Thank you Jesus and John ...and so it is!
*** gavin

Your shadow side is a very important part of human nature

One of the main issues that humans will be dealing with in the coming months is the need to acknowledge, address, and release their shadow side.  The shadow side is that aspect of self which is generally judged to be unacceptable by the family, religion, or culture in which one grows up.  Actually, it is a very important part of human nature and is needed as a balance to the aspect that is deemed acceptable.

Your illusory world deals in opposites – right and wrong, love and hate, fast and slow, etc. – and for harmony to flow these opposites must be balanced.  What generally happens, though, is that one side is judged “good” and the other “bad,” and the side or aspect that is judged bad is either kept hidden or it is buried deep within the subconscious realms of the mind.  Doing this causes stress and tension, and severely limits your creative abilities.

When you look at the lives and works of some of your most creative people, you can see that their shadow – unacceptable – side was very involved with the work they created, and in their daily lives and behaviors, and this is either ignored or patronizingly accepted as the “price” that people have to pay for “allowing” them (those incredibly creative ones) to entertain you with their great skills and talents.  But it remains unacceptable for anyone else to behave like them.

Not acknowledging the dark or shadow side leads to a suppressed existence and livelihood, causing internal conflict, great stress, and even psychosis for some.  Others engage with their shadow side and use it to take advantage of others, and even to control them.  Those of a religious bent often berate and abuse themselves for “bad” thoughts and feelings because of their beliefs about their unacceptability. But those thoughts and feelings are quite normal; they are a part of your human identity.  So observe them without acting on them – trying to suppress them causes them to intensify their efforts to attract your attention, possibly leading you to be permanently at war with yourself – and balance them out with the aspects that you consider acceptable or “good.”

When you allow yourselves to ponder on what has previously been judged as the unacceptable, even evil, within yourselves it becomes far less threatening, and you find that it can in fact help you with your decision-making because it gives you a far clearer picture of the issues involved and how you truly feel about them.  It enables you to live in a balanced and creative way, instead of inflexibly following paths that you have always followed, believing them to be obviously and unquestionably correct.  Many of you come up against situations like this if you have children, because they constantly question everything, and if your demands are unreasonable, then they will tell you so.  Then you either have to use your children’s input to re-evaluate and re-assess your demands on them, or you can inflexibly insist that you are the boss and that they must do as you tell them “or else!”

Recall your own childhood and how frustrating parental demands and regulations could be.  Now, looking back, you can see that some made a lot of sense, but there were also many that did not.  So, re-assess, re-evaluate, and let go of any inflexible attitudes, thought patterns, or behaviors in which you find yourselves indulging, and enjoy the enormous sense of freedom it gives you.  Every “should” should be questioned.  But mostly people just seem to accept them and act on them, or refuse and end up feeling guilty.  And the result is fatigue and depression as you are so frequently working against your inclination, your intuition, and your own absolutely reasonable wishes.

Discipline and routine are a very necessary part of your lives in the illusion, otherwise the laundry would not get done, the children would not get fed, and your boss might fire you.  Nevertheless, do not let them rule your lives; they are there to assist you, not rule you, and yet so many of you do seem to be so ruled.  If this is how your lives feel to you, then you do need to investigate your shadow side – have you totally repressed it in order survive in an unfriendly and hostile environment?

Open up to all your thoughts and feelings, observe them without judgment, and you will most likely discover that you have been ruling yourselves, at least some of the time, with an inflexible iron hand.  You will also see that you can relax, break your self-imposed rules, and find that catastrophe does not occur.  In fact life, even in the illusion, can be far less pressured and far more fun if you just allow yourselves to be yourselves!

Your loving brother, Jesus.
by John Smallman

[Below is the link to my radio interview with Stephen Cook to be broadcast on Wednesday July 25^th July at 9.00pm New York time. Afterwards it will be archived and available through the same link to listen to at your convenience, should you choose to do so, or, of course, not.

Love and hugs,
John.