What Carl Jung's Shadow Taught Me About Vulnerability‍

When you reject a trait or quality about yourself, it does not simply go away.

Instead, it finds its way to your Shadow, from where it unconsciously influences your behavior and secretly dictates how you judge others (because of how you judge yourself).

I'm now on a journey to make peace with my Shadow. To uncover the very traits I once rejected as 'negative'.

But maybe they were never "negative" qualities to begin with? Maybe they just needed understanding and guidance to develop into something beautiful.

Take vulnerability, for example. I struggled to share how I really felt or how deeply I was struggling. Because I couldn't accept this vulnerability in myself, I was unable to be empathetic or kind to myself. And neither was I able to ask others for help, real help.

But when I learned to see vulnerability not as a weakness, but as a strength to be nurtured (thanks to therapy), everything changed. Therapy changed my perspective - being vulnerable makes me stronger, not weaker.

And when I accepted this quality, like magic, I found that I was able to be empathetic and kind to myself (something I struggled with for so long).And by extension, this kindness flowed to others, helping me form deeper, more meaningful connections.

For anyone wanting to explore this idea further, I found this video on Carl Jung's Shadow incredibly helpful. It’s one of the best I've seen.