Monday, September 04, 2006
Embracing Your Shadow, part two Michael Neill
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This week on 'You Can Have What You Want'!
Thursday, September 7 at Noon pacific/3pm eastern/8pm UK:
(Internet radio at http://www.hayhouseradio.com)
*****UNCONDITIONAL PARENTING*****
Did your parents ever shoot you "the look"-the one that meant you were in big trouble?
Find out how you can successfully parent your own children without resorting to punishments or rewards!
To listen to the show this and every Thursday, go to http://www.hayhouseradio.com at Noon pacific/8pm UK and click on the button marked 'Listen Now'.
If you missed last week's show on 'Thriving on Change', please visit http://www.hayhouseradio.com/ and click the button for the 'Listen Again' archives!
=================================
Embracing Your Shadow, part two
=================================
"The gold is in the dark."
-Carl Jung
Last week, I shared some ideas on how you could create more freedom in your life by embracing those parts of yourself that you wish weren't or think shouldn't be there.
If you missed part one, you can read it online at:
http://www.geniuscatalyst.com/public/ets.php
This week, I want to focus on a different unowned aspect of ourselves, sometimes referred to by Jungians as 'the positive shadow'.
The positive shadow is made up of those positive traits you see in others but think couldn't possibly be there in you. It is the 'hiding place' of your unclaimed genius, greatness and capacity.
In the case of the positive shadow, we can see its impact in our unfulfilled aspirations, our seemingly endless quest for self-improvement, and often surprisingly in our personal heroes.
Whether your heroes are popular actors or musicians ('I could never be that popular/handsome/beautiful/wealthy/successful'),
Nobel Prize winners ('I could never be that
smart/powerful/impactful') or religious super-stars ('I could never be that wise/spiritual/enlightened'), we tend to put them high up on a pedestal, ensuring both that we can never reach them and that one day they'll fall from their lofty perch and we'll be crushed.
Now, remember the two 'rules' of embracing your shadow:
1. When you disown a part of yourself, it winds up running your life.
2. Once you embrace or 'own' that part, it no longer runs your life.
To these rules, I will now add a third:
3. Whatever you admire in others, you also have within you.
The reason you haven't yet claimed the greatness within yourself may be a simple lack of recognition (i.e. nobody told you to look), but is often the lingering after-effect of childhood hypnosis.
If the people in your life when you were growing up explicitly told you or implicitly insinuated that *you* weren't great or special or smart or creative or artistic or whatever, chances are you are still living out of that belief as a sort of 'post-hypnotic suggestion' in your life today.
Or you may have simply hypnotized yourself into believing it, repeatedly telling yourself you weren't capable of doing what the big people around you could do, usually because at that age, you probably weren't.
Today's experiment invites you to take a closer look to where you already exhibit those traits you so wish you had in your life, and will also begin to wake you up from the 'not good enough' trance so many of us spent our childhoods living in...
-------------------------------------------Today's Experiment - Reclaiming your Positive Shadow:
-------------------------------------------
(This experiment is influenced by the work of Dr. John F.
DeMartini. See the 'Want to Learn More?' section at the end of the tip to learn more!)
1. Who are the three people you most admire in the whole world?
2. For each person, ask yourself what it is about them that you admire. What do people say about them you wish they would say about you?
3. What's the most flattering thing that anyone could ever say about you (even if you 'know' it's not true)?
4. Instead of creating an affirmation for any positive traits you have identified, take some time to look for where you already exhibit.
Here are some questions to get you started:
*Who are at least five people who already see this trait in me?
*Where have I exhibited this trait in the past? Where am I exhibiting it in my life now? Where will I exhibit it in the future?
*In which of the following areas of my life do I exhibit this trait?
a. Physical
b. Mental
c. Spiritual
d. Work
e. Finances
f. Social
g. Family
Feel free to push yourself past the first three (or three
dozen!) times you tell yourself 'nobody thinks this of me and it is not true in any area of my life'. In the same way as you may not have been able to find your keys or the salt or even your car when they were right in front of you all the time, your strengths, gifts and genius are often hidden in plain sight until someone points them out to you.
If you really struggle with completing this experiment, you might just be too scared to really look. In exploring this possibility, consider these famous (though often misattributed) words from author and speaker Marianne Williamson:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
Have fun, learn heaps, and catalyze your genius!
