Carl Jung, The Shadow and the Key To Your Hidden Potential 

Reverse engineering projections is highly beneficial and so easy to do once you become more aware. I use this all the time. Key thing to remember is whatever causes an immediate, visceral, emotional reaction, whether positive or negative, is a projection. For example, a few years ago while driving I noticed I'd always get frustrated by a car in front of me taking too long to make a right turn, causing me to slow down excessively. I found myself beeping my horn and yelling, "Let's go already!" Taking a deep breath, I immediately knew this was projection. Was I seriously upset with someone taking too long to go in their desired direction? No, I was upset at my own inability to do the same. I needed to change course in my life. I knew where I wanted to go, I just had to get on with it and "make the turn already!" This projection related to frustration over wasting free time on things that didn't matter instead of writing more. These habits no longer served me yet I would not let them go. I said the truth to myself out loud in the car, and felt the tingle the body gives when reciting a truth that needs to be made conscious.

First rule in shadowwork: don't lie to yourself.

At the core of the shadow is self loathing. That is where all of our negative emotions and behavior comes from. If you can figure out why you feel inferior, incompetent or unworthy, then you can begin to heal yourself. And your healing starts with you validating your own worth. You choose the standards that you evaluate yourself by. You decide when you've done your best. Learning to approve and appreciate yourself is truly the most important and liberating thing you can do.

I have started doing shadow work 3 1/2 years ago. I was broken from a heavy childhood and at the age of 44 i decided it was time to go to the darkest places in my mind and heart and do whatever it takes to bring them into the light. It was so hard but worth every single moment of the pain, tears and shocks after discovering the truth. Life is so much better now. Life becomes normal once you pass through your personal dark forest. Also i wanna add to this the fact that if my mother would have done her shadow work, i wouldnt have had to do it now. If her mother would have done it, neither my mother nor I would have to do it. So i am taking responsibility for myself but also for my children and their children. The more i can uncover and heal, the less shadow work will they have to do. If everyone would do this, the coming generations would have a much better life

Last year i was battling thoughts constantly, fighting thoughts with thoughts. So much overthinking actually made me lose a lot of my hair. Suddenly i woke up one day, had the realization that it don't matter. I slowly dived deeper into the spiritual and got introduced to the word shadow-work. It's so crazy, theres such a huge difference between the mind and your conscious self, when you adress things from the mind with your conscious words and find a solution, it all comes together. So with the awareness of shadow-work i suddenly got a thought that i wasn't good enough, and really said to myself "What would make me think such thoughts about myself" and as i relaxed and just focused on the question, memories from my childhood popped up, in where i was neglected. Looking at this, and realizing it was so long ago, and made me the person i am, today put it in a whole new light. Told myself it was okay and i am safe now, just completely lifted a heavy burden on my mind and body. The shadow stems from unadressed trauma.

I read a lot of the comments. I learnt just as much from the comments as from the video. Thanks to all who take the time to share and guide the rookies with your experience.

The problem is people tend to avoid what is negative and to find the real light we need to embrace the shadow as heavy as it may be.

The ultimate end goal of doing shadow work as with any type of spiritual or psychological work is to attain peace of mind and a clean heart. These two things are invaluable tools that allow you to flow through life with a certain natural high. You also gain other spiritual/psychological tools but that is for those who push into it. And for the love of understanding words. Dark doesn't mean evil and light doesn't mean good. Dark/shadow simply means the unknown and light means the known.

I feel like I’ve searched RU-vid for almost a year trying to find a good explanation for Shadow work and I finally found it here. Much love and thanks 🙏🏻

Your shadow is basically everything wrong you've ever done and your childhood trauma (unconscious beliefs based on how your parents treated you), if you've cheated people, taken advantage of people, wronged people or animals, committed any "sins" all of that lives in your subconscious so you have to make peace with yourself and the bad things you've done and also work in yourself so you don't do those bad things anymore. Be kind to even the people who are unkind to you because they represent your shadow. If you can do that your life will begin to change for the better. Namaste 🙏

That Jeffery Dahmer show really helped me. I was personally so terrified of becoming like him one day. Then when I saw that show I realized I could have been an amazing friend to him. Understood and talked to him. At that point I saw more media about parenting your inner child. I kind of realized I was doing that at one of the lowest points of my life. Now when I have kids, a wife, and a farm. I will know exactly how to talk to my children. Just by listening to them and thinking about their words. I will continue to explore the demon. He gives me great things to write about. I found a part of my source. I'm excited to communicate with him in a waking dream one night.

