Second Self: Who Are We When We Stop Trying To Please Everyone?

In Jungian psychology, the shadow is the self we disown. It’s comprised of the parts we bury because we’ve decided they’re unacceptable. We tend to picture it as our darkness. But the shadow hides our light too: the vitality, the warmth, the joy we exile for being too much. In this personal essay, Olivia Morris explores the ways she’s spent a life shrinking herself – and the unglamorous work of letting the original one back out.