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The poem below was inspired by The Shadow Effect movie in combination with my own spiritual growth and self reflection.
One of my main takeaways from the movie was how important it is that for each of us to truly forgive ourselves in a very deep personal way.
Most of us do not ‘really‘ acknowledge our perceived negative parts of our personality, The Shadow Effect brings to our attention that this part of us, when discovered, acknowledged, and reflected upon can become some what of a positive piece of our personality. It can and will add facets to our self understanding that we never considered. And changing this negative to a partial positive, will help us find more happiness in our own lives.
When I thought deeply about my own self forgiveness, I was inspired to write the poem below.
My Child
My Child…
You’d never have allowed yourself, never forgiven yourself,
never have set yourself free.
Never have deemed yourself worthy, had I not prepared a path for you
to follow and held the light for you to see.
____________________________________________
Only within the light of my reflection, within the safety of my never ending,
never changing — love could you see.
Could you open your eyes wide enough, to contemplate your brightness/
ponder yourself being what I’ve always known you to be.
____________________________________________
You See My Children…
You are on a journey…. to eventually becoming…
eventually becoming just like me
An angel of Light in the Darkness… that shinesbrightly…
so bright all will one day see
____________________________________________
This is my gift to you… You had been designed from the beginning
to be just like me.
Created in my image, crafted from my hands, my master work
my reflection – the way I created you to be.
____________________________________________
But our common attributes you could not see through the cloudy, dull
reflection you saw yourself to be…
Through me… Only then…Would you gaze upon your own reflection,and
see the beauty that I see…
For I am perfection! — The highest reflection of God!
What you COULD and WILL ALWAYS be
____________________________________________
Were You Not Listening My Child…
When I told you…when I told you — follow me
follow me into the light of abundance — and be ALL that you can be
For I Know You Well My Child…
I know the forgiveness you’d blind yourself from giving,
forgiveness that would set you free
____________________________________________
I know all about you. You are more important, more loved
than you’d ever believe yourself to be!
You see My Child…
You Are Mine… You Live Deep in my Heart
where you will ALWAYS and FOREVER be!
*
What I Discovered
We know as human beings that we are exceedingly complex and thatthese complexities include are conscious and subconscious minds.
The part of our subconscious mind that we rarely think about, our perceived negative traits and characteristics. Since these traits live in our subconscious, if they are never discovered, we rarely realize that they are there until something happens.
The Shadow Effect shows you how to look deeper into your shadow (your perceived negative subconscious mind). Looking deeper, you discover that these parts of yourself although initially painful, into these traits, leads to a greater understanding of who we are in the totality of our personality.
Only when we fully understand the entirety of ourselves, can we begin the healing process by accepting and reigning in our full personality, we experience it’s benefits, which leads to increased happiness in our lives.
The movie has two versions, the full movie version and the 2 disk interactive version. I loved the interactive version and found it incredibly helpful and is the version that I recommend.
The idea is to watch the full movie to get the uninterrupted experience of the movie. Then whenever it’s convenient and you feel ready, to go through the interactive disk, which guides you through a process of personal self discovery. In this interactive piece, you are fully customizing the experience to your life, your personality, and your specific situation. I feel that this piece is very valuable and it is definitely worth the few extra bucks to buy the interactive version.
The Shadow Effect movie trailer
How To Get Your Copy of The Movie
I personally own two of Debbie Ford’s books; The Best Year of Your Life and The Right Questions. Because Debbie Ford has been working on this process for nearly fifteen years, most of her books are correlated overall in the same direction. I found the books to add to my experience, although I read both books before I saw the movie.
Since I own the products below, I feel comfortable recommending them to you because I truly believe this is a process of self discovery that will enhance and improve your life.
The Shadow Effect movie dvd - $15.96
The Best Year of Your Life softcover book $12.00
The Shadow Effect movie dvd - Interactive Edition $23.96
The Right Questions softcover book - $12.00
I hope this post has touched your heart in some way. It has touched my heart deeply just putting these thoughts into words. Vicky
Update:I wrote a continuation of this poem called, My Child… Your Gift if your interested in reading it.
touching poem — talking to your inner child. I love the What you could and always will be concept. We are already perfect, and we can see that if we choose to.
thank you,
@debworks
What an incredible poem Vicky.
