“When we are willing to acknowledge that our pain, traumas, and heartaches have in fact equipped us with wisdom essential for our growth, we naturally forgive and even bless those who came into our life to teach us those difficult lessons. Our lives are divinely designed for each one of us to get exactly what we need to deliver our own unique expression to the world.

Our mind may tell us that bad is bad, good is good, and that we can never really be all that we dream of being, but if our shadow could talk, it would tell us otherwise. It would tell us that our brightest light can shine only when we’ve accepted our darkness. It would reassure us that there is wisdom in every wound. It would show us that life is a magical journey of making peace with both our humanity and divinity.

Our shadow would tell us that we deserve better, that we matter, that we are more than we ever dreamed possible, and that there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
As we embrace our shadow, we find out that we are living a divine plan, a plan so important, so vital for our own evolution and the evolution of humankind.

“Like the lotus flower that is born out of mud, we must honor the darkest parts of ourselves and the most painful of our life’s experiences, because they are what allow us to birth our most beautiful self. We need the messy, muddy past, the muck of our human life—the combination of every hurt, wound, loss, and unfulfilled desire blended with every joy, success, and blessing to give us the wisdom, the perspective, and the drive to step into the most magnificent expression of ourselves. This is the gift of the shadow.”

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