With love,
michael
This week on 'You Can Have What You Want'!
Thursday, September 7 at Noon pacific/3pm eastern/8pm UK:
(Internet radio at http://www.hayhouseradio.com)
*****UNCONDITIONAL PARENTING*****
Did your parents ever shoot you "the look"-the one that meant you were in big trouble?
Find out how you can successfully parent your own children without resorting to punishments or rewards!
To listen to the show this and every Thursday, go to http://www.hayhouseradio.com at Noon pacific/8pm UK and click on the button marked 'Listen Now'.
If you missed last week's show on 'Thriving on Change', please visit http://www.hayhouseradio.com/ and click the button for the 'Listen Again' archives!
=================================
Embracing Your Shadow, part two
=================================
"The gold is in the dark."
-Carl Jung
Last week, I shared some ideas on how you could create more freedom in your life by embracing those parts of yourself that you wish weren't or think shouldn't be there.
If you missed part one, you can read it online at:
http://www.geniuscatalyst.com/public/ets.php
This week, I want to focus on a different unowned aspect of ourselves, sometimes referred to by Jungians as 'the positive shadow'.
The positive shadow is made up of those positive traits you see in others but think couldn't possibly be there in you. It is the 'hiding place' of your unclaimed genius, greatness and capacity.
In the case of the positive shadow, we can see its impact in our unfulfilled aspirations, our seemingly endless quest for self-improvement, and often surprisingly in our personal heroes.
Whether your heroes are popular actors or musicians ('I could never be that popular/handsome/beautiful/wealthy/successful'),
Nobel Prize winners ('I could never be that
smart/powerful/impactful') or religious super-stars ('I could never be that wise/spiritual/enlightened'), we tend to put them high up on a pedestal, ensuring both that we can never reach them and that one day they'll fall from their lofty perch and we'll be crushed.
Now, remember the two 'rules' of embracing your shadow:
1. When you disown a part of yourself, it winds up running your life.
2. Once you embrace or 'own' that part, it no longer runs your life.
To these rules, I will now add a third:
3. Whatever you admire in others, you also have within you.
The reason you haven't yet claimed the greatness within yourself may be a simple lack of recognition (i.e. nobody told you to look), but is often the lingering after-effect of childhood hypnosis.
If the people in your life when you were growing up explicitly told you or implicitly insinuated that *you* weren't great or special or smart or creative or artistic or whatever, chances are you are still living out of that belief as a sort of 'post-hypnotic suggestion' in your life today.
Or you may have simply hypnotized yourself into believing it, repeatedly telling yourself you weren't capable of doing what the big people around you could do, usually because at that age, you probably weren't.
Today's experiment invites you to take a closer look to where you already exhibit those traits you so wish you had in your life, and will also begin to wake you up from the 'not good enough' trance so many of us spent our childhoods living in...
-------------------------------------------Today's Experiment - Reclaiming your Positive Shadow:
-------------------------------------------
(This experiment is influenced by the work of Dr. John F.
DeMartini. See the 'Want to Learn More?' section at the end of the tip to learn more!)
1. Who are the three people you most admire in the whole world?
2. For each person, ask yourself what it is about them that you admire. What do people say about them you wish they would say about you?
3. What's the most flattering thing that anyone could ever say about you (even if you 'know' it's not true)?
4. Instead of creating an affirmation for any positive traits you have identified, take some time to look for where you already exhibit.
Here are some questions to get you started:
*Who are at least five people who already see this trait in me?
*Where have I exhibited this trait in the past? Where am I exhibiting it in my life now? Where will I exhibit it in the future?
*In which of the following areas of my life do I exhibit this trait?
a. Physical
b. Mental
c. Spiritual
d. Work
e. Finances
f. Social
g. Family
Feel free to push yourself past the first three (or three
dozen!) times you tell yourself 'nobody thinks this of me and it is not true in any area of my life'. In the same way as you may not have been able to find your keys or the salt or even your car when they were right in front of you all the time, your strengths, gifts and genius are often hidden in plain sight until someone points them out to you.
If you really struggle with completing this experiment, you might just be too scared to really look. In exploring this possibility, consider these famous (though often misattributed) words from author and speaker Marianne Williamson:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
Have fun, learn heaps, and catalyze your genius!
With love,
michael
