1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,808 Carl Young's Shadow work is the most powerful transformation tool 2 00:00:03,808 --> 00:00:07,826 this self-help industry does not want you to know about right now. 3 00:00:07,826 --> 00:00:11,113 As you're listening to this, there are millions of people doing affirmations 4 00:00:11,113 --> 00:00:14,086 and doing vision boards and all the positive thinking exercises. 5 00:00:14,165 --> 00:00:17,530 Who will be exactly where they are today, five years from now? 6 00:00:17,686 --> 00:00:17,921 Yeah. 7 00:00:18,186 --> 00:00:21,943 Why I'm glad you asked, because they're avoiding the one thing 8 00:00:22,178 --> 00:00:26,691 that actually starts to create transformation, and that is facing 9 00:00:26,691 --> 00:00:30,239 the part of themselves that they've been running from their entire lives. 10 00:00:30,343 --> 00:00:34,256 Jung called this shadow work, and it's the difference between people who 11 00:00:34,256 --> 00:00:38,456 change their lives and the people who just change their Instagram captions. 12 00:00:38,586 --> 00:00:41,665 What I'm about to share will make you a little bit uncomfortable. 13 00:00:41,830 --> 00:00:45,665 And that's good because that my friends, is where the real work begins. 14 00:00:46,813 --> 00:00:49,186 Your success, DNA podcast, your success. 15 00:00:49,252 --> 00:00:50,404 Is in your DNA. 16 00:00:50,739 --> 00:00:51,286 What is up? 17 00:00:51,286 --> 00:00:51,652 What is up? 18 00:00:51,652 --> 00:00:52,565 What the hell is up? 19 00:00:52,565 --> 00:00:53,660 My fellow success secrets. 20 00:00:53,660 --> 00:00:57,365 Welcome back to another episode of Your success, DNA, the podcast 21 00:00:57,365 --> 00:01:01,200 designed for my aspiring entrepreneurs and nine to five escapees and 22 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:03,052 success driven folks out there. 23 00:01:03,052 --> 00:01:06,130 Each episode delivers a little mindset shifts and habit upgrades, 24 00:01:06,495 --> 00:01:08,217 all mixed with a dose of rebellion. 25 00:01:08,495 --> 00:01:11,886 All designed to help you break free of convention, design a life, and maybe 26 00:01:11,886 --> 00:01:15,956 even a business that's aligned with your version of success, not mine, not Joe 27 00:01:15,956 --> 00:01:20,339 Schmoe's, not your bosses, maybe not even your parents, but your version of success. 28 00:01:20,339 --> 00:01:24,356 And if you know someone who's out there dreaming of ditching the norm and still 29 00:01:24,356 --> 00:01:27,017 makes time for little self-help, a little personal development, then go 30 00:01:27,017 --> 00:01:28,739 ahead and forward this episode to them. 31 00:01:28,739 --> 00:01:28,973 Would you. 32 00:01:29,504 --> 00:01:33,652 So we're gonna talk about the shadow work revolution and why generic 33 00:01:33,652 --> 00:01:35,660 self-help is keeping you stuck. 34 00:01:35,660 --> 00:01:37,669 So we're gonna talk about three things in this episode as always. 35 00:01:37,826 --> 00:01:41,660 First, I'm going to expose why 92% of the people who try to 36 00:01:41,660 --> 00:01:43,486 change themselves completely fail. 37 00:01:43,791 --> 00:01:45,278 Big red X up on the screen here. 38 00:01:45,591 --> 00:01:48,017 It has nothing to do with willpower, and it certainly has 39 00:01:48,017 --> 00:01:48,982 nothing to do with motivation. 40 00:01:48,982 --> 00:01:51,408 Many of you are way motivated, just can't get your shit done. 41 00:01:51,460 --> 00:01:55,452 It's all because you're trying to build a new life on top of a crumbling 42 00:01:55,452 --> 00:01:59,417 foundation, on top of a foundation that you've always refused to examine. 43 00:01:59,417 --> 00:02:01,217 And maybe it's not you, maybe some other folks out there. 44 00:02:01,217 --> 00:02:02,600 Maybe it's someone you know very personally. 45 00:02:02,808 --> 00:02:05,860 Second, you're gonna discover Carl Young's revolutionary concept. 46 00:02:06,169 --> 00:02:10,004 Of the shadow, the parts of yourself that you've denied, you've rejected, 47 00:02:10,186 --> 00:02:11,595 you've tucked away over in the corner. 48 00:02:11,673 --> 00:02:16,239 And why integrating these aspects is what Jung called the apprentice 49 00:02:16,343 --> 00:02:18,169 piece of real transformation. 50 00:02:18,247 --> 00:02:18,508 Okay. 51 00:02:18,769 --> 00:02:22,265 And then third, I'm gonna walk you through the three stages of authentic 52 00:02:22,291 --> 00:02:24,665 change that most self-help gurus. 