Shadow work & reclaiming projections

“I’m just under so much pressure.”

How often have you uttered a phrase like this, or thought it to yourself?

In today’s busy world, it is all too often that we feel the pressure of our responsibilities weighing us down, like a weight tied to our ankle that tries to pull us beneath the surface while we frantically tread water.

But what if I told you that this pressure is all imagined; a simple trick of the mind that nobody ever told us about?

And not just sometimes. But all the time.

Well, guess what? It is.

You see, in reality, “pressure” is just a projection of our own misplaced “drive” or “desire.” This might sound crazy, but bear with me here.

You only feel “pressure” from what others ask of you when it’s something that you yourself want to do.

Think about it for a minute.

Let’s say your boss asks you to cancel your dinner plans and work late on a Friday.

You might feel pressure from your boss to comply.

You may think “he keeps putting pressure on me to work these long hours.”

And truth be told, he may even be actively trying to put pressure on you.

But if a part of you did not want to comply, then you wouldn’t feel any pressure.

It could be because you want to please your boss, you want to receive a good performance review, you want to get a promotion and make more money, or even just that you want to keep your job.

But no matter the reason, it is because of something you want.

You may have forgotten that in your mind, but that desire still exists and so you feel it as pressure coming from outside of you.  Forgetting that it’s coming from yourself, you project it onto your boss. 

The solution is as simple as identifying it as a projection of your own desire. By re-owning that projection, you embody that desire and decide how to use it.

If you really want to please your boss and get that promotion, and this is what it takes, then you can own that shit and work late knowing that you are taking steps to achieve your goal.

And what you previously felt as pressure, you instead can feel as your own motivated drive to achieve.

If looking it square in the face makes you realize that you would rather not work for a boss that would ask such things of you, then maybe you decide to turn him down.

And nothing he says can “pressure” you into doing otherwise, because you have already made a clear decision in your mind on what you want.

By accurately identifying projected emotions such as pressure, you can begin to see situations more clearly, as they truly are. Because the truth of the matter is that most of us have gone around handing out pieces of ourselves to others, only to end up shadow boxing ourselves.

We give away our drive and then feel pressure, pass around our excitement only to feel anxiety, forget our own abilities and envy those of others.

But when we cut through the illusion and get to the truth of the matter, the veil begins to fade, and we can take back these pieces of ourselves. This re-owning of projections is often referred to as “shadow work” and can make a huge difference in your life.

Below are a few examples, adapted from Ken Wilber’s excellent book No Boundary: 

It might be easy to dismiss this idea at first, but give it a chance and really dig into these examples.

I trust that the more you play with them, the more you will realize them to be true.

And just by changing your perception, you can take back the energy and power you've been giving away.