Shadow work consists of us analyzing our rejected reflections of self. The rejected reflection is seen outwardly through others. When we have difficulty accepting who we are we project it. If we we've done painful things we may project it into others. So we speak beautifully to ourselves to understand it better an vs we strive to find beautiful truths in our memories. Shadow work leads to light work

"Consciousness succumbs all too easily to unconscious influences, and these are often truer and wiser than our conscious thinking. Also, it frequently happens that unconscious motives overrule our conscious decisions, especially in matters of vital importance." - Carl Jung To me, the dark or the shadow is anything that not in your conscious thinking. You could be a really negative person and have a positive shadow. The golden shadow. Even jung said that not all evil is totally bad for you. How else can one be assertive enough to have healthy boundaries.

Third eye drops 🥰 Love that name

Thank you for this video! I’m a psychotherapist/hypnotherapist and you’ve done a great job summarizing the work I do with people. The unconscious mind is such a vast space for learning about ourselves and the world. Great video!

E.g. a person spending his life in cowardice can actually be courageous however he needs to dive deep into his psyche via meditation. Shadow work, ego death, dark night of soul are all related and leads to one thing, cosmic wholeness.

I def agree that the shadow self should not b feared or kept hidden in shame for doing so gives it a more negative power over the whole self. Finding a middle ground, a compromise with the shadow self, to walk with it confidently without shame, guilt, fear, nor doubt will uncover arcane wisdom of the universe within the self, creating internal balance that will ultimately lead to creating external balance. 💐💛⚔️

This is crazy how such qualitative and insightful content gets so few views! Thanks a lot for the video

Best introduction to Jungs shadow work I've ever viewed. Thank you.

When I've watched this video, Michael was happy that he surpassed 1k views. I've came to see how the channel is doing, and the biggest smile that I've gave today emerged from my soul. So happy to finally see this magnificent channel getting the love it deserves!

I'm surprised to know I've been doing shadow work for most of my life and yes this is ongoing in my journey. I've just realized that the months of May and November are the best time for my shadow work after I went back through dream journals over the years. Thank you for sharing this.

Something very cool to see is how positive and informative the comments are here.

One of the best explanations of the “own shadow”. When you mentioned reverse engineering our own thoughts, the name of Rudolf Steiner popped in my mind as Steiner’s technique of reverse engineering our day meticulously every night before sleeping.

Thank you for unpacking the shadow and the work we all need to do. Carl Jung taught us so much!

I left all my material belongings behind left my apartment and went living out of a book bag at a homeless shelter. I started to experience the presence of archetypes in my thinking and I started to experience sychibicity some as well. I started to see patterns in numbers particularly at this time I didn't use plant medicine but wad using amphetamines. I started doing deep shadow work in my artwork keeping mist of the room in my bag for my sketchbooks . I spent the next six months drawing only with black ink while I deeply introsoected often mumbling to myself. Shadow work took me to the edge. I had flashbacks of past experience with near death I thought about philosophy and time and space the afterlife and death and my fears plated a huge roll. I thought about language and linguistics all while sketching. All I did was draw and think I often had restless sleep and felt I was in touch with spirits because I had seen the void been there and back before. The shadow work I did during this time has reshaped my psyche some will say it I was experiencing psychosis from the amphetamines but they helped my journey through the dark sun conscious minimalism I found to be very important for me as well. CHEERS

I been doing shadow work for a few months now and it's been intense, but enlightening. I think I always knew it would never be something that you reach and end with and are "done" finding balance, but it was comforting hearing you say it's something that is never complete. Thank you, great video!

I am very glad to have found this channel. Thank you for doing this and I hope you can continue to grow and reach many more people.

Love the work you're doing. I've been noticing a marked increase in shadow dreams so I've no doubt that there's work to be done

This came in good timing, thanks for explaining about the shadow archetype in a simple easy going way

Terrific! Just what I've been looking for!

I was looking to understand "individuation" So clear so useful and practical!!!! THANK YOU so much!!

thank you, great video, and well done with all the information you share. Straight to the point, thanks

I will continue to work at grasping this. This is finally a light at the end of the tunnel towards understanding for me. Thank you.

I have been reading The Red Book & doing some weird inner work. I appreciate the way all of this is verbalized here. I’ve listened to a few people talk about “shadow” and had to dismiss their Jungian ideology because of yet again, personal interpretation. This held my full attention through the entire video - loved this!

Great, really dense video. Saving for rewatch. Thank you!

This was such an informative video. I wish I found it years ago, but I don't think I would have even realized how important and powerful it is. Thank you for making this video. I plan on sharing with those that I believe will benefit from it.😊

I released my memoir last month and this definitely all resonates. Thank goodness for self awareness and willingness to do the work. Or I’d be still in a very dark place of untapped potential, or possibly death.