53 00:02:24,965 --> 00:02:28,930 We'll never teach you because it requires that you get a little uncomfortable. 54 00:02:28,982 --> 00:02:32,034 It requires that you face your contradictions and it requires 55 00:02:32,034 --> 00:02:35,060 that you stop pretending that you're someone you're not. 56 00:02:35,269 --> 00:02:35,556 Okay? 57 00:02:35,843 --> 00:02:39,156 And here's the truth, and I think it's gonna shatter a few illusions out there. 58 00:02:39,365 --> 00:02:43,173 The reason that you are not where you want to be is not because you lack strategy. 59 00:02:43,391 --> 00:02:46,313 It's not because you don't have the right habits, and it's not because you 60 00:02:46,313 --> 00:02:48,191 don't have the right mindset techniques. 61 00:02:48,347 --> 00:02:50,539 No, eh, another big red X up on the screen there. 62 00:02:50,721 --> 00:02:53,852 It's because you're trying to transform while you're keeping the 63 00:02:53,852 --> 00:02:57,295 most important parts of yourself locked away down in the basement. 64 00:02:57,560 --> 00:02:59,360 Yeah, it rubs the lotion on. 65 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:00,273 No, I'm sorry. 66 00:03:00,613 --> 00:03:04,395 Some of you know the movie reference, but let me tell you about two people I know 67 00:03:04,447 --> 00:03:06,143 who both wanted to change their lives. 68 00:03:06,273 --> 00:03:08,700 We're gonna call them Sarah and Mike, right? 69 00:03:08,700 --> 00:03:10,526 The names have been changed to protect the innocent here. 70 00:03:10,578 --> 00:03:12,821 Sarah was obsessed with personal development. 71 00:03:12,978 --> 00:03:15,717 She had a morning routine that would, let's be honest, make 72 00:03:15,717 --> 00:03:17,182 Tony Robbins very jealous. 73 00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:17,982 Meditation. 74 00:03:18,317 --> 00:03:20,665 Journaling journal, affirmations, visualization. 75 00:03:20,665 --> 00:03:24,473 I mean, she had this whole shebang going on every single morning. 76 00:03:24,604 --> 00:03:26,091 She read every book that was out there. 77 00:03:26,091 --> 00:03:29,039 She attended every seminar that came to her town, actually traveled outta 78 00:03:29,039 --> 00:03:32,900 town for quite a few of them and could quote just about every guru that you 79 00:03:32,900 --> 00:03:34,543 and I would recognize the names of. 80 00:03:34,808 --> 00:03:39,530 But after three years of this same routine, she was still stuck in the same 81 00:03:39,530 --> 00:03:43,130 patterns, in the same relationships, and with the same frustrations. 82 00:03:43,234 --> 00:03:44,408 Mike, let's talk about Mike. 83 00:03:44,486 --> 00:03:46,991 Mike on the other hand, he did something a little different. 84 00:03:47,173 --> 00:03:49,652 He started asking uncomfortable questions. 85 00:03:49,782 --> 00:03:52,782 Why did he always choose partners that he found emotionally unavailable? 86 00:03:53,017 --> 00:03:57,113 Why did he sabotage himself every damn time he got close to success? 87 00:03:57,191 --> 00:03:59,382 And why did he present this confident facade? 88 00:04:00,178 --> 00:04:01,378 He still felt like a fraud. 89 00:04:01,613 --> 00:04:01,795 Yeah. 90 00:04:01,926 --> 00:04:03,491 Some of you're feeling me on this one, right? 91 00:04:03,521 --> 00:04:04,252 I, I, I've been there. 92 00:04:04,852 --> 00:04:09,286 Instead of trying to positive think his way outta these patterns, Mike 93 00:04:09,286 --> 00:04:12,260 did what Carl Young would call shadow work, and we've talked about this 94 00:04:12,260 --> 00:04:13,539 on a couple of recent episodes here. 95 00:04:13,539 --> 00:04:14,504 Go back and check those out. 96 00:04:14,530 --> 00:04:17,660 He started examining the parts of himself that he's been trying 97 00:04:17,660 --> 00:04:19,852 to hide his neediness, his anger. 98 00:04:20,086 --> 00:04:24,626 His fear of abandonment, his secret belief that he was not worthy of love. 99 00:04:24,834 --> 00:04:26,060 Here's what happened, Sarah. 100 00:04:26,086 --> 00:04:28,330 Sarah is still doing her morning routine and God love her. 101 00:04:28,330 --> 00:04:29,504 You keep going at it. 102 00:04:29,504 --> 00:04:32,582 Sarah and Sarah's still wondering why nothing is changing. 103 00:04:32,869 --> 00:04:34,330 Well, nothing major is changing. 104 00:04:34,408 --> 00:04:35,165 She feels good about it. 105 00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:40,043 Mike, on the other hand, Mike completely transformed his life by facing 106 00:04:40,043 --> 00:04:41,973 head on what he had been avoiding. 