A few months ago I was sent a copy of the The Shadow Effect (Amazon) co-authored by Deepak Chopra, Debbie Ford, and Marianne Williamson.
If you’ve been a reader of How to Be Happy for any length of time, you know the importance I place on living an authentic life and being true to yourself; specifically we’re as sick as our secrets. Accepting ourselves for who we truly are takes knowing ourselves completely; accepting and dealing with some of the aspects of ourselves which we have kept hidden or are afraid of showing others.
Although none of the information I found in The Shadow Effect was groundbreaking or likely to cause additional transformation in my life, it does a great job of explaining just how and why we often self-sabotage ourselves.
The Shadow Effect is the result of living with a divided self. A self or image we show to the world and one which we keep hidden away due to shame, guilt, or fear. Yet it is from these fears and darkness we have the most to learn. From the introduction:
We will assert that it is because of our unexamined life, our darker self, our shadow self where our unclaimed power lies hidden. It is here, in this least likely place, that we will find the key to unlock our strength, our happiness, and our ability to live our our dreams.
One thing I really enjoyed about the book was the different writing styles and experiences shared by the three different authors.