Working With Our Shadows

By freddielaraThoughts

Working With Our Shadows

For many of us childhood was a beautiful time made of music and summers by the lake and toys and Christmas and magic. But the fact remains that for the rest of us childhood was a dark and dangerous time filled with monsters and scary dungeons and fire breathing dragons.

Perhaps the people we were meant to trust most were the very ones that cast that dark spell on us. We have, thank God, found wonderful therapists and counselors that have helped us unravel these knots that block us from achieving and succeeding and finding some peace in our lives.

Or perhaps these very people still live in our minds and whisper how small and unworthy and incapable and unloveable we are. Perhaps the churches we went to for some truth were the very ones that perpetuated the shame we carried with us already. And perhaps we believed all this and carry this with us to this very day. Perhaps at every step we have to fight down the critical parent or God in our head that tells us we must strive terribly hard just to be equal with those around us. Or perhaps we have been paralyzed from the gripping fear that comes so often like a heavy blanket that suffocates us in the dark places of our minds.

Perhaps..

Or maybe we have seen that the more we truly get to know ourselves and all the immeasurable strain we have carried the more we can use our pain productively. The more we can identify the judgements, resentments, fears and “missed marks” as part of our ego and can begin to forgive and let go of the past , at least enough to mindfully understand what drives and motivates us down paths of fear and regret. When we can begin to truly know ourselves we also begin to understand that being human is truly universal. And that our thematic chords are no different than anyone else’s no matter how well hidden or covered up they may seem.

And knowing that is freeing somehow because we know we are not alone or separate. And as long as we don’t get caught up in the believing of these whisperings in our mind we can get past the way they try to hold us down. And as long as we are aware and mindful of these shadows in ourselves we can use them in our work as actors and perhaps facilitate a liberation for those who struggle to get out from underneath these cunning, baffling and powerful whisperings.

Perhaps it’s a lofty idea of mine to suggest that our craft can have such high ideals, perhaps. But I can remember watching and hearing pieces of art that have moved me to healing or at least made me aware of something in my life that had kept in chains for years. So maybe our work can transcend just the normal, un-evolved wanting of fame and fortune. Perhaps it can illuminate humanity and bring healing to ourselves and others in some great way, or at least bring them some sort of relief for a couple of hours from their shadows. Perhaps, yes perhaps.