050

I’m not inspired, I want my work to be honest and stand out

Shadowing

All Tools
SHADOWING@2x

The Context

Jung discovered that everyone carries a shadow. A dark side, aka. The unconscious aspect of our personality. The internal storehouse for anything we've disowned or rejected. His theory was that the less that the shadow was embodied in our conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. But in spite of its function as a reservoir for human darkness, this shadow can also become seat of our creativity.

The Tool

two color

Shadowing

SHADOWING — Channeling the dark, unconscious aspects of your personality in the service of your creative works

While most of us will disown our shadow, and some of us might accept it, few of us will channel it. Masters, a prominent psychology scholar who furthered the original research on the topic, explains that turning toward our shadow and making wise use of our it is a path to freedom. If we can give it compassionate room in which to breath and find fully alive, healing expression, then there's no telling what kind of contribution we might be able to make as creators.

Scott's Take

Scott's Take

When initially brainstorming the idea for my product development and innovation gameshow, one of my goals was to engage the shadow parts of myself that hadn't been expressed creatively yet. To locate feelings and emotions that had been denied or disowned, and finally let them rip. It felt like critical next step in my evolution as an artist. Because deep down, since a very young age, there was always a part of my personality that was dark, nihilistic, mischievous and morbid. And I loved that about myself. But fear always kept those feelings private. Whoa now, better not express those ideas to the world, otherwise people won't love you. If they know what kinds of weird movies are playing inside your head, they will definitely abandon you and you'll wind up penniless, lonely and forgotten. That's how my project, Steal Scott's Ideas, evolved from a blog series to a podcast to a book to a card game. In my experiment of navigating the full terrain of my emotions, drives, needs, and depths, the creative ideas flowed like iron fillings drawn to a magnet. Here's an example of some particularly shadowy material from the project. Rich kids rarely suffer consequences for their own wrongdoings. They escape unscathed and unpunished from everything. Can't somebody teach these salmon trousered pricks a lesson? Introducing a new service. Snob Hobble. A private investigation agency that orchestrates moderately harmful and traumatic experiences to wealthy teens. Through our carefully curated abduction sequence, we'll humble that polo playing bastard in ways his parents never could. Snob Hobble. Where privilege learns to bleed.

The Rest

By dropping into the unconscious parts of ourselves and giving our darkness compassionate room to breathe, new ground is covered that would have otherwise gone untilled. Don't disown it, don't merely accept it, channel it. Use it as fuel. Who could you invite into the deep, dark forest where all your unacceptable feelings and impulses are hidden from the world?

The Benefits

Engaged parts of yourself you haven’t expressed yet
Evolve as a person and professional
Navigate the full terrain of your emotions
Elevate your work to a more authentic expression

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