Embrace Your Shadow Side

When I awoke this morning, I could see the shadows of the branches and leaves outside my window mingling with the spaces of sunlight.  It created a pattern that I would no longer be able to discern were I to lift the roman shade and peer outside.  It made me think of the dark spaces in our life versus the light; the rough spots in life versus the smooth.

“How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also If I am to be whole.”  C.G. Jung

Some people look at their shadows as the less desirable traits while others embrace them:

“Some people seemed to get all sunshine, and some all shadow…”   Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“My shadow follows me during the day, and then surrounds me at night as it clones itself into complete darkness. Now that’s self-love.” Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not FOR SALE

What if we look at the shadows as neither; they just are.  They are there and they help the light create beautiful patterns on the pathways of our lives.

"...what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared?”  Mikhail Bulgakov

Perhaps, on the yoga mat, the shadows serve as the transitions taking us to and from each pose; they help change and create our path.

The definition of a shadow offers hope when we feel its darkness:  "a dark figure or image cast on the ground or some surface by a body intercepting light."  Take note of the word "intercepting"; a undeniable reminder to us that the light is always there. The definition does not say the shadow replaces the light; it is created by something intercepting the light and, once that something moves away, imagine the flooding of light that follows.

"if you have no shadows then you are not standing in the light." Lady Gaga

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