{"id":6874,"date":"2025-01-18T14:11:51","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T14:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/la-vie-et-apres.fr\/love-yourself-unconditionally-even-your-shadow\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T12:27:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T12:27:06","slug":"love-yourself-unconditionally-even-your-shadow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/la-vie-et-apres.fr\/en\/love-yourself-unconditionally-even-your-shadow\/","title":{"rendered":"Love yourself unconditionally – even your shadow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Loving your shadow: the profound message of NDEs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) give us an overwhelming message: we are loved unconditionally<\/strong>, with every facet of our being, including those we hide out of shame or fear. Even our shadows, our past mistakes, our wounded parts: nothing can exclude us from this total love<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n

Pure, non-judgmental love<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

During one of my most intense spiritual experiences, I felt this absolute, unconditional love. A Presence surrounded me, filled me, loved me without expectation or judgment<\/strong>. It was “chemically pure” love, 100% love. Unimaginable for our judgmental minds, but profoundly real. <\/p>\n\n

Since then, I’ve known that my thoughts of guilt or self-judgment aren’t proof that I’m at fault<\/strong>. It’s those thoughts themselves that are the problem, not who I am. <\/p>\n\n

Reconciling with your shadow to welcome others<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Rejecting a part of ourselves, however small, often means rejecting others. We project our own rejection onto those who embody what we reject in ourselves<\/strong>. For example, my intolerance of selfishness in others reflected my own difficulty in accepting my own selfish impulses. <\/p>\n\n

Kenneth Ring puts it this way:<\/p>\n\n

“Experiencers teach us to return to love. This love frees us from the prison of judgments, toward ourselves as well as toward others.”<\/p>\n\n

Essential inner healing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

We desperately need this inner healing<\/strong>. We often think that love depends on what we show others. But NDEs and the greatest spiritual traditions remind us that we are beings of light and love<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n

The causes of our hurtful behavior are fear, suffering and unconsciousness. But these things never alter our deepest essence<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n

Thomas Merton said:<\/p>\n\n

“To say that I am made in God’s image is to say that love is my true identity.”<\/p>\n\n

To love is to make life more beautiful<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Marshall Rosenberg, creator of Nonviolent Communication, explained:<\/p>\n\n

“Our fundamental need is to make life more beautiful, from the divine energy within us.”<\/p>\n\n

And it’s by reconnecting to this energy of love that we transform ourselves, and the world around us<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

We are loved unconditionally. Even our sexuality <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Sexuality, and homosexuality in particular<\/strong>, is often a source of suffering. Several homosexual Emists report that, during their life review, this question was not even raised<\/strong>. Not judged. Not pointed out. I repeat: it wasn’t a subject! Unless the Emist himself or herself brought it up. <\/p>\n\n

Here’s the emblematic testimony of a homosexual woman who grew up in the American South. She was steeped in a rigorist Christian religion, which considers homosexuals to be hated by God and to go to hell for their homosexuality. <\/p>\n\n

She explains, “I was wondering how I could be with God, because I’d always been taught that God threw homosexuals into hell, since they were an abomination. So I asked: I’m a homosexual, will you still love me? <\/p>\n\n

In response, I was caught in a divine embrace full of love and felt an explosion of happiness and joy. Then God said, laughing and with a Southern accent, “You are my child. You are my child. I love you. I love you. I love you.” And he added, ‘Go get ’em!”, as if he were a coach sending a player back onto the field.” <\/p>\n\n

This moving testimony reminds us that even what we think is a barrier to divine love is not<\/strong>. Nothing can separate us from that love. <\/p>\n\n

Jesus and welcoming all shadows<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

The Gospels are full of stories of Jesus welcoming the excluded:<\/p>\n\n