“It is the part of you that you are ashamed of. The part of you that you wished you were not.”

“The shadow needs attention, not from the world, only from you. It is a process of constantly relating to it. If you don’t, it will make you do destructive things. Being in sync with your shadow is a sense of wholeness. Wholeness means: I don’t need anything else. I am whole the way I am.”

My shadow: Shy, unconfident, not good enough, undesirable, loser.

How was it destructive to me? I pursued people who did not and could not truly love me. I tried to grab at fame. Because if I became famous, I wouldn’t feel like my shadow anymore.

Have I reconciled with my shadow? Not completely, but to a great deal, by embracing, more and more each day, my solitude - a place where I don’t have to be confident or better than anyone else or desirable or a winner; a place where I am content with myself.