Jonah and his Feeling of Not Living Up to Expectations
Jonah was a biblical figure whom God entrusted with a task, and feeling incapable of fulfilling this mission, he shied away from his destiny. "I will not live up to such a challenge," he concluded in fear.
Abraham Maslow, the father of Humanistic Psychology, based on this ancient story called the "Jonah Complex" to which the...
- Tendency to deny one's talents.
- Inability to recognise one's greatness.
- Incapacity to explore one's capabilities.
What is the consequence of such omission?
When we stagnate below our possibilities, after some time, we experience something like a feeling of "self-betrayal." That is, deep down, we recognise that having been able to do more... we only dared to go so far.
What does Traditional Psychology tell us?
Traditional psychology has always told us that we repress "the dark side," the negative and unacceptable parts of ourselves. We also repress our traumas and our conflicts. As a result, what we are ashamed to admit is locked away in the depths of the unconscious, which also tends to betray us when we let our guard down.
The Golden Shadow
However, Transpersonal Psychology, the psychology I choose in my life and to work with, asserts with absolute conviction that this is only one part of the vast unconscious that inhabits us. In this enigmatic and intimate place, there is also a wealth of skills, abilities, and positive resources that sleep within us and await to be unfolded by those who dare to step out of their comfort zone.
Carl G. Jung called this own and so beneficial heritage the "Golden Shadow" to differentiate it from that other Shadow, which traditional psychology talks about, the seat of the lowest self. Regarding this, Jung tells us:
It's not simply the "dark" side of our personality that we neglect, disdain, and repress. We can do the same with our most positive and harmonious qualities.
What resides in the Golden Shadow?
To conquer, create, grow, undertake, achieve, and dare to do more implies the challenge of appropriating, seizing, and using those resources that dwell in our wise and luminous unconscious.
Many people notice their capabilities when life gives no option and demands more...
It's then that, suddenly, comfort is removed, and we discover our entrepreneurial, helpful, or lucid facet.
When a crisis shakes certainties, creativity sprouts like grass under the earth.
For example, when circumstances press, bravery, which we did not know about ourselves, bursts forth with overwhelming internal strength. This courage is part of our Golden Shadow that we kept gagged and not unfolded.
When the Golden Shadow appears, we surprise ourselves
Like someone who marvels at themselves... feeling unknown and foreign, admits in a low tone:
"I didn’t think I was capable of…” Others might say: “I didn’t know you were so... talented, virtuous, brave, persevering, creative, or daring."
The list of characteristics can go on as long as there are people since no one came to this world without gifts and talents to offer.
And it's important to reflect that we can and have the moral and spiritual responsibility to water the seeds that were given to us so that they can be used and benefited by others just as each of us enjoys and rejoices in what many people who dared to go beyond their limitations, impossibilities, and fears and deployed their gifts achieved. Thus, evolution is built among all while we achieve our self-realisation. A transcendental view is an excellent motivation when those who undertake, in addition to pursuing personal success, can see beyond their benefits and become active agents of collective change.
To undertake from this place is to add brushstrokes to a painting we frame together. It is to endow your company, idea, or project with a value that gives it a priceless sense.
A transcendental view is an excellent motivation when those who undertake, in addition to pursuing personal success, can see beyond their benefits and become active agents of collective change.
Being the best version of oneself is illuminating that Golden Shadow
Perhaps that song waiting to be sung... that business waiting to be carried out... that talent yet to be shown... that risk waiting to be taken..., is part of bringing to light the best you have to give birth to.
Evolution is built among all while we achieve our self-realisation.
Tolerating uncertainty, recognising that in every gain there is some loss, that there is no success without error, that criticism hurts but does not kill, that there are as many possibilities as ideas you want to think, that one can recover from ridicule and that it is possible to bet again, are the challenges that those who are willing to go beyond what they believe they are capable of and achieve what Jonah, imprisoned by his insecurities and fears, could not conceive:
"Feeling up to your dreams"
Do you take the time daily to question and nurture your gifts and talents?
You'll be benefiting yourself and others. Your Golden Shadow awaits to be awakened; don't let it sleep for the rest of your life. Your fulfilment depends on your courage to exercise and beautify it every day. Without pressures, without demands, enjoying the journey of displaying the talents that each one has to give themselves and offer to humanity.