Forgiving Self
“You cannot solve a problem with the belief system that created it!”
F
orgiveness is a challenging and powerful concept. The dictionary offers one definition of forgiveness as “to cease to feel resentment against …” (another person or institution).
This article is about forgiveness as a path to personal healing. The challenge here is to find a way to accomplish that task. Colin Tipping has written a book entitled Radical Self-For-
giveness, in which he says that down deep we are all afflicted with a profound and enduring sense of self-loathing. The Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, and many others have shown that we have repressed a huge amount of guilt and shame about ourselves. Jung referred to this repression, or denial of part of our Being, as our ‘shadow.’
Body Essence & Energy Robert W. Fosque Reiki Practitioner by appointment: 8
htp://
bodyessenceandenergy.massageplanet.com NaturalTriad.com
1515 W. Cornwallis Drive #201 Greensboro, NC 27408 336-209-5934
Albert Einstein
WHAT IS A SHADOW? The term "shadow" was first used by Jung to describe that repressed or denied part of the Self. Robert Bly popularized this idea in his book, A Little Book on the Human Shadow. Bly states that we were each born into a "360-degree personality." As infants we expressed the full breadth and depth of our human nature, without editing or censoring. As we grew up, however, we learned that certain slices of our 360-degree pie were unacceptable to the people around us. Maybe we were shamed for crying or punished for being angry. Maybe we were ridiculed for wanting attention or acting proud of ourselves. So, we learned to repress those slices of our pie that got us hurt. According to Bly, it was as if we put our unacceptable qualities into a bag, which we've been dragging around behind us ever since. Our "shadows" are the parts of ourselves we have stuffed
into that bag. These may be "positive" parts or "negative" parts. Our shadows are all those parts we have split off, repressed or denied — the parts of ourselves that we are afraid to examine or show if we even know that they exist. It is appropriate and useful to have a shadow bag, and to keep some of our denied parts in the bag. But when the weight of the bag slows us down and prevents us from being who we really want to be, it is time to open it up. It is time to find a safe place to look into the bag, examine its contents, and see what needs to come back out.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52