Dr. James Hollis

Sure.

Who will tell you immediately what your unfinished business may be.

Or your children, or your close friend, perhaps.

It shows up in dreams.

Freud talked about a young man who's disowned the content of his dream.

He says, well, I don't... Freud said, well, whose dream do you think that was?

It was your dream.

You have to acknowledge that that was embodying something within you.

So there are many ways to recognize the shadow.

Often consequences pile up, and then one begins to realize, well, the only consistent person in all the scenes of this drama I call my life is moi, so I have to acknowledge that that's my stuff.

And that's a very humbling thing.

That's why I say this work is humbling, not inflating in some way.

It's humbling.

So, again, shadow work is never going to be popular because it means I'm taking responsibility.

And yet, what else would being a human being who's responsible and adult-like do except responsibility, you see?

It's one of the definitions, I would say, of an adult person is I know I'm accountable for what spills in the world through me.

Yes, I'm responding to various things that happen around me, but sooner or later, I'm the one bringing my stories, my conditioned responses, and something of my shadow to the mix and responding out of that.

Now, that's a witch's brew at times, as you could imagine.

At the same time, you recognize, all right, but that's my business to address because if I don't, it just continues.

Well, yes, and very few people are willing to do that.