Month: June 2015

Carl Jung, a psychoanalyst I’ve long admired, called this shadow work. He said we never see others. Instead we see only aspects of ourselves that fall over them. Shadows. Projections. Our associations. If we can see and accept those aspects of Self that we would rather cast out – the parts we don’t like – we will find ourselves more understanding, forgiving, caring and loving toward others.

If you want a glimpse  your darker side, try this little mind trick : judge others’ unabashedly on paper (for your eyes only!). Now, find the ways that quality speaks about you.

For example,

“I don’t like people who think they’re superior to other people“.

True about me? Lets see… Have I ever thought I was better than others?

• When I get annoyed that the driver in front of me is “too” slow. (i.e., My way of driving is better than theirs)

•…

We all have parts of ourselves we aren’t exactly crazy about. Yet true lasting happiness cannot be maintained until we learn to embrace those aspects we wish to discard.

Referred to as “the Shadow”, our unconscious consists of the parts of self that we have, at some point, tried to disown. We’ve built walls, developed defenses, practiced denial, and even built false-selves to camouflage these dark-parts. But try as we might, these shadow aspects show up anyway.

When we face, and embrace these parts, we find they weren’t monsters after all. Misunderstood perhaps –  but not monsters. Once conscious, we experience greater freedom, authenticity, and self-understanding. When we understand ourselves, others will, too.

With all the killings in the news, it is hard to let our children feel safe and protected.  Kids and the elderly need to live in an environment were they feel safe.  Schools and nursing homes are not the safe havens they used to be.

Teachers are there to educate our children.  They should not be forced to physically defend the kids safety. Unfortunately, it has been coming down to that here recently.  So once again we are reminded what heroes our teachers really are.

Protecting kids today is a full time job our teachers were not trained to do, but they have been exceeding our expectations with flying colors.  They really need to be licensed to carry concealed weapons to defend against the lunatics that have been crawling out of the wood work, here lately.

I used to love escaping to school to be with my friends and escape…