What Is The Shadow Self?

Written by Chris Josh

The shadow self is the unconscious, hidden part of you. It's where your repressed emotions from painful and traumatic events are stored, without you being consciously aware of them.

In essence, you've forgotten about the painful events, but they're still a part of you and your unconscious mind. A painful event isn't only a betrayal or abuse, it can be that you were scolded for misbehaving.

You could have been humiliated by a parent, teacher, or "friend." And the best way your ego knew how to handle it was to suppress the event and the emotions tied to that event.

This is because the ego doesn't want to admit that it was hurt and/or defeated. Consciously, a person wants to save face, so he or she tries to purge what happened out of the conscious mind, without looking stupid in front of him/herself. 

But the fact is, by repressing the event and the emotions tied to it, the person is continuing to hurt. Not only that, but they can be hurting others as a result. That is why it's important to uncover the past pains, allowing oneself to experience the emotions tied to the memories of the past.

By digging deep into the unconscious mind and searching for the pain points, one can bring great emotional and mental stability, as well as relief. The person's personality will change dramatically for the better and will be in a much peaceful state of mind.

In short, many times, a person didn't grief enough and didn't analyze the situation and ask questions like, "what about the event hurt me the most? What else hurt me? Why? Was it really my fault? Am I unworthy or was the other person troubled and therefore, unjustly took it out on me?" 

I went through many traumatic events over a span of 42 years. I was the target of narcissistic abuse by two main individuals, but there were more. And I did what almost everyone else does, I tried to forget about.

In my book, "City of Serpents," I share the different events I lived through and how decades later, I faced my shadow self and started my healing journey. I share how I did it and how others can to.

By working on myself in this manner, I was able to blossom into the happiest and strongest version of myself. I was able to get over all of the traumas, betrayals, and abuse.

Without doing this, I would be miserable and unproductive right now. My book wouldn't exist and neither would this blog or website. This is why it's so important to face your shadow self and resolve the past head on.