What we’re about
One of my favourite quotes is from Jung: "... the shadow is 90% pure gold".
Yet one of the big questions here is, what is gold?
My first and easiest answer was that it's all the positive aspects of ourselves that we've hidden:
• Our generosity that was pushed away and called naive.
• Our exuberance that was labelled loud.
• Our pride that was denied as brash.
• Our creativity that was told to conform.
But the real gold is deeper.
When we deny aspects of ourselves, parts of us that we don't want anyone to see, we have to keep it hidden. It's always there, by the cellar door, knocking, shouting, making itself heard.
In every interaction we need to keep it in check. Make sure nobody heard it. Make sure no one suspects that we might be jealous, might be proud of our own experience. Make sure nobody thinks we're anything other, or more, than what we "should" be.
All that energy is wasted.
When you go into the shadow, when you shine a light in the cellar, and finally accept that there's no monster there at all, just the voice of the unheard you, that energy is free.
That energy you spent on hiding is here for you to grow.
That energy is here for you to become all of you.
To no longer limit yourself to the small box others made for you.
This is the gold in the Shadow.
Journaling is a solitary experience. When we get into Shadow Journaling, that loneliness can feel heightened, because we touch on areas that are even more hidden than usual. Areas we've been deliberately keeping from others (and ourselves).
But there's the thing: When we feel alone, it's natural to question whether or not we're "doing it right", or whether certain emotions "make sense". The energy we're spending on that doubt is holding us back.
That energy, when released, is one of the most powerful growth factors you can have. And the best way to get it is through community. Through sharing. Through seeing each other in our own individual process.
We grow from sharing our own words because we see they are the words of others too.
This is what we look for with Shadow Journaling.
Welcome home.
