Goals
- Get closer relationship with God- Today was chapter 2 of Galatians. This chapter describes Paul’s meeting with the other apostles in Jerusalem. Paul reiterates that our faith in Jesus is what saves us not works. Paul again tells us that the only motive for Jesus to die for us was simply his love for us.
- Get Fit/Strong- Today is upper body day. I wish I could add weight to my benching but not yet. I did the bent over rows, incline dumbell bench press, seated flys, incline flys, skull crushers with 20 pound barbell. incline push ups. Still struggling with a gallon of water a day
- House organization – today I looked for a bookcase for my piles of books in my room.
- Write- Today was 15 minutes, I am able to write longer on days that I do not work.
- Camper Reno- video today
Confronting the shadow man
Yesterday I brought up the concept of Jung’s shadow man. Today I looked into confronting the shadow. Jung states that addressing the shadow man requires “great moral effort”. We see this part of ourselves in family, friends etc. One modern theory says that when we get irate over something that someone does that does not even affect us, that we are seeing a part of ourselves we would like to let out. For instance maybe you are extremely busy and only have minutes to change to go to another appointment , you find your roommate, spouse, child, on the couch playing video games. You are immediately annoyed and mumble “I wish I could lounge around with no cares” as you rush to change. This theory states that this is exactly what you wish you could do. You want to let that part out. Of course, it could be much darker than jealousy. In order to look more closely at your shadow man, you need to look at what annoys or angers you in others.
We have all done or said something hurtful to another that we later asked ourselves “why did I do that “. You may or may not be aware of your shadow self. Jung points out several clues that we have as to what our shadow is hiding. I included the link to a full article below if you would like to read it.
1. A tendency to harshly judge others, especially if that judgment comes on an impulse.
You may have caught yourself doing this once or twice when you pointed out to a friend how “ridiculous” someone else’s outfit looked. Deep down, you would hate to be singled out this way, so doing it to another reassures you that you’re smart enough not to take the same risks as the other person.
2. Pointing out one’s own insecurities as flaws in another.
The internet is notorious for hosting this. Scan any comments section and you’ll find an abundance of trolls calling the author and other commenters “stupid,” “moron,” “idiot,” “untalented,” “brainwashed,” and so on. Ironically, internet trolls are some of the most insecure people of all.
3. A quick temper with people in subordinate positions of power.
I caught this one all the time when I worked as a cashier, and it is the bane of all customer service employees. People are quick to cop an attitude with people who don’t have the power to fight back. Exercising power over another is the shadow’s way of compensating for one’s own feelings of helplessness in the face of greater force.
4. Frequently playing the “victim” of every situation.
Rather than admit wrongdoing, people go to amazing lengths to paint themselves as the poor, innocent bystander who never has to take responsibility.
5. A willingness to step on others to achieve one’s own ends.
People often celebrate their own greatness without acknowledging times that they may have cheated others to get to their success. You can see this happen on the micro level as people vie for position in checkout lines and cut each other off in traffic. On the macro level, corporations rig policy in their favor to gain tax cuts at the expense of the lower classes.
6. Unacknowledged biases and prejudices.
People form assumptions about others based on their appearance all the time—in fact, it’s a pretty natural (and often useful—e.g. noticing signs of a dangerous person) thing to do. However, we can easily take this too far, veering into toxic prejudice. But with so much social pressure to eradicate prejudice, people often find it easier to “pretend” that they’re not racist/homophobic/xenophobic/sexist, etc., than to do the deep work it would take to override or offset particularly destructive stereotypes they may be harboring.
7. A messiah complex.
Some people think they’re so “enlightened” that they can do no wrong. They construe everything they do as an effort to “save” others—to help them “see the light,” so to speak. This is actually an example of spiritual bypassing, yet another manifestation of the shadow self.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
— Carl Jung
I think another word for shadow self is our sin nature or what the Bible refers to as the “flesh”. We know what is right or wrong for the most part. We know and still do things that we are very aware are wrong but we justify it. Confronting the shadow man is self work. You can look at it as removing sin from you life or working on yourself. I see this concept as improving yourself. I always felt like I knew myself well but the more that I dig the more that surprises me. Our life now is the culmination of big and small decisions we made in the past. Basically, we are reaping what what we sowed. I want to sow better decisions in the future. Being aware of why we make the decisions we do will lead to making more informed choices in the future.
justagirlthatlovessweettea 