Your shadow side is a very important part of human nature
July 25, 2012 by John Smallman
One of the main issues that humans will be dealing with in the
coming months is the need to acknowledge, address, and release their
shadow side. The shadow side is that aspect of self which is generally
judged to be unacceptable by the family, religion, or culture in which
one grows up. Actually, it is a very important part of human nature and
is needed as a balance to the aspect that is deemed acceptable.
Your illusory world deals in opposites – right and wrong, love and
hate, fast and slow, etc. – and for harmony to flow these opposites must
be balanced. What generally happens, though, is that one side is
judged “good” and the other “bad,” and the side or aspect that is judged
bad is either kept hidden or it is buried deep within the subconscious
realms of the mind. Doing this causes stress and tension, and severely
limits your creative abilities.
When you look at the lives and works of some of your most creative
people, you can see that their shadow – unacceptable – side was very
involved with the work they created, and in their daily lives and
behaviors, and this is either ignored or patronizingly accepted as the
“price” that people have to pay for “allowing” them (those incredibly
creative ones) to entertain you with their great skills and talents.
But it remains unacceptable for anyone else to behave like them.
Not acknowledging the dark or shadow side leads to psychosis for
many. Others engage with their shadow side and use it to take advantage
of others, and even to control them. Those of a religious bent often
berate and abuse themselves for “bad” thoughts and feelings because of
their beliefs about their unacceptability. But those thoughts and
feelings are quite normal; they are a part of your human identity. So
observe them without acting on them – trying to suppress them causes
them to intensify their efforts to attract your attention, possibly
leading you to be permanently at war with yourself – and balance them
out with the aspects that you consider acceptable or “good.”
When you allow yourselves to ponder on what has previously been
judged as the unacceptable, even evil, within yourselves it becomes far
less threatening, and you find that it can in fact help you with your
decision-making because it gives you a far clearer picture of the issues
involved and how you truly feel about them. It enables you to live in a
balanced and creative way, instead of inflexibly following paths that
you have always followed, believing them to be obviously and
unquestionably correct. Many of you come up against situations like
this if you have children, because they constantly question everything,
and if your demands are unreasonable they will tell you so. Then you
either have to use your children’s input to re-evaluate and re-assess
your demands on them, or you can inflexibly insist that you are the boss
and that they must do as you tell them “or else!”
Recall your own childhood and how frustrating parental demands and
regulations could be. Now, looking back, you can see that some made a
lot of sense, but there were also many that did not. So, re-assess,
re-evaluate, and let go of any inflexible attitudes, thought patterns,
or behaviors in which you find yourselves indulging, and enjoy the
enormous sense of freedom it gives you. Every “should” should
be questioned. But mostly people just seem to accept them and act on
them, or refuse and end up feeling guilty. And the result is fatigue
and depression as you are so frequently working against your
inclination, your intuition, and your own absolutely reasonable wishes.
Discipline and routine are a very necessary part of your lives in the
illusion, otherwise the laundry would not get done, the children would
not get fed, and your boss might fire you. Nevertheless, do not let
them rule your lives; they are there to assist you, not rule you, and
yet so many of you do seem to be so ruled. If this is how your lives
feel to you, then you do need to investigate your shadow side – have you
totally repressed it in order survive in an unfriendly and hostile
environment?
Open up to all your thoughts and feelings, observe them
without judgment, and you will most likely discover that you have been
ruling yourselves, at least some of the time, with an inflexible iron
hand. You will also see that you can relax, break your self-imposed
rules, and find that catastrophe does not occur. In fact life, even in
the illusion, can be far less pressured and far more fun if you just
allow yourselves to be yourselves!
Your loving brother, Jesus.
[Below is the link to my radio interview with Stephen Cook to be broadcast on Wednesday July 25th
July at 9.00pm New York time. Afterwards it will be archived and
available through the same link to listen to at your convenience, should
you choose to do so, or, of course, not.
Love and hugs,
John.
