The Shadow Effect: Illuminating the Hidden Power of Your True Self Through Comprehensive and Practical Shadow Work

by Deepak Chopra

When we fail to admit to our vulnerabilities and recognize our bad behaviors, we will inevitably sabotage ourselves when we are on the verge of some personal or professional breakthrough. Then the shadow wins.

Whenever any aspect of the self has been split off, labeled as bad, illicit, shameful, guilty, or wrong, the shadow gains power.

At any moment when you feel that your world is falling apart, what is really falling apart is the self and its confidence that it understands reality.

Forbidden lust and unconditional love are two sides of the same coin.

When you aren’t just black or white, good or bad, light or dark, but both sides at once, conflict melts away.

Spiritually, you cannot be rejected unless you reject yourself.

Self-sabotage is nothing more than an unwillingness on the part of our higher self to continue playing the role we have assigned to ourselves.

When we are willing to acknowledge that our pain, traumas, and heartaches have in fact equipped us with wisdom essential for our growth, we naturally forgive and even bless those who came into our life to teach us those difficult lessons.

We live in a world of constant juxtaposition between joy that’s possible and pain that’s all too common.

And when we learn to see others in the light of their true being, whether they are showing us that light or not, then we have the power to work that miracle for them.