107 00:04:42,191 --> 00:04:42,817 The difference. 108 00:04:42,895 --> 00:04:46,678 Sarah was trying to build a new identity on top of a crumbling 109 00:04:46,678 --> 00:04:48,295 or unexamined foundation. 110 00:04:48,504 --> 00:04:48,869 Mike. 111 00:04:48,947 --> 00:04:51,843 Mike was willing to dig around down in the darkness in the basement 112 00:04:52,130 --> 00:04:55,365 and see what it was that was really holding up his emotional house. 113 00:04:55,365 --> 00:04:55,417 So. 114 00:04:56,321 --> 00:05:00,104 Lemme walk you through what shadow work actually means and how you can do it. 115 00:05:00,104 --> 00:05:02,530 Because it's not just psychological theory here. 116 00:05:02,530 --> 00:05:07,643 It's the missing piece that makes all other personal development tactics work. 117 00:05:07,747 --> 00:05:08,086 Okay? 118 00:05:08,347 --> 00:05:11,452 So you've, if you've tried all the things out there and you're still stumbling 119 00:05:11,452 --> 00:05:14,034 and bumbling and falling and trying to figure out, why is it not working 120 00:05:14,034 --> 00:05:17,686 for me, this might be the missing link to your personal development chain. 121 00:05:17,921 --> 00:05:20,034 First, let's understand what we're dealing with here. 122 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:23,800 Carl Young, one of the most influential psychologists in history, 123 00:05:23,982 --> 00:05:27,869 discovered something profound during his own personal crisis. 124 00:05:28,052 --> 00:05:28,913 In his middle ages. 125 00:05:28,991 --> 00:05:32,356 In his groundbreaking work, Aon Young revealed that every 126 00:05:32,356 --> 00:05:34,626 single person has what he called. 127 00:05:35,373 --> 00:05:36,260 A shadow, right? 128 00:05:36,260 --> 00:05:39,834 He says With air quotes, and this is all the parts of your personality that have 129 00:05:39,834 --> 00:05:43,539 been rejected, have been denied and have been, like I said earlier, hidden away. 130 00:05:43,852 --> 00:05:48,391 'cause they don't quite fit with your idealized self-image with who you feel 131 00:05:48,391 --> 00:05:50,530 you want to be or are your shadow. 132 00:05:50,978 --> 00:05:52,386 Now, let's not get this confused. 133 00:05:52,491 --> 00:05:53,247 It's not evil. 134 00:05:53,430 --> 00:05:54,865 It's not your dark side. 135 00:05:54,969 --> 00:05:57,108 It's not like, you know, Luke, you are my son. 136 00:05:57,186 --> 00:05:58,752 No, it's none of that dramatic stuff. 137 00:05:58,830 --> 00:06:03,239 It's simply a collection of traits of emotions, and perhaps even 138 00:06:03,265 --> 00:06:08,013 impulses that you have learned that are unacceptable either to yourself. 139 00:06:08,073 --> 00:06:11,256 To your family, to your loved ones, to your children, to your 140 00:06:11,256 --> 00:06:13,082 spouse or society as a whole. 141 00:06:13,265 --> 00:06:18,091 Maybe for example, you learned that anger is bad, so you buried your 142 00:06:18,091 --> 00:06:20,595 capacity for righteous in indignation. 143 00:06:20,804 --> 00:06:22,604 Maybe you learned that being vulnerable. 144 00:06:23,008 --> 00:06:23,947 Was a weakness. 145 00:06:24,026 --> 00:06:26,686 So you hid your need for human connection. 146 00:06:26,739 --> 00:06:31,095 Maybe you learned that ambition is selfish, so you suppressed your 147 00:06:31,095 --> 00:06:33,260 drive to achieve amazing things. 148 00:06:33,286 --> 00:06:34,643 Here's a crucial insight. 149 00:06:34,721 --> 00:06:39,104 These rejected parts of you who you are, they don't disappear 150 00:06:39,104 --> 00:06:40,304 just because you rejected them. 151 00:06:40,539 --> 00:06:46,069 No, they go underground and they start to steer your life from the shadows, right? 152 00:06:46,226 --> 00:06:49,956 They show up as things like self-sabotage or relationship patterns. 153 00:06:49,956 --> 00:06:51,600 Why do I always pick this kind of person? 154 00:06:51,834 --> 00:06:55,982 And all those mysterious ways that you keep getting in your own way. 155 00:06:56,117 --> 00:06:57,813 Young identified three stages. 156 00:06:58,347 --> 00:07:00,304 Of what he called individuation. 157 00:07:00,486 --> 00:07:03,382 Now this is the process of becoming who you really are, so 158 00:07:03,382 --> 00:07:04,191 let's go through those stages. 