“As Shakespeare so brilliantly said, “The lady doth protest too much.” Whatever quality, behavior, or feeling we find ourselves righteously denying, we can be certain that is the one we are harboring deep within our own psyche. We don’t have to look far to discover that we are usually doing the exact thing we are judging others for. It may show up in a completely different way, yet the driving force behind our behavior is, in fact, the same. It can sometimes be challenging to identify the driving force in ourselves, because we may not be displaying the exact behavior as the person we are projecting onto, but it is there within us. When we have a trait that doesn’t have a cover plate over it (to use the earlier image of multiple electrical outlets), we draw people and incidents into our life to help us acknowledge, heal, and embrace that denied aspect.”

Excerpt From: Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson & Debbie Ford. “The Shadow Effect”