1. “Our shadows hold the essence of who we are. They hold our most treasured gifts. By facing these aspects of ourselves, we become free to experience our glorious totality; the good and the bad, the dark and the light.”
2. “Shadow is that hidden, repressed, for the most part, an inferior and guilt-laden personality whose ultimate ramifications reach back into the realm of our animal ancestors.”
3. “Every pain, addiction, anguish, longing, depression, anger or fear is an orphaned part of us seeking joy, some disowned shadow wanting to return to the light and home of ourselves.”
4. “Poems are always interested in what Ivan Illich called ‘shadow work,’ not least because that is no small part of their own way of working.”
5. “Shadow work is the path of the heart warrior.”
6. “Carl Jung called this his shadow work. He said we never see others. Instead, we see only aspects of ourselves that fall over them. Shadows. Projections. Our associations.”
7. “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
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8. “This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine.”
9. “Don’t you realize there’s no longer any difference between you and your-monster? You are the monster. It’s your dark side, your shadow self, and you’ve now joined as one.”
10. “We all have a dark side. Most of us go through life avoiding direct confrontation with that aspect of ourselves, which I call the shadow self. There’s a reason why. It carries a great deal of energy.”
11. “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
12. “Committing to YOU is deep work; you have to look at your shadows and release what no longer serves you.”
13. “There is no light without shadow, and no psychic wholeness without imperfection.”
14. “Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. At all counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions.”
15. “The disowned part of self is an energy – an emotion or desire or need, that has been shamed every time it emerged. These energy patterns are repressed but not destroyed. They are alive in our unconscious.”
16. “There is no light without shadows, just as there is no happiness without pain.”
17. “The rewards are profound. Shadow-work enables us to alter our self-sabotaging behavior so that we can achieve a more self-directed life.”
18. “People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls.”
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19. “Shadow-making happens in families and makes us who we are. It leads to shadow-work, which makes us who we can become.”
20. “Light and shadow are opposite sides of the same coin. We can illuminate our paths or darken our way. It is a matter of choice.”
21. “Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one’s own sunshine.”
22. “Life is about finding the balance between light and dark. Embracing our shadows gives depth to our existence.”
23. “What you are you do not see. What you see is your shadow.”
24. “The leaves’ autumn colors were muted in the shadows they settled among.”
25. “Important is not so much our place in the theater of the world but our acceptance in the theater of our inner self.”
26. “Innovation comes from challenging conventions, even the ones within ourselves. Embracing my shadow has been my secret weapon in pushing boundaries.”
27. “The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.”
28. “I had to confront my shadow, that dark side of me that I didn’t want to admit existed, but it was the key to my true power.”
29. “I have prayed for years for one good humiliation a day, and then, I must watch my reaction to it. I have no other way of spotting both my denied shadow self and my idealized persona.”
30. “What would your good do if evil didn’t exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared?”
31. “Its mystery vanishes, like a shadow, the moment the light aimed at your characters turns back upon yourself.”
32. “To confront a person with his shadow is to show him his own light.”
33. “Projection [of our own shadow] makes the whole world a replica of our own unknown face.”
34. “People are afraid of shadows. People are even more afraid of being in the shadow. But without a shadow, life will be two-dimensional.”
35. “Your Shadow is all of the things, ‘positive’ and ‘negative,’ that you’ve denied about yourself and hidden beneath the surface of the mask you forgot that you’re wearing.”
36. “Our work is to integrate and eventually transcend darkness and light altogether by holding them equally in a state of interconnection.”
37. “My journey with fame was a dance with my shadows. It taught me that authenticity is the ultimate rebellion.”
38. “It’s part of what we call the Shadow, all the dark parts of us we can’t face. It’s the thing that, if we don’t deal with it, eventually poisons our lives.”
39. “It hurts to live in trauma; it hurts to heal from trauma… It takes courage to make a choice. Choose wisely.”
40. “Your shadow is here for a reason. Not so much to terrify or invalidate you,but to help you see what you’re afraid of and to teach you how to tame that fear.”
41. “Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change. Embracing our shadows is the path to true connection.”
42. “By learning to recognize when your own archetypes are taking over, it’s easier to observe when other people are living from their shadow selves.”
43. “A man is whole only when he takes into account his shadow as well as himself – and what is a man’s shadow but his upright astonishment?”
44. “Accept yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses, your truths, and know what tools you have to fulfill your purpose.”
45. “It is only through shadows that one comes to know the light.”
46. “The Shadow Life is real life but it can only be for those who don’t deny the truth about themselves, the world, and reality by becoming AWARE, cultivating unconditional ACCEPTANCE, and talking real ACTION.”
47. “Everything we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.”
48. “I embrace my shadow self. Shadows give depth and dimension to my life. I believe in embracing my duality, in learning to let darkness and light, peacefully co-exist, as illumination.”
49. “You know how fragile the shadow is! Light falls on it and the shadow disappears! Some of the shadows that we fear and believe that they will always rule our lives also suddenly disappear!”
50. “If such a person wants to be cured it is necessary to find a way in which his conscious personality and his shadow can live together.”
51. “The shadow is needed now more than ever. We heal the world when we heal ourselves, and hope shines brightest when it illuminates the dark.”
52. “The spiritual practice isn’t about rejecting darkness—it’s realizing that both the light and dark are love.”
53. “If you are burning, burn. If you can stand it, the shame will burn away and leave you shining, radiant, and righteously shameless.”
54. “At times you got to find the untouched parts within yourself to be able to discover the true you”
55. “When we are aware of our weaknesses or negative tendencies, we open the opportunity to work on them.”
56. “By reintegrating our shadows, we reclaim our ‘lost selves’ and begin to truly know our Wholeness.”
57. “The best political, social, and spiritual work we can do is to withdraw the projection of our shadow onto others.”
58. “The person you call an enemy is an exaggerated aspect of your own shadow self.”
59. “If you don’t accept yourself, you can’t transcend yourself and the world; first, you need to increase your awareness, then you need to accept what you learn, then you need to take action.”