Don't Be Afraid of Your Shadow

A common expression for someone who is insecure is that they're afraid of their own shadow. Imagine that someone walking down a dark street on a moonlit night looking behind and seeing a large shape following them. They start running, but the figure follows them. No matter how fast they run, they can't shake their pursuer. It sounds ridiculous, but most people really are afraid of their shadow. I'm not referring to the shadow cast by their physical body but the shadow cast by their mind.

Jung said, "Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is." Take, for example, a teenage girl suffering from anorexia. She rejects her shadow of being fat and has a distorted body image. She may be rail thin, but when she looks in the mirror, she thinks, "I'm so fat!" The more we reject our shadow, the fatter and bigger it becomes. A boy who rejects his tendency toward violence will see his shadow as a giant brute that could kill people in a rage. So, he's meek and doesn't assert himself when he's bullied. The bully is the outer projection of his shadow.

The shadow is the unconscious side of us. We must integrate or harness the power and positive aspects of our shadow, for if we don't, the negative aspects of our shadow will take over our conscious mind just like Mr. Hyde took over Dr. Jekyll. The anorexic girl will die; the bullied boy will become a school shooter. We must become aware of our shadow but not identified with it. The teenage girl can be aware of her tendency to overeat but balance it with moderate exercise and right diet. The boy can be aware of his temper but will balance it with meditation and martial arts training.

So don't be afraid of your shadow. Don't run from it. Be aware of it, embrace it, make peace with it, and integrate it to become whole.