Shadows

                    Humans have a tendency to repress those thoughts and emotions due to societal cultures. This repression can cause them to take dark forms which spread under our conscious knowledge and form holes in our personalities. These dark sides may take control over us unless we have control over them. It produces a whole new personality, who may sound like a totally different person than the person you thought you were. This personality may leak when we get tired of repressing these emotions and thoughts under our masks. Carl Jung calls this, the shadow.

                    The main reason we repress our true selves is to fit into society. The ones who are unable to repress these shadows and who get consumed by them, end up becoming criminals. The ones who repress them without gaining control over their shadows end up revealing these parts when they get drunk or other kinds of influences. Concealing shadows takes effort. But you can always see signs of other people's shadows through their leaks in personalities. 

                    People repressing their dark sides usually have contradictory behaviour. They may put extra effort into portraying themselves as a nice person but may suddenly get angry at something trivial. These outbursts of emotions are usually followed by apologies for being swayed by the heat of the moment. They continue to behave in this manner because they are in denial of their actual self. These people tend to overidealize politicians and other powerful people who represent their ideals. They also tend to project their shadows onto other people and end up judging and hating them for it. 

                    There is a growing demand for TV shows and movies where the characters manipulate and deceive each other. It's a form of feeding our shadows with what we can't have in society. So basically it's not a good idea to repress the shadows, nor is it a good idea to release them completely. Instead, we have to find ways to accept these shadows and integrate them into our consciousness. 

                    Integration of the shadow involves accepting those things that we are looking away from. So first step is to truly see ourselves and accept those parts in us that may scare us. It's only when we accept the weaknesses that we can work on them. We have to be comfortable enough with ourselves to laugh at ourselves. Unless we realise the amount of evil we can contain, we cannot become a good person. Wise are those who have found what they lost in their childhood. People are attracted to authentic people, who have integrated the child within, the light and the dark, the conscious and unconscious hoping their effect would rub off on them. 

                    After you face your shadows, the next step is to tap into that huge reservoir of energy in order to put them to work for you. Find ways of gaining control of the emotional state that usually takes control over you. Say you procrastinate. Then plan your schedule in such a way that you'll have enough and more time to procrastinate and yet get the job done. Integration of the shadow needs you to be comfortable with yourselves such that you will not care what people say about you ( as long as you aren't doing something really stupid and wrong)