Gold in your Shadow, or how to benefit from jealousy and envy

Hello, my dear. Welcome to my blog.

Are you trying to find your hidden talents? Do you ever feel very jealous? Do you want to understand your mission in this lifetime? If you answered "yes" to these questions, read on!

Today we will talk about how we can transform jealousy into something that would be constructive for you, into something that will help you to know yourself much more profoundly. We will also show you how to discover the strengths and talents hidden from your conscious mind.

In my previous blog, "FIVE STEPS to compassionately loving your dark side," I described how to understand and compassionately accept your dark side. Today I want to expand on this topic and talk more about the highly beneficial hidden from our view parts of ourselves, which we call Shadow. The concept of Shadow came from Carl Jung's who said that there are some parts that we acknowledge and accept in ourselves, but there are also some parts that we either don't know we possess or don't want to knowledge. In a very straightforward way, the shadow can be described as certain aspects of our personality that are either completely unknown or known but, for various reasons, not acceptable to our conscious mind.

We can push certain aspects of Self from our consciousness because, for various reasons, they are not acceptable to our image of who we should be. At the same time, there are also some parts of ourselves that we might love to have, but we cannot connect to them, and we don't believe that we have them in us.

What is the best way to understand your shadow? You can find a therapist, preferably someone trained in the Jungian approach. You can also work with a humanistic astrologer who can point to your shadow seen in your natal chart. You can benefit from talking to a trusted astrologer and not just getting pre-written interpretations from the websites. The shadow aspect of personality is a sensitive and very individual subject, so the person helping you discover your shadow needs to get to know you and understand your inner world.

In the meantime, here are two quick and dirty ways of finding your shadow yourself. If you are really getting angry about something or somebody – look for this quality in your shadow. Or if you really - really envious, just craving something really bad – then, believe it or not, you also have this desired quality in you.

Let's talk about this second part now, about discovering your hidden talents through envy. For example, for a long time, I was envious of the famous Kabbalistic teachers and Brene Brown.

Why? Because I also love in-depth studies, have a talent for helping others, and have the capacity to become an expert in a certain subject. Envy was a tool used by my success to point out my strengths.

For example, you are really envious of this remarkable woman who is a CEO of a large corporation. She's a self-made multimillionaire with a charitable foundation and a loving, hands-on mom. Activate your observer mind and notice what qualities of this woman you envy the most. Is that her income, position, way she treats people, charitable nature, or maternal approach? The quality (or qualities) that you envy the most are in you! These qualities are most likely so deeply hidden that you don't have access to them, or, for various reasons, you deny these qualities in yourself.
This discovery of your hidden talents is called "Gold in the shadow." Why is it so hard for our consciousness to accept our so-called "positive qualities"?

I want to give you a quote from Robert Johnson, a renowned Jungian analyst who wrote beautiful books about discovering the Self. His book "Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche" is a must-read for everyone who wants to uncover and connect to their hidden talents. Robert Johnson observed that people resist the more noble aspects of their shadow more strenuously than the dark sides because, per Johnson, "The gold is related to our higher calling, and this can be hard to accept at certain stages of life."

If we connect to our hidden talents and discover our Life Purpose, we will need to act on it, and our life might change significantly. At the same time, the Ego, which loves the status quo and despises change, blocks the connection to the higher parts. We, humans, are creatures of comfort; it's just our biology. Consciously, you might want to go forward, but unconsciously, biologically, you are driven to go back to your comfort zone. Remember that unconscious drive constitutes 95% opposite 5% of the conscious perception, and it will always win until it is acknowledged and brought into consciousness.

Accepting your Gold in the shadow can require intense spiritual and emotional work. In many cases, it can lead to a change in career, lifestyle, and relationship. It is scary and not easy. But the price we pay for resisting the changes is an unlived life.