159 00:07:04,191 --> 00:07:07,426 Stage one is confronting the shadow Seems pretty obvious young 160 00:07:07,426 --> 00:07:10,869 called this the apprentice piece because it is the foundational 161 00:07:10,869 --> 00:07:12,330 work that makes everything else. 162 00:07:12,952 --> 00:07:18,117 Possible this means honestly examining your traits that you've pro quite probably 163 00:07:18,378 --> 00:07:22,526 disowned, disavowed, or just shoved off On the side we're talking about things like 164 00:07:22,526 --> 00:07:26,021 the anger you suppressed, the neediness that you've hidden, the selfishness 165 00:07:26,021 --> 00:07:29,700 that you've, that you have denied the weaknesses, that you are covering 166 00:07:29,700 --> 00:07:34,447 up with strengths and the strengths that you're hiding behind weaknesses. 167 00:07:34,604 --> 00:07:35,386 And here's how to start. 168 00:07:35,895 --> 00:07:39,756 First, you're gonna wanna pay attention to what it is that triggers you in 169 00:07:39,756 --> 00:07:43,982 other people, because Jung said that quite, quite often what we can't 170 00:07:43,982 --> 00:07:47,660 stand in others is quite often what we can't stand about ourselves. 171 00:07:47,686 --> 00:07:49,330 The people who are too aggressive. 172 00:07:49,630 --> 00:07:51,482 Well, they might have disowned their own assertiveness. 173 00:07:51,613 --> 00:07:54,508 All those people that are too needy, they might have rejected 174 00:07:54,508 --> 00:07:56,152 their own need for connection. 175 00:07:56,178 --> 00:07:56,882 Stage two. 176 00:07:57,039 --> 00:08:00,900 Stage two involves integrating what young called the enema and the animus. 177 00:08:01,082 --> 00:08:04,473 This is the unconscious feminine and the unconscious masculine 178 00:08:04,526 --> 00:08:06,326 aspects of your personality. 179 00:08:06,560 --> 00:08:07,526 This isn't about gender. 180 00:08:07,526 --> 00:08:08,439 Don't get me wrong here. 181 00:08:08,647 --> 00:08:12,269 This is about psychological wholeness, both sides, ladies and gentlemen. 182 00:08:12,552 --> 00:08:13,386 Especially you gentlemen. 183 00:08:13,491 --> 00:08:17,586 For many men out there, this means developing a capacity for your intuition, 184 00:08:17,795 --> 00:08:19,934 your emotion, and your receptivity. 185 00:08:20,143 --> 00:08:23,404 For many women, this means embracing your assertiveness, 186 00:08:23,586 --> 00:08:25,360 your logic, and your independence. 187 00:08:25,569 --> 00:08:27,786 Honest, assertiveness, logic, and independence. 188 00:08:27,839 --> 00:08:29,013 Not that not. 189 00:08:29,243 --> 00:08:30,913 Not some of the ugly stuff we've seen out there. 190 00:08:30,913 --> 00:08:31,173 Okay. 191 00:08:31,173 --> 00:08:35,478 You know what I'm talking about, but it's different for everyone because we all 192 00:08:35,478 --> 00:08:38,373 have unique aspects that we've suppressed. 193 00:08:38,426 --> 00:08:38,634 Now. 194 00:08:38,765 --> 00:08:43,121 Stage three is integration of the self, not the ego self that you've been 195 00:08:43,121 --> 00:08:44,717 presenting all out there to the world. 196 00:08:45,256 --> 00:08:50,030 But we're talking about that deeper self that encompasses all of who you are. 197 00:08:50,108 --> 00:08:54,595 Every single little aspect, every page of the book that is you. 198 00:08:54,726 --> 00:08:59,056 This is what Abraham Maslow called self-actualization, becoming Fully 199 00:08:59,056 --> 00:09:02,682 who you were meant to be Fort, and all this isn't about perfect. 200 00:09:03,195 --> 00:09:05,073 This is about authenticity. 201 00:09:05,152 --> 00:09:08,621 Uh, there's a word we've all heard, banty it around online with 202 00:09:08,621 --> 00:09:09,847 all the gurus out there, right? 203 00:09:09,926 --> 00:09:13,630 Okay, so now here's how you actually do all this work. 204 00:09:13,813 --> 00:09:16,473 Start with what young called active imagination. 205 00:09:16,578 --> 00:09:18,665 When you notice a strong emotional reaction. 206 00:09:18,873 --> 00:09:21,482 Anger, jealousy, fear, shame, whatever it might be. 207 00:09:21,691 --> 00:09:26,204 Instead of pushing it away or repelling from it or acting it out, sit with it. 208 00:09:26,308 --> 00:09:28,291 Ask, what is it trying to tell you? 209 00:09:28,500 --> 00:09:30,821 What need is it really expressing? 210 00:09:31,056 --> 00:09:32,621 And what, or, here's another one. 211 00:09:32,882 --> 00:09:33,595 What part of you. 212 00:09:34,104 --> 00:09:37,573 Is it really protecting practice, what I call shadow journaling? 