We are all made of lights and shadows

Lights and shadows live inside us. They are part of who we are, what we do not want to be and what we may be. They are the struggle between what we recognize, what we avoid, what we admit and what we ignore or do not want to see. And in this small but costly balance, we try to get through our days without either side dominating our lives.

When the truth tells us that the balance between what we know and what we do not admit is difficult to achieve. In order to live with ourselves we have to take a good dose of acceptance of reality: we are made of lights and shadows and for that reason there will be parts of us that we will not want to accept.

Acceptance of our shadows may involve pain but it also implies evolution, change and acceptance of our self. It implies, therefore, knowing yourself and developing a healthy self-esteem in life. Not everything is lights, nor do lights always illuminate our lives, lights sometimes blind our path and shadows may give us the answers.

Are you aware of your own shadows?

Carl Jung He defined our shadows as the set of frustrations, shameful, painful experiences, fears or insecurities that reside in the unconscious. The shadow contains everything negative about the personality that the self is not always in a position to assume and that, for this reason, can stop the manifestation of our authentic way of being and feeling.

Evil, selfishness, envy, cowardice, jealousy, greed and many of our emotions and our fears are our shadows. Many times we become aware of them when they lead us to conflicts with others. On other occasions they are expressed in feelings of guilt or even inexplicable depression, reflecting an image in which we do not recognize ourselves.

We are even capable of projecting these shadows on others as long as we do not assume that these feelings, judgments or ideas belong to us. We are programmed from childhood to hide failures, despair and the negative in our lives. Thus, just by being human, we keep shadows inside us, as well as light.

Have you ever blinded yourself by following your own light?

The lights that make us up, that surround us and that illuminate us from within are all those qualities, virtues, emotions, behaviors or desires that we like to show. They are the masks with which we disguise ourselves on every occasion as if they were our only and true identity.

We can choose to be jokers, intelligent, understanding, sociable, shy or brave, we can choose what we want to show on the big social stage. Currently, we make the lights of our personality shine brighter with the use of appearances on social networks. We live a second life in which shadows not only hide, but we act as if they do not exist. This, which at first may seem like an advantage, a way of protection from the miseries of our lives, actually becomes the epicenter of the expression of modern narcissism.

That is why it is so important to know our shadows, because they help us maintain inner balance. We are fallible, we feel jealousy, envy or guilt, but we also pull ourselves together. We are human and accepting it by living reality and not a fairy tale will help us develop healthy self-esteem and live a better and fuller life. Don’t deny your shadows, accept them; Don’t be blinded by the lights, look for your inner balance.

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