Shadow vs Persona

The concept of Shadow comes from Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Carl Gustav Jung. He determined that to be truly happy and fulfilled, we must stop being who we think we should be or who people expect us to be and make the effort to figure out who we truly are.

The Persona

The Persona is the part of us we show the world. It represents the parts of us we develop and sustain to function in society.

Our Persona is formed from the qualities we learned were “desirable” or which matched the expectations of parents, teachers and peers in childhood.

We can also think of the Persona as the different “masks” we put on for different social situations. For example, the mask you put on at the club may be different from the mask you put on as a student in class.

You may correlate “different masks” with inauthenticity, but I wouldn’t necessarily assign the Persona, by default, as our inauthentic self. I believe everything that we are is who we’re meant to be OR who we’re meant to manage/overcome. In other words, know thyself to master thyself.

By extension, I believe that just because our current self is a result of a bad experience or traumatic childhood it doesn’t necessarily make this version of us “fake” or inauthentic.

I believe if our soul needed to learn a specific lesson or personality trait it would’ve learned it through any experience, good or bad and this personality trait (or mask!) is authentic in its own way.

At the end of the day, the only person who can know for sure if something is authentic to who you are or not, is YOU. You get to decide! You get to choose who you want to be and who you’re meant to be.

The Shadow

Why is Shadow Work Important?

The Empowered Solitude Shadow Journals

Conclusion

---

It takes all kinds to make a world!

So remember, I am entitled to my beliefs and you are under no obligation to believe me.

Use your wisdom, take what resonates and treat the parts you disagree with as a fairytale.

Thank you for reading and wherever you are in the world, I wish you a worthy day!