As children, we internalized the pain of imperfect upbringings because we didn’t have the psychological capacity to process the impression of our caregiver’s shadow which develops when we let our pain go unprocessed and unresolved. Our shadow—and we all have one—is the part of our ego we are unable to consciously recognize. Though it is neither good nor bad, it is where we unconsciously “park” some of the worst of ourselves—destructive patterns, addictions, or other seemingly unpresentable parts. This internalization of pain isn’t a real wound per se but a result of transmitting and absorbing
...more
