Accepting the shadow self

[Aleksi]

I'd recommend not letting your inner voices trick you too much.  Just listen to them, but without reaction to their words.  

You might find that the shadow self is a copy of you, but just inside of your head and heart, it is the crimped and censored self, the part of you rejected by you.

You may find parts of yourself here that are in no way who you feel yourself to be, yet they are there, like the tumors of darkness effecting your health.

You might find you enjoy things like murder, domination, winning, sexual fetishes, being selfish, or even lying.

Whatever parts of yourself you find, it is utmost integrally important that you do not judge them, that you hold an open mind and detach judgment, and instead find the compassion for these parts of yourself, their reason for being.

For instance, I am a very dark person myself, I have a great desire to be brutal and overpowering, this stems from a long period of feeling helplessness.  It drives my anger and the sharpness of my analyzing mind.

Yet being brutal is not what I want.  I don't want to overpower anyone.

These aspects of my darkness are survival traits of my humanity, they are not there for me to judge myself through, or to be judged individually, they are tools to help me in life, just like a saw blade, it can be used to trim a bush, or cut a person.  Go trim a bush, save cutting a person for if someone is trying to hurt you.

Often times I find the fuel of my darkness is fear and paranoia.  My inner voices speculate greatly on the intents of others.  I often think people just want to hurt me because of it.

I must remind myself they are as me, as is their darkness as mine.

If I can come to terms with this, find forgiveness for these things, and then further let go of any expectations of any kind of outcome of these aspects of the self, I can give them the space they need to be accepted back, to be welcomed to reintegrate, to unify back.

Each voice in your head is a small part of you, they can fight each other, argue, even confusingly become delusional, the point is to direct these voices like a compass needle all to the same direction.

That direction is unconditional love for your self, and through that, of your other-selves, and yet this does not mean indulge the murderous desire, it means to let it voice itself internally, but to not react to it, so that it may be, and so may you be as you wish to be.

The darkness is really light.  Please don't be afraid to let your shadow self vent at you, scream, lie, attack you.  You have after all left it chained up in darkness for so long.

Thank you. I have a question I would like to ask. One of these voices seems to come from a tree next to my house. It is incredibly loving and positive. Could this also actually be a part of me that I am for some reason externalizing? Like an opposite shadow. (all is one, of course, so are we all not just parts of Us, so maybe the answer is irrelevant)