Day 57 and naming your monster

Goals

closer relationship with God- Today was Galatians 4 . Paul continues to lecture the Galatians on their foolishness of following the law of Moses after they now have the grace that Jesus bestowed on us. Paul likens living under the law of Moses as a kind of servitude. Apparently we humans like to make things more complicated than it needs to be.
Get Fit/Strong- Upper body day, I continued my routine. bench press, upright row, military incline bench press with dumbbells, flys- incline , seated and reverse, skull crushers , hammers today.
House organization- I went through a box of papers and threw most away
Write- I spent 20 minutes today
Camper Reno- youtube video

Shadow man continued

yesterday we discussed how we can begin to identify your shadow man or your “dark side”. Today I found a website that identifies 13 “monsters”. Really just the darker side of your personality. They are listed below.

1. The Egotistical Monster

Root cause: primal fear of “not being good enough”; not existing, being nobody

This person displays the following characteristics: arrogance, egocentricity, pompousness, inconsiderateness, self-indulgence, narcissism, excessive pride.

2. The Neurotic Monster

Root cause: fear of life, others, and self; desire to regain control

This person displays the following characteristics: paranoia, obsessiveness, suspiciousness, finicky, demanding, masochistic, compulsive behavior.

3. The Untrustworthy Monster

Root cause: fear of life in general

This person displays the following characteristics: secretive, impulsive, frivolous, irresponsible, deceitful, unreliable.

4. The Emotionally Unstable Monster

Root cause: basic feeling of being “unlovable” and powerless; reaction to unresolved emotional pain

This person displays the following characteristics: moody, melodramatic, manipulative, weepy, overemotional, impulsive, changeable.

5. The Controlling Monster

Root cause: basic mistrust of life, feelings of abandonment and “not being good enough”

This person displays the following characteristics: suspicious, jealous, possessive, bossy, obsessive.

6. The Cynical Monster

Root cause: protection against feeling too vulnerable

This person displays the following characteristics: negative, overcritical, patronizing, resentful, cantankerous.

7. The Wrathful Monster

Root cause: fear of others, mistrust of life, closed heart

This person displays the following characteristics: ruthless, vengeful, bitchy, quick-tempered, quarrelsome.

8. The Rigid Monster

Root cause: fear and rejection of the unknown, chaos, and ego death

This person displays the following characteristics: uptight, intolerant, racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic, obstinate, uncompromising, inflexible, narrow-minded.

9. The Glib Monster

Root cause: distrust of life, others, and self

This person displays the following characteristics: superficial, cunning, inconsistent, sly, crafty.

10. The Nonchalant Monster

Root cause: buried grief, fear, and shame (numbness is a defense)

This person displays the following characteristics: emotionally detached, distant, indifferent, uncaring, unexcited.

11. The Perverted Monster

Root cause: repressed sexual energy, possible unresolved childhood wounds

This person displays the following characteristics: sadistic, lustful, depraved, corrupt.

12. The Cowardly Monster

Root cause: fear, disbelief in self

This person displays the following characteristics: weak-willed, timid, fearful.

13. The Naive Monster

Root cause: refusal to grow up, lack of individuated ego

This person displays the following characteristics: puerile, petty, immature, illogical, simpleminded, vacuous

In my readings I have found that this side of our personality comes from our childhood. It could be a time someone embarrassed you. These are parts of ourselves that we stuff down in. Perhaps it was something that your recognized was not liked by your circle or society. Something you hid away and clamped down because you don’t think it is accepted or liked.

All of this is not to say that we are bad people, or that we have something wrong with us. Working on yourself is just about being a little better today than yesterday. I think that the most important part of all of this is that we need to recognize any patterns we have in our life. I am sure that at times we make decisions without little input, we make some based on emotion. This is never the best way to make decisions. Regardless if you agree with Jung’s work or disagree, the shadow man is a very interesting concept. I have recognized a few “monster” tendencies that I have in my personality. I am sure these are a directly related to my childhood. I did read an article that said in order to do shadow man work you need to really think about your childhood. I thought as a young adult I escaped my childhood without any lasting trauma. Boy was I wrong lol. As I aged I thought how naïve a thought that was. We take everything with us from our childhood, the good and the bad. It shapes us and creates our habits and our emotions. The way we deal with others is a direct result of how we learned to protect ourselves as a child and then we continue the habits into our adult years. I guess we need to heal that child and move on, easier said than done.