When I began looking in 15 or so years ago, I could only have wished to have videos such as this. So well put, succinct, and with relevant examples to simultaneously extrapolate and condense these very, very deep topics. To see conversations about these topics and to see videos such as this come up more and more nowadays is quite refreshing. Keep it up!

This is such a great video. Thank you for being articulate and making these concepts practical.

Honestly first part best explanation and you really make it shadow as term closer to me, but practical sounds like pure intellectualization, literally everything

This was so interesting to take in! Working with the shadow side of yourself is so liberating!⭐

This was very helpful. I am always having those shadow dreams lately.... I never thought it was my shadow side trying to reach out. Been writing my dreams down for a while now. Conscious suffering always yields results.

It's like I've been taking these classes for years. Some of it made sense to me, but a lot of it didn't. I needed the syllabus, the outline, the overview. This was exactly that. Thank you. Now I can get some real work done!

This was the best video I’ve watched on shadow work. Thank you🙏🏼

Just found your channel and ready to start binging. Thank you for sharing.

I am grateful. Your presentation and analysis helps me understand and face my shadows.

Thank you so much. This was wonderful and an area of avid interest for me. You communicate clearly, articulately and knowledgeably. I especially noticed and appreciated your awakened Self as demonstrated by your re-entrance at the end, humbly stating that perhaps you had not verbalized a satisfactory "exit" to your video and you wished to correct it 😊... In 2012 I experienced a sudden onset Spiritual Awakening/Kundalini Rising/Dark Night of the Soul triggered by a catastrophic health crisis, ultimately leading to the loss of nearly everything, not least of which was my identity. I'm sure you understand well the Journey from utter despair and darkness, to a Beingness so completely and deeply transformed that life is never the same again (and a 100x more beautiful and fulfilling...but still life of course lol). A few people have asked me HOW I changed or was able to change so much, love myself so much and "walk in love." My simplest answer was that I had to notice, reflect upon, re-learn, and re-do every single thought, word and deed in my day. So if I was irritable and impatient with my mom, I had to look at this interaction, take responsibility for my part in it, and determine how I could have done it better/ differently (always best to "re-do" right then instead of "next time"). I had to see and FEEL all the ways I was out-of-alignment with my Self and with Love (kindness, helpfulness, patience, calmness, etc), and why. Anyway, just my lengthy 2 cents.

So will articulated. I myself have struggled with understanding the concept of the shadow and the work involved. This has helped immensely. Thank you for sharing your insight.

This is a great video, dude! You have killer struture. Great takes 💪

great video, there are a lot of things I need to think about after watching this, thanks for the insight.

Love this Michael. Precise, in depth, clear and offers options for refelction.

I’m very thankful that I found you on here. Thanks for all your videos.

Very good explanation of shadow work! Psychedelics, namely mushrooms have been so helpful for my own shadow work. Thanks

Great content Michael. I have just discovered you. And subscribed of course. Your contribution makes youtube a better platform and our society a healthier one too

Once the fears are overcome the potential arises. Our hearts need to be in our efforts.

Thank you for producing this content, and speaking from your heart with wisdom, Michael. You are generating light making light.

I have been camping for a month. Working on all this, intensely profound. Complete different understanding oneself.

What a great video! Greatly appreciated, thank you. 😊

This video is such a blessing. Thank you for being a vessel.

This was really good! Thank you so much for this info!! Its great to learn from other shadow workers ad be inspired! Much love! :)

This happened to me, and I befriended the dark so I can appreciate the light. I am writing songs now, doing art and I am living in harmony. But there is so much thing to do.

Dream analysis works wonders!!! I have used this in such successful ways! My dream characters assist me. You build relationships with characters, you learn to navigate through them, you begin to learn to speak in your dreams. You even learn to fly, you use mentalist to create objects and landscapes, the characters also use symbolism to explain things to you. Then there are animals that come with different meanings. You can use the symbolism to predict your day too. The mind is as full or fuller than universes

This was for me! Thank you from San Diego

Thank you for your beautiful work! I've been a listener of your podcast for few years now. I see your new content very refreshing and enjoy the video format of podcast very much. I've been recently exploring many of James Hillman books. This guys seems to hit the spot like nobody else for me recently. Especially when talking about the soul and how it is manifesting itself. I've been recently going through one of the biggest sets of challenges in my life and this kind of materials like here, keeps me sane and gives hope that these challenges are the part of a bigger truth about myself and life in general. Journaling and dream work is huge for me during this period. Thank's for the reminder. Just saw the upcoming interviews with one of my favorite people in this space Berdnardo Kastrup. Literally blowing my mind with such an amazing content on a regular basis :) Keep up the fantastic work!

