In psychology, the shadow represents the “dark side” of our personalities—the part of us that’s primitive, negative, often impulsive, and leads us to feeling things like envy, rage, greed, selfishness and obsession.

While we all want to step out of the shadow and into the light, our shadows can be super-informative about the shit that lurks under the surface.

From my perspective, the idea isn’t to banish the shadow, but to use it to work for us.

How do we do that?

By watching our instincts, trying to understand the source of our urges and getting to know ourselves, rather than trying to fake being a ray of sunshine all the time.

While light is freeing, the “so-damn-human” aspects of our personality spice up life now and then.

The key here is awareness: of your shadow, of your light, of yourself. Embrace you, warts and all.