Follow Your Fear

04.09.24

In this article, we’ll explore what it takes to truly integrate the shadow as most people miss the most important step of all, transform our findings into action, and make practical changes in real life.

The true battle often lies in accepting the good qualities of our shadow and developing our talents. However, we can only individuate and become who we truly are when we accept this calling and face our fears.

A Calling From The Self

About a week ago, I had a very profound dream. I saw myself 10 years into the future and to my despair, things seemed exactly the same. I was dealing with the same fear I allowed to shape much of my life, which was hiding my authentic self, especially my artistic creations and music.

In the dream, I had a distinct feeling that it was too late and I’d never be able to do anything different. My destiny as a failure was set in stone. I guess you can imagine I woke up a bit disturbed but this dream propelled me to make an important decision.

For the longest time, I was ashamed to show my authentic self, especially regarding my writing and music. However, a week ago was the first time I ever played an original song in front of a live audience. It was a life-changing experience and I was debating wether I’d share it in my newsletter or not.

Then, I had this dream and I knew I had to do it. If you’ve been following my articles, you know I made a few interesting parallels between the creative process and the individuation journey. However, I never mentioned this dream.

By the way, you can listen to the song here – Is It Worth It?

Ideals of Perfection

it’s been a week and this dream is still lingering in my psyche promoting shifts in my perspective. It’s making me evaluate what’s truly important, what makes me feel fulfilled, and what my soul wants to accomplish.

Carl Jung explains that the individuation journey requires a balance between the demands of the outer world and the inner world and an equilibrium between the values of the persona and the soul. We develop our personalities by sustaining this paradox.

Now, let’s explore each part of this equation.

Most people think that persona is only a bad thing, a mask that we use to hide our authentic selves. However, the persona has an important function to help us adapt to the external world and exert our role in society.

Moreover, this is the part of our psyche that understands cultural values and a well-adapted persona allows us to flow in distinct social settings. The persona only becomes problematic when we identify with it and lose our individuality, just like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.

As the film progresses we learn how he’s an empty vessel and crafted a perfect character to maintain an ideal image of status and wealth, one of the reasons behind his insanity. There’s nothing underneath it and he lives only for the appearances.

This ideal image is dependent on cultural standards, family values, and social rules that we feel pressured to abide by. The more we have the unconscious need to win the approval of others, the more we end up adopting values that hinder the development of our personalities and make us disconnect from our authentic selves.

As Carl Jung says, “Far too much of our common humanity has to be sacrificed in the interests of an ideal image into which one tries to mold oneself” (V7 – §244). This inevitably leads to a neurosis, a self-division.

All of this is amplified by our current zeitgeist in which we have to be constantly productive and everything has to serve a purpose. There’s an excess of rationalism and science has become the new god suffocating the soul.

There’s no space for the creative matrix of the unconscious to be manifested and the instinctual realm rebels against us taking the form of vices, addictions, and an unbearable lack of meaning. However, all of this could be solved if we learned to listen to our souls and allowed it to participate in our daily lives.

The problem is that the very things that could bring us meaning and fulfillment are treated as worthless or a source of shame.

Carl Jung says that the conscious and unconscious have a compensatory and complementary relationship. The persona is the function of relationship with the external world and the soul is the personification of the unconscious, which compensates for the persona.

In other words, everything that we consciously judge as bad or inferior remains unconscious and becomes part of our shadow. The main problem is that we often repress vital parts of our personalities such as our creativity, talents, and most importantly, the values of the soul.

This leads to a general feeling of being lost and according to Jung, it’s one of the main reasons behind anxiety and depression.

• By the way, I teach you everything you need to know about the shadow integration process in my accessible course Katabasis – The Shadow Integration Manual

Listen To Your Soul

As I mentioned in the beginning, for the longest time I ran away from my talents. I had experiences in which I was shamed for expressing them and I allowed it to get to me. I adopted values that were contrary to my personality because I wanted to fit in, but the main problem was that I was running away from this responsibility.

Most people imagine that the shadow only contains immoral qualities, but more often than not, the true battle lies in accepting our good qualities, precisely because they demand a conscious decision of developing them.

Once we realize we have dormant talents, we’re asked to rise above our fears and our souls won’t rest until we accept this calling. This is the moment we’ll try to dismiss it and feel completely inept to face this challenge.

However, as Steven Pressfield says, “We become capable in the process, we just have to take the first step and unseen forces come into our aid”. When we commit to fulfilling our true destinies, suddenly we’re gifted with new opportunities and we start doing what before seemed impossible.

But I find this only happens when we develop an attitude of utmost respect for our crafts and do it from a place of love rather than seeking recognition. Don’t get me wrong, wanting to prove yourself can be a powerful drive and even take us far, however, it doesn’t fulfill the soul.

We can even be doing exactly what we were born to do and still be disconnected from our authentic selves. The voice of the soul is subtle, It comes in moments in which we choose not to write a sentence because we feel like it’s too vulnerable or when we change our song because it doesn’t fit the standards.

Over time, we get the feeling that we’re dry and the things that give us joy are now a source of anxiety and frustration. Everything becomes stale. This is the moment we must stop listening to everyone and ask ourselves what is our truth?

The values of the soul are often incompatible with our egotistical desires and it requires vulnerability to access them. More often than not, they’re a straight road to our wounds and that’s why we want to keep our distance.

However, if we can change our narratives about ourselves, we can transform our wounds into gifts. Our crazy ideas, sensibility, disruptive perspectives, and weird dreams not only make us unique but can also bring meaning.

The individuation journey requires the courage to develop our gifts and talents, everything starts with listening to our souls and then taking action to develop them in real life and sharing them with the world.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world” (Marianne Williamson).

Lastly, if you’re serious about your individuation journey and want the best tools to integrate your shadow and develop your talents, I invite you to join the Audacity University.

You can master Jungian Psychology in 1 year to either become your own analyst or integrate it into your coaching/ therapeutic practice, as well as learn how to structure your online business.

Rafael Krüger – Live an Audacious Life

Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

• Katabasis – The Shadow Integration Manual – My best-selling and accessible course will introduce you to all you need to know to disrupt the unconscious patterns keeping you stuck.
• Audacity University – My flagship course contains a  4-year psychology curriculum and gives you access to the Audacity Inner Circle and live meetings.
• Mentorship – Catalyze your personal transformation with 1 on 1 sessions. Master your psychology, relationships, and business.