213 00:09:37,573 --> 00:09:40,495 And I talked about this a couple episodes ago as well, so we'll go 214 00:09:40,495 --> 00:09:41,460 into it a little bit more here. 215 00:09:41,617 --> 00:09:46,182 Write about the traits that you most dislike in other people, not what you 216 00:09:46,182 --> 00:09:49,782 love, what you most dislike, and then honestly, ask yourself this question, 217 00:09:49,991 --> 00:09:52,939 how might this trait exist within me? 218 00:09:53,882 --> 00:09:54,613 You have to be honest. 219 00:09:54,847 --> 00:09:56,386 It's not always, not always gonna be pretty. 220 00:09:56,465 --> 00:09:58,969 When have I acted in this way? 221 00:09:59,073 --> 00:10:05,021 What would it look like if I completely owned this aspect of myself instead 222 00:10:05,230 --> 00:10:06,847 of projecting it out onto others? 223 00:10:07,030 --> 00:10:07,213 Yeah. 224 00:10:07,213 --> 00:10:09,117 And then answer the questions, write it down. 225 00:10:09,273 --> 00:10:12,086 It's just you and your journal so you can go ahead and be completely honest. 226 00:10:12,821 --> 00:10:13,604 Here's another thing. 227 00:10:13,813 --> 00:10:15,586 I want you to pay attention to your dreams. 228 00:10:15,665 --> 00:10:19,891 Young believed that dreams were messages from your unconscious, showing us 229 00:10:19,891 --> 00:10:23,673 parts of ourselves that we just were not seeing during our conscious time. 230 00:10:23,908 --> 00:10:27,091 Keep a dream journal and look for recurring themes or characters 231 00:10:27,091 --> 00:10:30,508 that might represent those disowned aspects of your personality. 232 00:10:30,613 --> 00:10:33,534 I started doing this way back, oh gosh, it would've been the nineties, 233 00:10:33,691 --> 00:10:37,252 and I used to keep a journal and it's really hard to sit there and write. 234 00:10:37,660 --> 00:10:40,921 When you're groggy, you know that moment when you first wake up and you're like, 235 00:10:40,921 --> 00:10:44,469 oh my God, I know if I don't write this down now, I'll never remember it later on. 236 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:46,973 So here's what I did, and you can do this differently. 237 00:10:46,973 --> 00:10:50,104 Back then, we didn't have iPhones, so I had a little mini one of those 238 00:10:50,104 --> 00:10:51,643 miniature, uh, tape recorders. 239 00:10:51,930 --> 00:10:54,591 So if I would wake up in the middle of the night, I would just hit record and 240 00:10:54,591 --> 00:10:57,878 just kind of googly speak into the mic. 241 00:10:57,882 --> 00:10:57,908 It. 242 00:10:58,169 --> 00:11:01,117 And then write it a conscious aspect, enlightening thing. 243 00:11:01,143 --> 00:11:04,143 Usually probably at the ready every single moment, you could just press 244 00:11:04,143 --> 00:11:07,091 record right there on the voice recorder and speak into it, and then 245 00:11:07,091 --> 00:11:08,760 come back and journal it later on. 246 00:11:08,813 --> 00:11:11,839 Okay, so what you're gonna wanna do here though, is you're gonna wanna notice. 247 00:11:12,134 --> 00:11:12,917 Your patterns. 248 00:11:12,969 --> 00:11:15,134 Where are you repeatedly getting stuck? 249 00:11:15,343 --> 00:11:17,065 Not just in your dreams, but everything else? 250 00:11:17,117 --> 00:11:22,152 What situations trigger the same reactions in you over and over and over again? 251 00:11:22,386 --> 00:11:25,073 These patterns are often your shadow. 252 00:11:25,126 --> 00:11:26,352 Trying to get your attention. 253 00:11:26,352 --> 00:11:26,508 Go, Hey. 254 00:11:27,152 --> 00:11:28,639 You might wanna pay attention right here. 255 00:11:28,769 --> 00:11:29,082 Okay. 256 00:11:29,317 --> 00:11:31,065 So as the poet, who is it? 257 00:11:31,065 --> 00:11:31,795 Robert Bly. 258 00:11:31,926 --> 00:11:34,534 He described it in a little book on the human shadow. 259 00:11:34,639 --> 00:11:38,604 This work isn't about eliminating the aspects that you're trying 260 00:11:38,604 --> 00:11:39,986 to tuck away into the shadows. 261 00:11:40,134 --> 00:11:43,500 It's about reclaiming the energy that they contain. 262 00:11:43,578 --> 00:11:47,595 It's a part of you and you're, you're taking energy to push it away, and 263 00:11:47,595 --> 00:11:49,160 it has energy in and of itself. 264 00:11:49,265 --> 00:11:51,065 Let's go ahead and reclaim all that energy. 265 00:11:51,143 --> 00:11:52,630 You don't have to, you can stop pushing it away. 266 00:11:52,630 --> 00:11:55,134 So you're gonna reclaim that energy and then you're gonna reclaim the 267 00:11:55,134 --> 00:11:56,778 energy that the actual aspect has. 268 00:11:56,986 --> 00:12:00,926 Modern approaches like internal family Systems therapy have validated 269 00:12:00,926 --> 00:12:04,682 Young's insights into this, and we can, that we all contain. 