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Shadow Energy is Alive
The shadow is personal and universal at the same time. Everyone harbors a unique pattern of shame and guilt. Simple things like nudity, sexual intercourse, anger, and anxiety give rise to enormous complex feelings. There is no sharp distinction between personal feelings, family feelings, and social feelings. They blend and weave together.
The human psyche was set up with a hiding place, and for most people that place is totally necessary, given the enormous difficulty of facing one’s darkest impulses and deepest humiliations.
In your inner world, there are countless memories and repressed impulses. You do not allow these to flow, which is to say to be released; therefore, they have no choice but to stagnate. Good impulses die for lack of being acted on.
Love grows timid and afraid when not expressed. Hatred and anxiety loom larger than life. It is the primary property of consciousness that it can organize itself into new patterns and designs. If you don’t allow consciousness to go where it needs, however, disorganized energy is the result.
Adapted from The Book of Secrets by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2004).
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6 comments
add your comment »How many of us can say we truly understand our selves and our own thoughts and those sudden impulses that impregnate our mind from time to time even in our dreams. Do we truly understand these shadows and why they go against our beliefs, where they come from and why do we experience them, is this just another test of right and wrong that we ourselves place upon our mortal being in the hope that we take the right path in the evolution of self. maybe we are our own judge and our own shadows in life, we create the those problems subconsciously and intern have to create a solution in the conscious to become a higher spiritual self. I know that we can not force a change to a problem unless we first feel emotions of love and understanding and not hate, For that negativeness would only cast a greater shadow than the original one faced
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Linda E,
What generally is called love is anything but, it is something else and that else is something to be discovered in ones own non-interference look at the minds own responses to daily life, i know of no other way, and it seems to work. The stuff that also seems to be buried will surface by itself as some form of denial if it is allowed. We have been hurt so bad it's a wonder that any of it make it without some kind freakout from time to time, i know i do. but so what? we are not put here to please others, heck we can't even please outselfs,!! And of course there is no other place to go anyway. I know i read other peoples experiences and some times they help but they are nothing in comparison to the amazing crazy and yet beautiful stuff that comes from within my own head and heart if sufficient attention is given to those areas without opinion, i mean self-opinion. The I (eye) issue is fascinating if looked at in a naked way free of the yoke of our upbringing.
Anyway, good luck Linda E,we are all in this crazy basket together and learning to love our selfs really gets to be more fun all the time as we go into it.
peace and prosperity
montana freeman
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...more food for thought. As thoughts and information sometimes feeds the ego, it can be suddenly entlightend or totally confused...its what you make of it....if it doesnt make sense maybe it is not necessary to follow up on it. There was once a song about the "shadows of our mind" cant remember who sang it...anyway not to worry...I think some pieces of information or ideas can be helpful but getting too attached or making a big identification with it is not good practice...let it flow....not every thing needs to be grasped by the intelect.
I can somehow identify with the idea...ones most deepest thought; sometime one does not wish to even admit them to ones self.. :-)
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I agree with Linda. It would be helpful to have a deeper explanation or perhaps examples.
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Perhaps I need to read more of this in context because some of this is confusing and even somewhat distressing. If love is not expressed the result can be anxiety and hatred? I understand the anxiety part: the fear love we give will not be returned, fear that love will be taken from us, fear that someone we love dearly doesn't reciprocate that love, fear that in losing love we will face only loneliness, and fear that we may "forget" how to share love. I have experienced all these, but hatred wasn't a part of it. Unexpressed love can be so smothering: unable to give what we want to so badly, the nurturing spirit unable to be fulfilled in the way we want and rejection even when love is not seemingly reciprocated. But again the hatred part is confusing me.
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Engaging with your shadow is important work. We all hit it sooner or later; sooner is better because there is a lot of individual power and authenticity we can claim. I've found amazing aspects of myself buried underneath the distorted emotions. It's not easy to do but valuable. What I have found is that what the shadow needs is to be acknowledged and embraced, rather than denied or repressed...through being embraced its is allowed to transform. Through be acknowledged, we can choose not to be controlled by it.
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