Me and My Shadow(s)

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So… my S word today is Shadow.

I thought of the idea for this image after creating the laughing girl in my post… The Best Medicine. So, when S rolled around, I had to do it.

I looked into Jung’s idea on the shadow – as it refers to “the unconscious aspects of the personality that an individual tends to repress or disown, often due to societal expectations or a perceived negative nature.”

While I do understand that concept, my idea spans a bit wider… with my shadow(s) being all of the parts of me that don’t necessarily get out often. Not because of society or their negative nature, but for various other reasons.

For example, I have a clown side that can be very witty. She lurks in the background (or becomes a shadow) when I’m in situations that require me to be serious, well-behaved, or reserved.

She may be the one on the right… who is about to jump out of the picture for reasons unknown. Probably to refrain from spouting out some inappropriate joke about the 8 ball.

Then there’s the self-art-critic, another lurking shadow persona… who was actually nagging at me earlier because I rushed this image and it looks nothing like I had planned.

Then I have the cocky rebel who sits in the dark and argues, “oh… who the hell cares?!?”

Then, of course, I have the self-mother-critic saying “Now, now… you’re being lazy again. You’re not challenging yourself. You need to do better.“

Oh my God. I could go on and on. Oh, but I almost forgot. There is the other shadow on the left who’s trying to act sexy as she swaggers away. I do have a shadow like that as well, but she’s been gone so long that I barely remember her.

Back to the 8 ball. That was a very random addition, but I think the character here is asking it a question… something cheesy like… “will George ever notice me?”

So maybe the swaggering sexy shadow is trying to make sure that George DOES. And perhaps the shadow on the right is trying to get away BEFORE he does! In either case, I think that most people can relate to these differing shadow selves living within.

Sometimes I wonder if we are all on the verge of a dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder). Perhaps the difference, or the one thing holding them all together, is our true self. The self that is conscious of these differing personalities and able to keep them in check.

I think that about covers it for now. My self-blogging-critic is telling me I might regret this ‘wordy’ post… so I need to publish before I change my mind (written with no filter).

Thank you so much for reading/viewing. I hope you enjoyed, and I’ll see you soon for the letter T.

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“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” -Carl Jung