Wow ! this channel is a great discovery, so many topics of interest :) please keep it coming !!!

Thank you. I will definitely dive deeper into this.

You work with your shadow. There’s no need to overcome it. Once you realize your triggers, you acknowledge them from 3rd person view. Then when you learn how to accept the trauma, you then learn how to love/forgive. Our shadow is our “weights” (so to speak) for developing spiritual strength.

Excellent video, eloquent and clear communication with practical value. Thank you sir.

Just saw this video today, and after viewing it I forwarded it to a coaching client. This is a great introductory discussion of the Shadow and Shadow work. Thank you for presenting this.

Very good content + I like the way you present it

Thank you for this thoughtful breakdown of shadowwork and hor to practice the philosophy

Great introduction to Jung, and great steps to work with that. Thank you. Wish u a good day.

You are gifted in teaching. I have heard many talk of shadow work and how they healed from it, went through the dark night of the soul etc but none ever explained the process. Many thanks to you I did as asked, liked, subbed and commented!

this was great. I have to see your other videos. Thank you for pointing me to resources!

Wonderfully clear and true video.

Very clear and thorough explanation. Thanks 👍

Ty, I'm trying to do better and figure out how my gifts can help others

Thank you sir, what I learnt from this Vedio is that success does not come from major lusting for it. But it is always there if you use proper addresses of it's resources. So shadow work is working out reasons about your psycho. Where I point the brain as the only living organ in the body, or its the only organ with abilities of life and existence. Thank you sir, your claims are an advancement to us. We the growing nation. Stay blessed with these outcomes and proclaim your facts every time. I wish you lovely peace of victories. 👍

Thank you. I appreciate your generosity.

Neglect. Me too. But it made me who I am.I made so many mistakes and missed out on so many opportunities because I felt I just wasn’t good enough, but I told myself I will give myself the best I can that I never had as a child and because I looked so good no one could tell how worthless I felt inside. That I think saved me along the way a little.But I also over gave and had no boundaries because I didn’t want to feel that neglect and lack I felt as a child. Now at 34 I began to heal and am not afraid anymore. Thanks for your comment ! all the best !☀️

This is probably the best video I've ever seen about this subject. Really great!

Jung is why I went back to school. ~ THIS video, although the shadow anima/animus isn't new to me, I will continue repeadetly listening to this until it is completely assimilated. I simply can't thank you enough.

Thanks for your content. One must learn to sit with themselves… with our shadow.. make your shadow your ally. If you don’t give the shadow what it needs, it will indiscriminately take what it wants.

Great Video! Thanks for sharing your wisdom!

This is brilliant! Thank you for the profound insights.

My hope is that this reaches those that need it most✨

Yes love yourself completely. As well as those around you at any time.

Wonderful content here, thank you!🤗💗

Awsome sauce love this stuff my shadow has been coming out a lot lately so I’m not denying it but I bracing it

You did a beautiful job of explaining the shadow and that even the name is in some sense a 'misnomer' cuz it's not necessarily all negative, it's also not necessarily about achieving conventional success, which is a mistake that I think a lot of other 'manefestation' youtubers make. I liked your channel before, but it'll keep a special place in my mind/heart now. Thanks 🙏

Eye opening definitely will re watch a lot of great info much appreciated 😊

Loving all the visuals in this one!

Thank you for this video.

This is the best video on the shadow I’ve come across. Your way of explaining it and the pace made it easy to grasp. Personally I think mourning for self is the way to access one’s shadow. Excellent video. Thank you for sharing. 👌

Thank you for sharing your wisdom.

Thank you for this messages

I am on a Third Eye Drops loop today and my advice is: longer videos - tune into your higher aspect and let it flow! ❤Great work! Thanks for sharing such great content!

Thank you🙏 so helpful. Much love to you as well, my dear ❤

Thanks to the algorithm I found this video... And I'm gonna try out some shadow work now just for the Jung of it! But in all seriousness this is very excellent presentation of this very abstract idea. (Trying to attain self actualization before I die). But honestly I have had to endure enough trauma that I have been forced to come to recon with the past. So thank you for introducing this concept to me as I do not recall learning about it during my BA in psychology..

... what has really helped me in this area is to view this whole process as working with, instead of working against, one's Self ... always wrapped in love, of course ... wishing all happy journeying !!! ... ❤❤❤