270 00:12:05,039 --> 00:12:08,926 These multiple parts and the healing of it happens through 271 00:12:09,056 --> 00:12:11,221 integration, not elimination. 272 00:12:11,221 --> 00:12:14,821 Now, not as many of you know, I am not a licensed psychotherapist 273 00:12:14,821 --> 00:12:15,604 or any of that noise. 274 00:12:15,604 --> 00:12:19,282 I'm just a guy who's lived 60 plus years on this big blue spinning globe, and 275 00:12:19,282 --> 00:12:21,447 I'm just sharing my whisked wisdom here. 276 00:12:21,604 --> 00:12:23,456 The goal here overall. 277 00:12:23,665 --> 00:12:25,256 Isn't to become your shadow. 278 00:12:25,491 --> 00:12:28,308 You don't want to go from living in your home, your mental and physical 279 00:12:28,308 --> 00:12:31,960 and spiritual home to living down in your mental and spiritual and physical. 280 00:12:32,295 --> 00:12:33,991 Basements right in the shadows. 281 00:12:34,200 --> 00:12:38,452 But what you can do is use it as fuel for positives change instead of 282 00:12:38,452 --> 00:12:43,017 just letting it leak out as passive aggression, as failed relationships, 283 00:12:43,017 --> 00:12:44,765 as failed business opportunities. 284 00:12:44,843 --> 00:12:46,513 When you acknowledge your neediness. 285 00:12:46,782 --> 00:12:51,113 You can ask for what you want directly instead of having to manipulate others 286 00:12:51,243 --> 00:12:53,304 into giving it to you indirectly. 287 00:12:53,408 --> 00:12:54,921 I was married to one of those, oh my God. 288 00:12:55,104 --> 00:12:59,565 This is the very kind of deep transformation ma transformational work, 289 00:12:59,852 --> 00:13:03,426 uh, that we explore every week in the Unleash Your Success DNA newsletter. 290 00:13:03,426 --> 00:13:07,130 It's for people who are tired of that surface level self-help scratching 291 00:13:07,130 --> 00:13:08,956 the surface that really want that. 292 00:13:09,291 --> 00:13:13,543 Real work and they're ready for it so they can become actually who they are. 293 00:13:13,543 --> 00:13:17,143 Each issue delivers mindset shifts and more habit upgrades and still 294 00:13:17,143 --> 00:13:19,439 mixed with my usual dose of rebellion. 295 00:13:19,465 --> 00:13:22,073 All designed to help you break free from convention so that you 296 00:13:22,073 --> 00:13:23,691 can build a life aligned with. 297 00:13:24,100 --> 00:13:27,700 Who you are, your authentic self, no fluff, no toxic positivity, 298 00:13:28,013 --> 00:13:30,882 just uncomfortable truths that could actually set you free. 299 00:13:30,882 --> 00:13:34,247 Go ahead and sign up over at your success DNA and we'll, we'll get into 300 00:13:34,247 --> 00:13:36,230 that inside the, the newsletter there. 301 00:13:36,282 --> 00:13:39,830 Here's why I think this matters for you and for many of my 302 00:13:39,830 --> 00:13:41,239 listeners at a deeper level. 303 00:13:41,726 --> 00:13:45,769 We are living in a culture that seems completely terrified 304 00:13:45,978 --> 00:13:47,960 of psychological complexity. 305 00:13:48,143 --> 00:13:49,995 We want answers to be simple. 306 00:13:50,152 --> 00:13:55,134 We want fixes to be quick, and we want truths to be calming and comfortable. 307 00:13:55,395 --> 00:13:56,021 Well, I'm sorry. 308 00:13:56,073 --> 00:13:57,221 Answers aren't always simple. 309 00:13:57,560 --> 00:14:01,630 Fixes aren't always quick, and sometimes real truth is very uncomfortable 310 00:14:01,917 --> 00:14:03,873 because humans aren't simple. 311 00:14:03,978 --> 00:14:06,430 We're literally walking contradictions. 312 00:14:06,456 --> 00:14:07,995 We contain multitudes. 313 00:14:08,152 --> 00:14:11,204 We have the capacity for creation and destruction. 314 00:14:11,360 --> 00:14:12,743 We hate and we love. 315 00:14:12,873 --> 00:14:14,491 We have courage and we have fear. 316 00:14:14,647 --> 00:14:15,560 We are selfish. 317 00:14:15,891 --> 00:14:20,378 We are generous all at the same time, and all in various varying degrees 318 00:14:20,508 --> 00:14:21,578 at different times in our life. 319 00:14:21,682 --> 00:14:25,517 Unlike Martin Seligman's positive psychological movement, which focuses 320 00:14:25,517 --> 00:14:30,265 on amplifying strengths and positive emotions, Young's approach recognizes that 321 00:14:30,265 --> 00:14:34,752 the self-help industry has convinced us that the goal is to eliminate the negative 322 00:14:34,752 --> 00:14:36,865 parts and to amplify the positive ones. 323 00:14:37,021 --> 00:14:41,039 But I think this creates what young called the one-sided personality. 