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The Shadow Effect
Last Thursday I watched Debbie Ford, Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson on live streaming from New York City, talking about aspects of “The Shadow Effect”, the title of their new book. I studied with Debbie in San Diego in 2008 and found her workshop to be very powerful. Each of the speakers brings a slightly different angle to shadow work, based on their philosophical pov. Deepak Chopra referred to the Bhagavad-Gita several times, an important part of the hindu philosophy, while Marianne Williamson speaks of God.
What I’ve learned about the shadow from my reading, my workshop with Debbie and now from the talk last week, is this: Our shadow is any part of us that we are not owning. We may or may not be aware of it. It’s not always negative either; perhaps you loved to draw when you were small but someone discouraged you so you buried that interest and the related creative growth that went with it. It may be something we are aware of, but not quite disciplined enough or willing to control or balance; e.g. gosipping, overindulging ourselves, skipping our meditation. When we do this our shadow parts are running the show.
The shadow is about projecting our stuff onto others. Deepak Chokpra said that even finishing someone’s sentence for them relates to our shadow. I hadn’t thought of that but it makes sense – For example if I’m an angry person I may have exquisite radar to see anger in others; how much is theirs and how much is my own projection? Finishing someone’s sentences assumes our ideas are theirs, that we know what they’re thinking, when actually they are really our own thoughts and projections.
The shadow work I’ve done helps me to question my thoughts and behaviors more closely than I used to, and to ask myself, “Why am I reacting to this?” That can’t be wrong – it can only help me and others around me.
Here are links about the new book.
The first is a Media Release describing the 3 parts of The Shadow Effect
The second is an excerpt from Shadow Effect published in O Magazine
Video of last Thursdays New York event
