Jungians! What does it mean to embrace one's shadow self?

[YaLoVeras]

I have made myself sound like a gold medal winning navel-gazer but I just wondered if anybody could tell me what this means? I'm thinking that it means allow your faults?
Don't hate yourself because of your weaknesses?

I ''know'' myself very well, so maybe I am already in touch with my shadow self.

It means to acknowledge and accept the baser parts of yourself in order to master them, and harness them properly so that you control them and not the other way around.

It means giving up the idea that at heart you’re a totally good person who would never do anything seriously wrong, and acknowledging that you, like almost everyone, are likely very capable of a variety of horrendous things depending on the context.

Incorporation of the shadow self means, basically, becoming more aware of your true psychological underpinnings, not the nice stories we tell ourselves where we’re always the hero.

There is a book called "embracing the shadow" that I found super interesting. Can't remember who wrote it

Weird, I was just reading about this today.

this therapists’ clinic website

I was looking up something else and I somehow ended up on this. It’s very interesting. Personally I do recognise that when I take a dislike to someone it’s usually because they remind me of myself in ways.

One way which I kind of like to explain it (courtesy of Jordan Peterson) is if you can’t imagine yourself being a nazi officer then you haven’t really understood your potential

We all have the dark and the light

It's about knowing your dark, intimately.

Connected with the animus concepts very closely

@mooncuplanding, thank you that is a good way to force yourself to imagine the depths you could conceivably sink to.

@zoobud I will put that title in to amazon

Baumederose, I thought anima/animus was feminine and masculine rather than good / bad?

@mayfayner I will look at that website now thank you, omg, your screen name, very funny! As good as janeJeffer

@dissimilitude - I was raised to be a people pleaser so most of my badness was/is feelings of resentment and in the past, envy, spikiness. So I always behaved well but my thoughts might have been extremely negative and / or resentful. I don't feel like that is a big blind spot. Feel like I'm aware of it. BUT I feel like those negative and unpleasant thoughts are getting fewer and less frequent every year. I don't want to be in denial though.

@baumederose - I forgot the @ sign!

Thanks everybody

@dissimilitude yes, I understand what you say in your post, thank you for put that so clearly, my resentments used to make me behave in very ungracious ways, or at the least to have very ungracious thoughts.

this book? looks interesting!

By acknowledging and accepting all the parts of yourself and all the memories and experiences that you repress or reject.

Meditation is quite a good way of doing it because a it's free and b the stuff rises naturally without having to go looking for it.

This is really interesting.

I've been listening to a jordan peterson clip on you tube which explains the concept v well (I know, i know! JP, he's kinda smug but a lot of what I've listened to has been very useful. Not buying his books though.

Anybody read any James Hollis? Wondering if it might be a bit much for me without the basic knowledge of Jung under my belt.
I am going to buy an introduction to Jung and then follow it up with a book about embracing the shadow and then James Hollis' book about finding meaning in the afternoon of life. JH is a big fan of Jung..

Ok, ordered an anthony stevens introduction to jungian psychology (gets great reviews and people say it helped them understand more than bigger fuller books on jung, and i also ordered the James HOllis book on finding meaning in midlife)

There was a book I was going to buy, I saw it at the airport recently called the happiness curve, about how between 30 and 50 your happiness decreases but it starts to rise again in your 50s. That's something to look forward to! (not that I'm unhappy, but it sounds interesting).

If anybody wants to suggest any books that have helped them ''on their journey'' to integration :-p please go ahead. Feel like a cliche typing that but you know what I mean.

"Descent to the Goddess: A Way of Initiation for Women" by Sylvia Brinton-Perera, a Jungian Analyst. "Dancing in the Flames" by Jungian Analyst Marion Woodman. Both of these are female-centric.

James Hollis is fabulous: clear and the best at explaining Jungian concepts to newcomers. I attended a day-long workshop with him a couple of years ago, and he is knowledgeable, and humble - and open about his own experiences with the Shadow.

I'm a Jungian Masters student if you need to know anything else.

Yes the separate animus anima

My point was really that it all connects to the work of Jung around the different aspects of the self and the anima can be considered as part of the shadow etc

@afistfulofdolores1 thanks for that recommendation. I'm adding that to my wishlist to order after I've read the JH book.

I bet that was a great experience to go to the one day workshop with James Hollis.

I read Maureen Burdock's The Heroine's Journey about two years ago, followed by Sharon Blackie's If Women Rose Rooted which was burnt out /unfulfilled/ bored women's experiences of finding themselves - intervowen with a pieces of mythology that tied in with their common female experience. I loved it! So in awe of your masters subject, good choice! Sez I, knowing no more than I've googled about Jung.
I was having weird dreams about killing people years ago, and desperately trying to interpret them - so I went to a Jungian lecture about dreams in Dublin and I loved it, so I'm primed to like Jung.