Welcome to the Monday Muse, a short round up of stuff that I found interesting in the last week. If you have comments or ideas you want to share, feel free to drop me a message. If you liked reading this, feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏
1/ The Shadow 🌘
What is The Shadow? Swiss psychologist Carl Jung says the shadow is simply another way to say “everything that is unconscious” in us. It’s where we often hold the hidden parts of our personality that consist of traits, desires, and emotions that may conflict with our conscious self-image.
While the “Shadow” sounds like it’s some lurking evil presence, that’s not the case. Jung often made the point that the Shadow is not negative. Your so-called faults, all the things which you don’t like about yourself are actually your greatest assets. There is duality in the unity of conscious and unconscious and integrating the two can be a source of immense growth. “The gold is in the dark.”
For example, Steve Jobs was fired from Apple in 1985, a main reason being his stubbornness that led him to often clash with management. When he came back two years later, their was a notable difference in his personality and management style. He now seemed more relaxed and open, and even seemed to relish other people’s ideas.
His emotional intensity and attention to detail were a double-edged sword. On one hand, it could make him verbally abrasive, emotionally intense and hard to deal with. On the other hand, it fueled his passion, a relentless pursuit of excellence and creativity that ultimately changed the world.
It sounds like between being fired and his return, he began to integrate parts of his Shadow that got him into trouble before, and instead learned how to use them skillfully. He was able to maintain an intensity and demand for high standards, but also acknowledging the opinions and views of others.
But nobody is perfect. A look at Jobs’ biography reveals a complicated person (like us all). There were large parts of his Shadow that remained unhealed/not accepted, which might have led to him denying his daughter, alienating his peers, and refusing to speak to his biological father. Indeed, the shadow can take a lifetime to integrate and is a never-ending process.
A few ways to identify your shadow:
Disowned traits. Explore traits you both admire in others but have a hard time acknowledging in yourself. That amazing person you respect for their assertiveness and bravery — reflect on how you may be disconnected from these positive qualities in yourself.
Notice projections and triggers. We often reject and judge in others for what we have not accepted in ourselves. The most famous examples are those anti-gay politicians who turn out to be gay themselves. We project our own unconscious aspects onto others. You can ask yourself why a certain behavior bothers you and trace this back to the past.
Dream analysis. Keep a dream journal. Dreams often contain symbolic representations of the shadow. Even if you’re the type of person who “doesn’t remember dreams,” the act of keeping a journal and making an intention is usually enough to get you to start remembering!
An exercise that I found particularly useful: In the fantastic book The Dark Side of the Light Chasers, author Debbie Ford provides a list of traits we commonly see as negative (page 3 of this worksheet). Go through this list and say “I am ___” filling in the blank with the word (“I am lazy. I am a loser. I am selfish. etc"). For most of these words, you will not find them special or have a reaction. But for some of these words, you will get stuck on them…or you will find them particularly jarring, icky, frustrating, perhaps even infuriating. This is a clue to your shadow. It suggests traits inside of yourself that you are denying or have not accepted. That’s your starting place.
“Like the lotus flower that is born out of mud, we must honor the darkest parts of ourselves and the most painful of our life’s experiences, because they are what allow us to birth our most beautiful self. We need the messy, muddy past, the muck of our human life—the combination of every hurt, wound, loss, and unfulfilled desire blended with every joy, success, and blessing to give us the wisdom, the perspective, and the drive to step into the most magnificent expression of ourselves. This is the gift of the shadow.” - Debbie Ford
And here are three great videos about the Shadow:
"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate." - Carl Jung
2/ The “Love Frequency” 528 HZ 🎵❤️
The Solfeggio frequencies come from an ancient musical scale that dates back to the Gregorian chants used in medieval church music. Each frequency is believed to have specific effects on the body, mind, and spirit. One of these frequencies, 528 hz, is called the “Love Frequency” or “Miracle Frequency”.
Famous Songs in 528 hz:
John Lennon's Imagine
Bob Marley’s Could you Be Loved
Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Benefits:
DNA Repair: Some proponents of the 528 Hz frequency claim that it has the potential to repair DNA and promote healing on a cellular level.
Testosterone Production: According to one study, sound waves with 528 Hz frequency in 100 dB intensity induce testosterone production.
Stress reduction. This frequency showed stress reduction and calming of the nervous system compared to other frequencies.
I’ve been listening to this soundtrack everyday and find that it has a noticeable calming effect.
3/ Four Ways to Beat Zoom Fatigue 😴
I've been playing around with making YouTube videos recently and have been having a lot of fun. Here's one about why we get tired of Zoom/video calls and small, practical adjustments you can make to combat zoom fatigue. In short:
Close distance to a face on a large screen activates your fight-or-flight (sympathetic) nervous system
2d screens are a high cognitive load because gestures and body language are hard to read
Self-view is anxiety inducing because you're constantly checking yourself, which is unnatural in a face to face conversation
4/ The Myth of Normal 🔮
A few quotes from the book The Myth of Normal by Dr. Gabor Mate that I recently finished reading.
The myth of normal:
The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane.
The biology of stress:
One of the things many diseases have in common is inflammation, acting as kind of a fertilizer for the development of illness. We’ve discovered that when people feel threatened, insecure—especially over an extended period of time—our bodies are programmed to turn on inflammatory genes.
The hidden drives of success
In the absence of relief, a young person’s natural response—their only response, really—is to repress and disconnect from the feeling-states associated with suffering. One no longer knows one’s body. Oddly, this self-estrangement can show up later in life in the form of an apparent strength, such as my ability to perform at a high level when hungry or stressed or fatigued, pushing on without awareness of my need for pause, nutrition, or rest.
5/ Quotes I’m Pondering 💡
“ Curse the mind that mounts the clouds in search of mythical kings and only mystical things, mystical things cry for the soul that will not face the body as an equal place, and I never learned to touch for real down, down, down where the iguanas feel. “ —Dory Previn song
Thanks for reading and see you next week!