Someone’s shadow represents precisely those things they struggle to accept. The opposite of acceptance is resistance. We waste so much time and precious mental-spiritual energy to resist parts of ourselves, while in truth, at the core of self-development is self-acceptance. Unfortunately, what we fight in ourselves, we strengthen. Jung saw this 100 years ago as he developed the foundations of psychotherapy, and it is still true today. Acceptance means releasing attachment to how we think we should be. It requires the willingness to surrender the idea that, with enough self-improvement, we can create an entirely different person from who we are today. The serenity prayer is so powerful here. The truth is some aspects of ourselves we can change, and others we must simply learn to accept and live with. The sooner we embrace the unchangeables, the sooner we can incorporate them and become more whole.
