Shadow: Through My Lens

Have you ever wondered why you experience the same results over and over again only to end up back at square one?

One of the most helpful understandings for me was connecting the dots with how my behaviour was directly tied to the concept of the "Shadow" (more on this later)

Previous to that, I spend my time running away... like this guy.

Through my lens this photo represents the endless struggle of humanity... running from themselves.

Throughout my years of self discovery I came across the Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist Carl Jung.

One of his primary discoveries was known as the "shadow self" – a part of our psyche that holds the suppressed parts of our identity that are usually seen as "not acceptable" by societal standards.

In essence, it's the "darker parts" of ourself

The parts of you and I that hold fear, shame, guilt, pain, anger, frustration, resentment and so on.

when these emotions (energy in motion) are not addressed, integrated or made conscious they act as a decision making filter for your behaviour in daily life...

as a result you experience perfectionism, constant mental looping, abandoning yourself to help others or self-sabotage with your money, relationships or weight (to name a few)

In more extreme cases these unintegrated emotions can physically manifest as the violence, war and abuse we see in the modern day today.

the above photo, to me, represents the energy and time we spend running from these parts of ourselves.

but what if we put that same energy into integrating these parts to free ourselves from the unconscious grip they have on us that blocks all the good things from arriving?

Everyone will tell you to "be positive"

but from my personal experience the way to sustainably "be positive" is by walking through the darkness of your own shadow.

In other words the way to the light, is through the darkness.

Example: To experience greater financial abundance... the guilt of receiving, the need for everything to be "perfect" or the feeling of "not being enough" must be integrated, otherwise you'd already be experiencing those fruits.

The principle of polarity shows us there's opposites in everything

Up & down, light & dark, positive & negative

yet when it comes to addressing the darker parts of ourself... we tend to run away.

We chase dopamine addictions to escape, we blame others for our problems, we use excuses to justify our actions or non actions.

We seek the reward without walking through the fire.

The work is not "just doing more"

it's understanding how the shadow is running your life without your consent.

When I stopped running from my shadow... I liberated myself from it's grips and my entire life changed over the course of 5 years.

The question for you is... where in your life are you repeating the same patterns over and over again only to find yourself right back at the start every time?

A sabotaging pattern is one clear indication of the shadow running your behaviour under the surface.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” ― C.G. Jung

You are the the creator of your reality, you have the power to change at any moment

but it's nobody's responsibility to do the deeper work for you.

It can be uncomfortable, but it will save you decades of pain, struggle and loops.

Inside the Modern Mastery Dojo this is a mandatory part of phase 1, if you want support on your journey, the Dojo is worth checking out.