324 00:14:41,265 --> 00:14:44,134 Unfortunately, just one-sided personality is brittle. 325 00:14:44,265 --> 00:14:49,117 It's very inauthentic, and it's ultimately unsustainable over time, 326 00:14:49,326 --> 00:14:50,526 and many of you have experienced that. 327 00:14:50,552 --> 00:14:52,352 I know I did a couple of times in my life. 328 00:14:52,378 --> 00:14:55,195 Real transformation is not about being perfect. 329 00:14:55,378 --> 00:14:56,891 It's about becoming whole. 330 00:14:57,121 --> 00:15:02,026 Being who you are, it's about integrating all the aspects of who you are into 331 00:15:02,182 --> 00:15:04,347 a coherent, authentic identity. 332 00:15:04,582 --> 00:15:04,921 Okay? 333 00:15:05,156 --> 00:15:08,339 Now we're not talking about all that dark, ugly stuff that is socially 334 00:15:08,495 --> 00:15:10,295 just completely wrong for your. 335 00:15:10,539 --> 00:15:15,078 For humankind and yourself, we're talking about the good stuff, but you sometimes 336 00:15:15,078 --> 00:15:18,965 you've have to rustle around in what some folks might call the bad stuff to pull 337 00:15:18,965 --> 00:15:20,399 it out and turn it into a good thing. 338 00:15:20,399 --> 00:15:23,347 I like I talk about all the time, losing my daughter was a 339 00:15:23,347 --> 00:15:24,756 terrible thing to have happen. 340 00:15:25,095 --> 00:15:26,086 She was only 18 months old. 341 00:15:26,139 --> 00:15:31,904 However, I have found blessings tucked inside of that if I would've not addressed 342 00:15:31,956 --> 00:15:33,860 that part, that shadow part of me. 343 00:15:34,226 --> 00:15:36,260 I wouldn't be as happy as I am today. 344 00:15:36,339 --> 00:15:39,417 This connects with a much larger paradigm shift that I think is 345 00:15:39,417 --> 00:15:40,773 happening in psychology itself. 346 00:15:40,930 --> 00:15:45,339 We're moving away from the medical model that sees psychological distress 347 00:15:45,573 --> 00:15:47,452 as a pathology to be eliminated. 348 00:15:47,921 --> 00:15:51,886 I think we're moving towards, at least in the circles I travel in, we're moving 349 00:15:51,886 --> 00:15:57,260 towards a more holistic understanding that sees our struggles as information 350 00:15:57,469 --> 00:16:02,582 and it's information about what needs attention in our lives, in our minds, in 351 00:16:02,582 --> 00:16:05,321 our hearts, in our souls, in our bodies. 352 00:16:05,452 --> 00:16:05,791 Okay. 353 00:16:06,130 --> 00:16:09,782 Your anxiety might be telling you that you are not living according 354 00:16:09,782 --> 00:16:11,660 to your own deeply held values. 355 00:16:11,843 --> 00:16:15,652 Your anger could be showing you that you have boundaries that people 356 00:16:15,652 --> 00:16:19,069 keep violating, and you need to stand up for yourself and stop that. 357 00:16:19,356 --> 00:16:23,269 Your depression might be signaling that you've lost connection to what 358 00:16:23,426 --> 00:16:25,382 seems to give your life meaning. 359 00:16:25,865 --> 00:16:27,430 I don't know if you need a pill or not. 360 00:16:27,482 --> 00:16:31,343 I can't make that determination, but I can say it might be that you need to 361 00:16:31,343 --> 00:16:32,986 find that connection and bring it back. 362 00:16:33,169 --> 00:16:35,595 The goal isn't to eliminate your shadow. 363 00:16:35,700 --> 00:16:37,969 It's not to dope it up and dumb it down. 364 00:16:38,152 --> 00:16:42,221 It's to dance with it and to dance with it consciously instead of 365 00:16:42,221 --> 00:16:44,543 letting it control you unconsciously. 366 00:16:44,752 --> 00:16:48,273 When you do this kind of work, something truly remarkable happens. 367 00:16:48,513 --> 00:16:50,443 It doesn't always happen instantly, but it does happen. 368 00:16:50,652 --> 00:16:53,417 You stop being at war with yourself. 369 00:16:53,495 --> 00:16:57,669 You stop exhausting yourself trying to maintain that perfect image. 370 00:16:58,304 --> 00:17:02,034 You develop what young called psychological resilience, and 371 00:17:02,034 --> 00:17:05,060 that is the ability to handle whatever life throws at you. 372 00:17:05,321 --> 00:17:07,069 We all know it's gonna throw shit at you. 373 00:17:07,121 --> 00:17:10,800 You'll be able to handle whatever life throws at you because you are no 374 00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:13,721 longer afraid of your own reactions. 