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Only in the presence of our entire, uncensored self can we fully understand and appreciate our totality and our uniqueness. We must find a good use for every character, or we will remain at war within ourselves.
heroes are only as strong as their villains.
In his influential book The Art of War, Sun Tzu suggests that “to know your enemy, you must become your enemy.”
Whatever we judge or condemn in another is ultimately a disowned or rejected part of ourselves. When we are in the midst of projection, it appears as though we are seeing the other person, but in reality we are seeing a hidden aspect of ourselves.
be hidden from our view, but they exist as part of our energy field regardless. The behaviors and feelings we are not at peace with will always find a screen to project themselves on, and we can be sure this is happening when we feel an emotional charge in the presence of someone else.
Our projections always shock us. When we are judging another, we never really think we are talking about ourselves. But once we understand our finger-pointing, we can start to untangle ourselves from our perceptions and fierce judgments of others. We must remember the old saying, “You spot it, you got it.”
Owning our projections is a courageous and yet humbling experience we all must go through to find peace. It forces us to acknowledge that we are capable of and often do the very things we dislike in others.
Whatever quality, behavior, or feeling we find ourselves righteously denying, we can be certain that is the one we are harboring deep within our own psyche.
everyone and everything is a mirror, and you are always seeing yourself and talking to yourself. If you choose, you can now look at what emotionally affects you as an alarm, a clue to uncover your shadow, a catalyst for growth that gives you an opportunity to reclaim a hidden aspect of yourself.
we explore our behavior patterns—especially those we don’t wish to repeat—we always uncover a shadow aspect of ourselves that we are trying to hide or cover up. The repetitive patterns we find ourselves trapped in always echo back to us feelings that accompanied the original wound. Then, in a great cover-up, we create patterns of behavior that ultimately reinforce the wound rather than giving us the relief that we seek.
Freedom is being able to choose whoever and whatever we want to be at any moment in our life. If we have to act in a particular way to avoid being something we don’t like, we’re trapped. We’ve limited our freedom and robbed ourselves of wholeness.
Now he had nothing left to prove. He reclaimed a deep strength he never knew existed when this shadow aspect had remained hidden in the dark.
we are willing to allow our dark side to be a part of the whole of who we are, we will find it comes equipped with all the power, skill, intelligence, and force needed to do great things in the world.
There is no quality that we respond to in another that we lack.
But I promise you that if you are attracted to a quality in someone else, no matter how great, it also exists inside you.
“What kind of person is able to just be herself on stage?” Clearly, an authentic person. “What kind of person would care so deeply for the rest of the world?” A selfless person. “What is the quality that allows Marianne to speak up, to tell the truth even when it’s shocking or scary?” I heard very clearly—a bold person.
Yet I knew that if I saw these strengths in Marianne, the potential for them must exist also within me.
To develop the visionary part of myself, I started my day with a prayer for the world and followed with a daily prayer for myself. To be more selfless, I focused on what I could give rather than what I could get.
My mission was to be the Champion of the Darkness rather than the First Lady of the Light.
Whatever inspires you is an aspect of yourself. Any desire of the heart exists to support you in discovering and manifesting it.
Everyone had different perceptions, because everyone had projected a different piece of their light onto the screen of the man named
Every one of these experiences is part of our divine, unique recipe. We wouldn’t be who we are without them. Most of us suffer from the painful and unwanted parts of our recipe, but there are some extraordinary people who choose to use their pain to heal their heartache and contribute to the world rather than get suffocated by the shadow aspects of their past.
By embracing the events of her life and making a commitment to not be a victim, she has done extraordinary things to raise awareness, to help others seek early detection of this potentially life-threatening disease, and to advance the search for a cure.
If he had done what most of us do, if he had labeled himself a loser and stayed trapped within the confines of his limitations, refusing to forgive himself for his failures, we would all still be in the dark—literally.
integrate and learn from his failures, he found the motivation to continue to pursue success and turn on the lights for all of us.
“If I survive today,” Edie told herself, “then tomorrow I’ll be free.”
“I wouldn’t hold on to any anger toward Hitler. If I did, he would win the war, because I would still be carrying him around with me wherever I went.”
It’s so easy to get trapped in our hurt and pain and allow our shadow and our history to dictate our future and undermine our well-being. When we hold on to our resentments toward ourselves or anyone else, we bind ourselves to the very thing that has caused us pain by a cord stronger than steel.
we are all living in accordance with a greater plan and that, indeed, everything happens for a reason. Nothing occurs by accident, and there are no coincidences. We are always evolving, whether we are aware of it or not. Oftentimes this evolution is painful, but the pain serves an important purpose.
By feeling the ache of loneliness, our hearts open to receive more love; by overcoming the people and situations that have oppressed us, we realize the depth of our strength. 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. Our lives are divinely designed for each one of us to get exactly what we need to deliver our own unique expression to the world.
our brightest light can shine only when we’ve accepted our darkness.
Where there is no love, there is fear. And fear, once it has gripped the mind, is like a vice that threatens to crush the soul.
In other words, it is the you within you that does not wish you well. It is your shadow, and it can only be eliminated
Our task, if we are to cast out the shadow, is to learn to think only immortal thoughts, even though we live on the mortal plane. Our higher thought forms will lift the frequency of the planet, and the world will then transform.
“What is all-encompassing can have no opposite.”
The law of cause and effect guarantees that we will experience the result of whatever it is we choose to think. When we think with love, we are cocreating with God and therefore cocreate more love. When we think without love, however, we manufacture fear.
As a seeker on the path, I knew that the problem was not with the woman, but within myself—my own lack of compassion. I inwardly said a prayer and expressed my willingness to see her differently.
But every thought either heals or harms. The infinitely creative power of thought guarantees that whatever we choose to think will result in an effect.
Having focused on aspects of someone else’s shadow, I cannot but enter my own: the angry one, the controlling one, the needy one, the dishonest one, the manipulative one, and
Whether we are projecting guilt onto others, actually harming another, or engaging in addictive or self-hating behavior that hurts primarily ourselves, the
shadow exerts an ugly influence.
Our busyness is often our enemy, making it hard for us to slow down long enough to breathe in the ethers of the spiritual planes.
In developing the habits of spiritual practice, you ground yourself in the light of your true being. If you do not so ground yourself, do not be surprised when you say or do things that you later regret.
The shadow isn’t even real. It just appears so. And as soon as it’s exposed to light, then the darkness disappears. The problem, then, was not just the presence of my negativity, but the absence of my positivity! As soon as I filled my mind with gratitude, the shadow trait of self-hatred could no longer exist. In the presence of love, fear is gone.
Prayer is not just a symbol; it is a force. Meditation is not just something that relaxes us; it is something that harmonizes the energies of the universe. Forgiveness doesn’t just make us feel better; it literally transforms the heart. All the powers that emanate from God are powers that will set us free.
To the shadow, the light is an enemy. But to the light, the shadow is nothing. It simply does not exist.
The answer to that is that although fear itself is not real, the power of thought that carries it is. Fear is like an explosive device, and thought is the missile on which it rides.
The shadow is your own mind turned against yourself. Just as Lucifer was the most beautiful angel in heaven before he fell and a cancer cell was a normal working cell before it went haywire, the shadow is your own thinking turned
Whenever love is near, the shadow becomes particularly active in order to guard against its own demise.
Until there is a conscious movement away from fear toward love, the dynamic energy of fear will be acting as a destructive force that takes no prisoners.
