22 Words That Chill Me to the Bone

Photo by Blake Connally on Unsplash

Recently, I’ve been looking into all the parts of myself that I hide, suppress, and deny.

Carl Jung called this shadow work and it’s the stuff that follows us around, even if it’s rarely acknowledged.

The work I’ve been doing over the last few months has helped me bring my shadow into the light and it’s been illuminating, to say the least.

I haven’t done it alone. I’ve been lucky to have been surrounded by a group of men who have all been doing the same.

My impulse to embark on such a journey was first inspired by something Ram Dass once said:

“In most of our human relationships, we spend much of our time reassuring one another that our costumes of identity are on straight”

I was tired of wearing a costume. It was too exhausting. It had resulted in me living with 20 years of anxiety and an inflamed gut.

Gabor Maté explains how and why this happens:

“Being nice and pleasing others — while socially applauded and generally acknowledged as positive traits — actually can harm our health. Decades of research point to the same conclusion: Pushing down our anger, prioritizing duty and the needs of others before our own, and…