375 00:17:14,008 --> 00:17:17,608 When you're less afraid of your own reactions, you are far less 376 00:17:17,608 --> 00:17:19,591 afraid of everyone else's reactions. 377 00:17:19,773 --> 00:17:22,408 So all that said, here's your Whiskered wisdom for this week. 378 00:17:22,773 --> 00:17:25,534 You, my friend, cannot heal what you refuse to feel. 379 00:17:26,282 --> 00:17:30,195 You can't integrate what you won't take the damn time to acknowledge. 380 00:17:30,378 --> 00:17:31,317 The research is clear. 381 00:17:31,526 --> 00:17:34,917 People who do shadow work, who honestly examine and integrate their 382 00:17:34,917 --> 00:17:39,221 disowned aspects, they report higher levels of life satisfaction, higher 383 00:17:39,221 --> 00:17:43,317 levels of better relationships, and a greater resilience than any of those 384 00:17:43,317 --> 00:17:47,908 folks that are out there focused only on positive psychology techniques. 385 00:17:47,908 --> 00:17:49,395 And I've got books of those over here. 386 00:17:49,604 --> 00:17:50,234 I'm not saying they don't work. 387 00:17:50,726 --> 00:17:51,873 I'm not saying they don't have a place. 388 00:17:52,134 --> 00:17:56,726 I'm saying you can't have one without the other to integrate yourself fully. 389 00:17:56,934 --> 00:17:58,969 So here's your specific action for this week. 390 00:17:59,178 --> 00:18:02,960 Choose one person who really seems to irritate you, right? 391 00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:06,352 Just like sandpaper that I just kind of gRED you the wrong way 392 00:18:06,586 --> 00:18:07,943 and instead of judging them. 393 00:18:08,173 --> 00:18:11,747 I want you to ask yourself this question, what quality in this 394 00:18:11,747 --> 00:18:14,226 person am I rejecting in myself? 395 00:18:14,382 --> 00:18:18,608 Then spend a little time journaling about how that quality might actually 396 00:18:18,608 --> 00:18:22,730 serve you if you owned it consciously and let it flow through you. 397 00:18:22,965 --> 00:18:24,634 This isn't about becoming someone you're not. 398 00:18:24,986 --> 00:18:29,226 It's about reclaiming the parts of yourself you've been too damn afraid to 399 00:18:29,226 --> 00:18:33,452 even acknowledge, and that my friends is where real transformation truly. 400 00:18:33,669 --> 00:18:36,852 Begins, listen, the world doesn't need another version of you 401 00:18:37,086 --> 00:18:38,730 that you think you should be. 402 00:18:38,913 --> 00:18:39,147 No. 403 00:18:39,200 --> 00:18:43,165 It needs the full, complex, contradictory, beautiful shit. 404 00:18:43,217 --> 00:18:46,739 Time mess of who you really are, who you actually are. 405 00:18:46,921 --> 00:18:49,921 Warts and all shadow work is not comfortable. 406 00:18:50,104 --> 00:18:53,573 Sometimes it's fun, often not so much, but it's not comfortable. 407 00:18:53,704 --> 00:18:55,013 It's not Instagram worthy. 408 00:18:55,513 --> 00:18:56,660 God, I hope not. 409 00:18:56,739 --> 00:18:59,373 It won't fit on a motivational poster, which is probably why 410 00:18:59,373 --> 00:19:00,469 you can't go out and buy one. 411 00:19:00,547 --> 00:19:03,782 But it's the difference between people who change their lives and 412 00:19:03,782 --> 00:19:07,252 people who just rearranged the furniture in their mental house. 413 00:19:07,408 --> 00:19:09,939 You have everything you need inside of you. 414 00:19:10,130 --> 00:19:14,147 Right now, including the parts that you've been trying to hide, dust them off. 415 00:19:14,330 --> 00:19:15,478 Stop running around. 416 00:19:15,660 --> 00:19:19,965 Stop running away from yourself and start running toward the fullness of who 417 00:19:19,965 --> 00:19:22,730 you are capable of being and becoming. 418 00:19:22,834 --> 00:19:24,634 Your shadow is not your enemy. 419 00:19:24,843 --> 00:19:27,543 It's not the dark side that you're trying to hide. 420 00:19:28,065 --> 00:19:31,013 It's your ally awaiting to be acknowledged. 421 00:19:31,039 --> 00:19:34,795 It's half of your power that you've been hiding away, and when you finally 422 00:19:34,795 --> 00:19:38,265 turn toward it, instead of away from it, that my friends, is when 423 00:19:38,265 --> 00:19:40,247 some real magic can start to happen. 424 00:19:40,508 --> 00:19:42,700 In the meantime, I'm gonna leave you as I always do, think 425 00:19:42,700 --> 00:19:44,265 successfully and take action.