You wrote a good review, and I’ve seen the movie, but not the interactive part yet… I’m looking forward to diving in.. I’ve done a lot of shadow work over the years, but Debbie Ford has certainly positioned herself to the be Shadow Queen, and rightly so…. her books show us how to approach the shadow and be gentle with ourselves.
You’ve obviously done that.
Vicky, very insightful and moving thoughts and I thank you for sharing them here. Embracing our whole self really does allow us to forgive, heal and become truly whole. The poem is incredible and I hope that you will be inspired to write and share more in the future. You really are remarkable my friend!
Thank you all for your wonderful comments. The one thing that I didn’t really share in this post is that I never write poems. After watching the movie and having an earlier conversation with a close friend, the combination of the two created an ‘Aha’ moment for me.
The part of the movie that really inspired me was ‘that you do not know what happiness is (or would have nothing to compare the feeling to) had you not first had sadness. In order to appreciate one moment, as people we need to have an opposite feeling to compare it to. In my mind I was thinking the Yin and the Yang… A scale perfectly balanced on both sides (ie.. like a lawyers scale was the visual). When the movie mentioned cause and effect, up and down, expand and contract making me think that in this way, our perceived negative experiences really do add something to our lives, the ability to feel the opposite emotion at the opposite level of intensity.
Thinking about forgiveness, specifically self forgiveness, got me thinking about my own spirituality, specifically prayer and asking forgiveness from God. Then I thought, wow, if forgiveness sets us free from the bonds that bind us, God is so smart and loving to tell us to confess our sins and he will forgive us.
Then I started thinking about if I forgive myself. Thinking if God can forgive me, why do I have such issues forgiving myself. Then I thought of that Bible verse that says confess your sins and in essence move on and don’t sin again.
I thought if I am trying to model my spiritual beliefs in my own life and the person in essence that I’m modeling has forgiven me, then if I cannot forgive myself, I am not doing a very good job of modeling that person at all. If I don’t forgive myself, then I’m not loving myself, and that made me think “I’m doing an even worse job than I origonally thought”. With those two pieces in my mind thinking differently, it was like the last puzzle piece in a puzzle that I’d been trying to put together for years.
To know God, you must know yourself. To know yourself, you must look at the complete picture or at least know what’s there so you can see a whole picture of yourself.
Then I realized why my modeling was so off… The poem was my thinking about how God loves me… Forgives me… and accepts me…
and that I need to do the same, not at an ego level, but at a level of self love, not being detremental to your own thinking, your own perception, your own self confidence.
This explanation was in answer to @johnhaydon’s question.
I also wanted to update everyone who read this poem, that there is also a second part called, My Child… Your Gift, which came to me as I was driving to work today.
Thank you all so much again. I love these two poems and think it is the best that I’ve written since I wrote Who Taught My Kid That Four Letter Word, which was quite a while ago.
Someone told me once that the only sin is to not forgive. Sometimes we need permission to forgive ourselves–thanks Vicky.
I don’t think that we are telling the shadow to “get out of here” like Corinne says… rather we are welcoming our shadow so that we can have access to all of our qualities and use them at the appropriate time. It is when they go underground –hidden–shamed that we get into trouble with them.
Vicky, your poem is straight from the heart! and is a reflection of your own healing process. Thank you so much for sharing!
I am blown away by your poem! You have such a gentle, loving, spirit within you. How can we love and be loved, if we do not first love ourselves? I’m so excited to watch “The Shadow Effect,” thanks to you, Michelle VandePas and CK Reyes bringing this fine work to our attention.
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touching poem — talking to your inner child. I love the What you could and always will be concept. We are already perfect, and we can see that if we choose to.
thank you,
@debworks
Vicky – It sounds like you’ve done some great work! I’d love to hear more specifics about how the Shadow Effect impacted you.
What an incredible poem Vicky.
You wrote a good review, and I’ve seen the movie, but not the interactive part yet… I’m looking forward to diving in.. I’ve done a lot of shadow work over the years, but Debbie Ford has certainly positioned herself to the be Shadow Queen, and rightly so…. her books show us how to approach the shadow and be gentle with ourselves.
You’ve obviously done that.
