Is Your Unconscious Shadow Taking Control of Your Life?
Your struggles may be your shadow demanding to be heard.
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Your Shadow Self
- Thread starter Debi
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GoneWestUtah
Currently Active on planet Earth
Interesting; it's really just different wording for the psychology of the subconscious.
My shadow is a Pug. It definitely controls my life when I'm home.
My shadow is a Pug. It definitely controls my life when I'm home.
I think that getting to the bottom of things that hurt you so as not to allow that back into your life or to understand and make peace with the past is a good thing. However I don’t know if I agree with embracing one’s dark side. Perhaps the author just picked poor terminology but I think many people need to leave their dark side by learning how to be a better person.
GoneWestUtah
Currently Active on planet Earth
The author definitely has never seen Star Wars, lol.
OP
OP
I'm with you, Lynne. Acknowledging it and then working to overcome it is much different than "embracing" it.
Selectric
Tier-1 Mod
I may be way off base. It just seems that if you have uncertainty, guilt, what have ya...it sounds like it's just another label. I don't believe there is a 'shadow' controlling my unconscience thoughts. Every decision i make is me. And if it's the wrong one...well i pay for it lol. Not going to blame my alter ego for it lol.
garnetsilver
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TexDanm
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I call my shadow Horace. Horace is the a$$hat that moves things and hides things so that I have to hunt and fuss trying to find it even when I KNOW where I put it. Usually, I blast Horace and stop looking, and then it will show back up RIGHT where I had left it and looked there about a dozen times. When Horace is REALLY on the rampage I can get near to any mechanical device and it will stop working.
I think that is some ways Horace is a sort of coping mechanism. When I am frustrated, usually with myself, Horace offers me something outside of me to focus my anger on. I am rather hard and impatient with myself far more than I am with most other people. We often have things happen that are sort of like mild poltergeist activity.
It used to be rather funny when I worked. When I am working on other people's ACs, Heating or Appliance it is like I'm some sort of appliance healer and just the laying on of hands will make something that had refused to work suddenly fire up and work like a charm. I would usually laugh and tell them that healings were cheaper than repairs so give it a go and call if it does it again. I almost never had a return call on healings. Let MY AC go toes up and it would get obstinate. When I would finally figure out the problem the parts that I needed would always be on backorder.
I always just accepted that at least Horace didn't do his tricks on other people that I was trying to help and work for. As annoying as Horace is I suspect that without his gathering attention to him that I would turn the stress and anger into and onto myself. Venting my anger at him is sort of the way that I manage to forgive myself for things that I probably shouldn't be putting on myself.
When I was younger I almost let depression eat me alive. It seemed that I could forgive and love nearly anyone but myself. Back then there just wasn't anything they could do for that sort of depression. Therapy usually made me feel worse. Everything made me worse.
Finally, they figured it out. I had a chemical imbalance. It took them a while to find my specific need and that eliminated most of the problem. It is like someone with type one diabetes. My life was pretty well screwed up but at least the constant depression was gone. During the darkest times, Horace gave me a place to put enough of those bad feelings to allow me to survive.
I'm not crazy and never was I know who Horace is or was. I didn't create him. I always hated my first name and never used it. Even my company name used my middle name. I finally found a use for that first name though. Horace became the receptacle of my depression. He still gives me a hard time when I overload him. He is my shadow me. He takes depression and anger from me and turns it into annoyance and then that fades away.
An example of one of the stranger things that I blamed on Horace was when one day after a really long and hard day at work. I came in and flopped down in my recliner. I basically blasted Horace and told him to get off my Butt!! (probably in a slightly more colorful way.) I guess he wasn't in the mood for my attitude. There was a strange sound and the ceiling fan in the center of the living room ceiling just dropped! I do not know how that happened. The hanger support was still there and the ball that was on the fan was still as it should be. The only way to get it off would be to lift it and move it out of the cradle. ????? I just sat there looking at it and then just cracked up. I guess that was one time that Horace got the last word. My wife was rather pleased. She didn't like that fan and got a new one courtesy of Horace.
I think that is some ways Horace is a sort of coping mechanism. When I am frustrated, usually with myself, Horace offers me something outside of me to focus my anger on. I am rather hard and impatient with myself far more than I am with most other people. We often have things happen that are sort of like mild poltergeist activity.
It used to be rather funny when I worked. When I am working on other people's ACs, Heating or Appliance it is like I'm some sort of appliance healer and just the laying on of hands will make something that had refused to work suddenly fire up and work like a charm. I would usually laugh and tell them that healings were cheaper than repairs so give it a go and call if it does it again. I almost never had a return call on healings. Let MY AC go toes up and it would get obstinate. When I would finally figure out the problem the parts that I needed would always be on backorder.
I always just accepted that at least Horace didn't do his tricks on other people that I was trying to help and work for. As annoying as Horace is I suspect that without his gathering attention to him that I would turn the stress and anger into and onto myself. Venting my anger at him is sort of the way that I manage to forgive myself for things that I probably shouldn't be putting on myself.
When I was younger I almost let depression eat me alive. It seemed that I could forgive and love nearly anyone but myself. Back then there just wasn't anything they could do for that sort of depression. Therapy usually made me feel worse. Everything made me worse.
Finally, they figured it out. I had a chemical imbalance. It took them a while to find my specific need and that eliminated most of the problem. It is like someone with type one diabetes. My life was pretty well screwed up but at least the constant depression was gone. During the darkest times, Horace gave me a place to put enough of those bad feelings to allow me to survive.
I'm not crazy and never was I know who Horace is or was. I didn't create him. I always hated my first name and never used it. Even my company name used my middle name. I finally found a use for that first name though. Horace became the receptacle of my depression. He still gives me a hard time when I overload him. He is my shadow me. He takes depression and anger from me and turns it into annoyance and then that fades away.
An example of one of the stranger things that I blamed on Horace was when one day after a really long and hard day at work. I came in and flopped down in my recliner. I basically blasted Horace and told him to get off my Butt!! (probably in a slightly more colorful way.) I guess he wasn't in the mood for my attitude. There was a strange sound and the ceiling fan in the center of the living room ceiling just dropped! I do not know how that happened. The hanger support was still there and the ball that was on the fan was still as it should be. The only way to get it off would be to lift it and move it out of the cradle. ????? I just sat there looking at it and then just cracked up. I guess that was one time that Horace got the last word. My wife was rather pleased. She didn't like that fan and got a new one courtesy of Horace.
Exactly. This new age thinking has to blame something other than accept responsibility lol.