subjective and intrinsic feeling. But examples for that real shadows are: the fear of growing up, the fear of dying, the fear of being vulnerable, the fear of being loved, the fear of success, the fear of being the best and many many more.
Reading them like this may sound funny and ridiculous, but as i said it is quite subjective.
One can have the fear of death and thus panic in every situation, which reminds him of it. One can have the fear of hurting somebody and thus get a migraine in this kind of situations. One can have fear of society and becoming a part of it and thus develop schizophrenia. The possibilities are as endless as the personalities in history.
Accept 
What is the first thing one will do if he sees a monster ?
Run of course
Now imagine, that you see your own shadow as the monster.
If there were no consequences to escaping the monster, then we would not speak about this topic in the first place.
But there are two main problems.
- You cannot escape your own shadow.
- The shadow is part of you and needs recognition as well.
What does a baby do, when it needs attention?
It starts to cry.
So....
What does your shadow do when it needs attention?
P.S. This is the end of the first part. I want to try something different. As i spoke with different people i came to understand, that maybe i am writing too long, so i will divide this post in two parts. If there are any good citizens reading this, then please do not hesitate to give your opinion on this matter. Is long better than short or ?
With love,
Monstroz.
Sources:
- Photo by Fancycrave on Unsplash
- https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiedosto:Karl_Emanuel_Jansson_-Old_Woman_in_a_White_Bonnet-_Google_Art_Project.jpg