Vicky, very insightful and moving thoughts and I thank you for sharing them here. Embracing our whole self really does allow us to forgive, heal and become truly whole. The poem is incredible and I hope that you will be inspired to write and share more in the future. You really are remarkable my friend!
Vicky, I love the layers of meaning implicit in the poem – you/yourself and God/you. Very strong imagery and words. Thank you for sharing it with us!
Vicky, What a powerful, touching poem you have written, such a moving statement of love.
Dear Vicky -
Poetry is my first love and a book of poetry was the first thing I got published.
I love this part of your poem – I believe this.
“For I am perfection! — The highest reflection of God!
What you COULD and WILL ALWAYS be.”
I saw the movie also and found it to be compelling.
My take was a little different. I think the movie gave the impression that in discovering your “Shadow” it would go away.
I think that the benefit is in identifying it so that when it comes up – and it does –
You can say -
“Getouttahere! I know you now.”
Wow!
Thank you all for your wonderful comments. The one thing that I didn’t really share in this post is that I never write poems. After watching the movie and having an earlier conversation with a close friend, the combination of the two created an ‘Aha’ moment for me.
The part of the movie that really inspired me was ‘that you do not know what happiness is (or would have nothing to compare the feeling to) had you not first had sadness. In order to appreciate one moment, as people we need to have an opposite feeling to compare it to. In my mind I was thinking the Yin and the Yang… A scale perfectly balanced on both sides (ie.. like a lawyers scale was the visual). When the movie mentioned cause and effect, up and down, expand and contract making me think that in this way, our perceived negative experiences really do add something to our lives, the ability to feel the opposite emotion at the opposite level of intensity.
Thinking about forgiveness, specifically self forgiveness, got me thinking about my own spirituality, specifically prayer and asking forgiveness from God. Then I thought, wow, if forgiveness sets us free from the bonds that bind us, God is so smart and loving to tell us to confess our sins and he will forgive us.
Then I started thinking about if I forgive myself. Thinking if God can forgive me, why do I have such issues forgiving myself. Then I thought of that Bible verse that says confess your sins and in essence move on and don’t sin again.
I thought if I am trying to model my spiritual beliefs in my own life and the person in essence that I’m modeling has forgiven me, then if I cannot forgive myself, I am not doing a very good job of modeling that person at all. If I don’t forgive myself, then I’m not loving myself, and that made me think “I’m doing an even worse job than I origonally thought”. With those two pieces in my mind thinking differently, it was like the last puzzle piece in a puzzle that I’d been trying to put together for years.
To know God, you must know yourself. To know yourself, you must look at the complete picture or at least know what’s there so you can see a whole picture of yourself.
Then I realized why my modeling was so off… The poem was my thinking about how God loves me… Forgives me… and accepts me…
and that I need to do the same, not at an ego level, but at a level of self love, not being detremental to your own thinking, your own perception, your own self confidence.
This explanation was in answer to @johnhaydon’s question.
I also wanted to update everyone who read this poem, that there is also a second part called, My Child… Your Gift, which came to me as I was driving to work today.
The url to the second poem is http://remarkableparents.com/my-child-your-gift/
Thank you all so much again. I love these two poems and think it is the best that I’ve written since I wrote Who Taught My Kid That Four Letter Word, which was quite a while ago.
Someone told me once that the only sin is to not forgive. Sometimes we need permission to forgive ourselves–thanks Vicky.
I don’t think that we are telling the shadow to “get out of here” like Corinne says… rather we are welcoming our shadow so that we can have access to all of our qualities and use them at the appropriate time. It is when they go underground –hidden–shamed that we get into trouble with them.
Vicky, your poem is straight from the heart! and is a reflection of your own healing process. Thank you so much for sharing!
I am blown away by your poem! You have such a gentle, loving, spirit within you. How can we love and be loved, if we do not first love ourselves? I’m so excited to watch “The Shadow Effect,” thanks to you, Michelle VandePas and CK Reyes bringing this fine work to our attention.
Thanks, Mary-Lynn! I LOVE this work. Any ideas on how to share it with more people?
[...] Vicky Hennegan at Remarkable Parents wrote a poem My Child–A Spiritual Reflection. [...]
This was a very nice poem that touched my heart.