How not to lose your shadow on Instagram*? Recently, under one of my posts, an interesting topic for discussion was born: the influence of the “ideal” world of Instagram on our emotional state. I just recently remembered read Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale about the shadow. About how one simple hardworking professor lost his Shadow, which itself became a man - rich and influential, knowing everything about other people’s sins and tricks, and one day simply deprived the professor of his life for the sake of his prosperity. What does this fairy tale have to do with it? Each of us has something that remains in the shadows, something that is unrecognized by us. These may be socially unacceptable qualities, or they may be those of our desires, feelings or experiences that we ourselves do not accept due to some internal standards or ideals. For example: a feeling of powerlessness, that I cannot control something that I can’t do everything at all. And then it becomes a shadow, and the person tries to live under the auspices of his own omnipotence (here magical thinking comes to the rescue - “think only about the good, and then nothing bad will happen, and all your dreams will come true”). Ignoring the shadow is dangerous, since we We may, without realizing it, end up in her captivity. Remaining unrecognized, it takes control over what we choose for ourselves, what feelings and emotions we avoid, how we behave with other people. But in the world of Instagram, this split (into light and dark) works 200%. In the world of Instagram, it is customary to show the perfect picture, or, less often, to expose your most painful and furious feelings. But the real world is not so simple. Not black and white. And in order not to lose your shadow, plunging into the exciting reality of Instagram, it is important to remember and, most importantly, to admit it! - the versatility of our feelings - where there is not only light, happiness, positivity, cleanliness in the house, and the color of the plates matches the color of the curtains in the kitchen, but also other feelings that may not be so easy to flaunt and advertise, but without them it would be impossible for us to have real contact with ourselves, to find our own path and refuse what is not yours.👉 The first “signals” of our shadow when viewing our Instagram feed are a feeling of irritation, disappointment, sadness or anger at ourselves, instead of, for example, inspiration. Take a closer look at what topics cause such feelings? Is there a desire for “ideality” in these topics? Perhaps this is where the “shadow” hid... And in the shadow there is a lot of strength and resource. And in motherhood there is also a lot that is idealized and - shadow... * Instagram belongs to the company Meta, which is recognized as an extremist organization in Russia.