At times, we get triggered by noticing things which we really dislike in others. We may also at times encounter strong feelings of hate, anger, fear, wanting to hurt other or separate from them… Carl Jung called this part of our personality a Lower Self / Shadow.
“Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. At all counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions.” (Carl Jung)
Good way to spot one’s shadow or the Lower Self is to become aware of the internal expression of this powerful force. For that, we need to become aware of ways in which we try to manipulate others, use to our advantage, project various negative traits onto them (a lot of times this shows where our own downfalls are as we’re all each other’s mirrors), stay in separation and /or fear.
A common technique in shadow integration is to find a healthy, productive, or at the very least, controlled outlet for either repressed aggression or sexual urges. Thus, to me, BDSM has always seemed like a potentially healing expression of our childhood traumas and wounds. A conscious, consensual way to play around with concepts of sexual expression, at times violence, separation, fear and other negative emotions has a great potential to transmute the ‘negative’ repressed energy into a ‘positive’ vibration. Of course the negative and positive words here denote a judgement and only highlight the idea of duality we live in.
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” (Carl Jung)
“The shadow, when it is realized, is the source of renewal” Connie Zweig
To read more on the idea of the Shadow, please follow This Link.
How / when do you meet your lower self?