You have a Hidden Power
The tagline of this blog is, "an Explorer's Guide to the Mind's Hidden Wonders" and I feel like it's time to put some of my psychology education to use. It's my opinion, when someone is more in touch with their shadow self, he or she can live a more creative and productive life. This is the first time I've actually written about the subject (after being introduced to it in 2007) so this blogging series approach might be a decent way to ground my thinking; might pave the way for an interesting DTube video.
The Shadow is a psychological term coined by Carl Jung and generally refers to the parts of ourselves we are not aware of (like the subconscious) that may be perceived by yourself or others has having a dark/negative/unacceptable tinge. Because of this unacceptability, we reject facets of our own identity and live as small parts of ourselves instead of who we really are.
The Fragmented Mind
There's a lot we don't know about ourselves stirring around in our subconscious and I personally haven't seen any evidence of someone with the ability to claim/reclaim every facet of their identity. Part of living is a process of discovery - identifying parts of ourselves and integrating them into who we are. There's an entire field of psychology dedicated to this identity discovery co-created by Abraham Maslow called transpersonal psychology (which I studied in graduate school.)
Who we are and how we see ourselves is a fragment: a distortion of a greater mechanism at work that we can attempt to become aware of.
Some Terminology
Persona - The word is of Latin origin and means Character or Mask. Our persona is the mask we fabricate, representing who we would like to be and how we'd like to be perceived by others. The mask exists between our self and others.
Ego - A Freudian term (although Sigmund Freud never used words like "Ego" and "Id," they were later invented and maybe seem more academic.) that simply means "I." The Ego the part of ourself we're aware of; the part we know consciously.
Sound of Interest?
I'll keep blogging about this topic. They won't be consecutive posts like with my 7 Days to a Better Steemit Blog series, but perhaps one of my posts per week will continue to explore the Shadow.
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