When the Shadow grows

Excerpt from Deepak Chopra’s book “The Shadow Effect”:

“Like everything in life, creating a shadow is a process. No one intends to increase the shadow’s power — yet we all do it. The shadow grows every time you resort to the following:

• Keep secrets from yourself and others. A secretive life gives the shadow material to grow. Forms of secrecy are denial, deliberate deception, fear of being exposed for who you are, and an upbringing in a dysfunctional family.
• Give shelter to feelings of guilt and shame. Everyone makes mistakes; no one is perfect. But if you are ashamed of your mistakes and blame yourself for imperfections, the shadow gains strength.
• Look for flaws in yourself and others. If you can’t find a way to release feelings of guilt and shame, it’s very easy to decide that you — or others — deserve them. Judgment is guilt wearing a mask of morality to disguise its pain.
• Look for someone to blame. Once you decide that your inner pain is a moral problem, it becomes quite easy to blame someone you consider inferior to you in some way.
• Ignore your own weaknesses while criticizing those around you. This is the process of projection, which many do not realize or understand clearly enough. But whenever you try to explain a situation by the machinations of God or the devil, you create a projection. The same is true for identifying “them” — the bad people who are the cause of all problems. If you believe the problem is “them,” you are projecting your fears onto others instead of taking responsibility for them.
• Separating yourself from others. If you have reached the point where the world feels divided into “them” and “us,” you will naturally identify your side as the side of good and choose it. This separation strengthens the feelings of fear and suspicion on which the shadow thrives.
• Try to contain evil within boundaries. At the bottom of this cycle, people are convinced that evil is lurking everywhere. What is actually happening? — the creators of illusion have allowed their own creation to mess with their heads. Everything comes together to give the shadow incredible power.

We have taken the first step in depriving the shadow of its power by exposing the process that feeds it.”

How to befriend your shadow and access your hidden energy? This, and much more, you will learn at the workshop “Dance with the Shadow“.