3 Benefits of Accepting Yourself and Your Dark Side

Accepting yourself is a huge stepping stone toward living the fulfilling life you were meant to live. I don’t think anyone’s going to debate that. But, what about accepting your dark side? Do you need to embrace your dark side before you can become your best self?

Yes! If you believe in the psychology of Carl Jung, a highly regarded psychologist and psychiatrist. Jung believed that the psyche — the center of our thoughts and feelings — is composed of the ego, persona, shadow, anima, and animus. The Shadow is your dark side.

Your Shadow is the “you” that you do your best to hide from the world. Your Shadow possesses all the traits that you, or society, deem unacceptable. So, you instinctually repress these traits, and they end up floating around in your subconscious.

But, if you can accept yourself by accepting your Shadow and integrating it into your consciousness, what benefits could you reap? Well, here are a few:

1. You will know true morality. Being a moral person doesn’t mean that you are 100% “good.” It means that you are aware of your Shadow and know how to control it.
2. You will know how to control your aggression. Your aggression is sure to come out in full force and in harmful ways if it is repressed. When you integrate your Shadow, you stop repressing your aggression and, instead, integrate it into your consciousness — you accept the feelings and bring them under your control.

Keep scrolling for benefit #3.