..Interesting question! Everyone does have a shadow, a "dark side", I like to read books on a variety of spiritual angles! I think that to really appreciate life you should know yourself and explore within!

I never embrace anything negative, dark, shady, seemy, hurtful, unkind, or ugly. I am an optimistic/positive person and that is where I dwell..I do not seek the dark side, nor will I allow myself ever to go there..for what purpose what that serve? Myself? No. Others? I think not. That is just my opinion. I can think of nothing constructive with regard to enbracing your "shadow" as you have defined that word. :)

I've heard of this kind of concept before have explored some psychologists and philosopher's ideas on it. I find that I am continuously interested in finding out more about it though. In fact that's exactly how I found your question and then created an account so I could post and answer and maybe post some questions myself. So here goes a quick one. The 'shadow' as I understand it is defined as the left-out, unconscious, unacknowledged, unaccepted, or unwanted aspects of the self (whatever the 'self' is - ie source of identification, the seat of will and intention, a sort of defense system in the best or healthiest sense of the term). Anyway, the shadow is all the stuff that we unknowingly or purposely block out, ignore, deny, are afraid of, avoid, or are disgusted by, and then project it outward into the world around us instead of facing it and owning it. A curious thing is that these projections and disownings of the shadow can be both bad and good, negative and positive, things we run from because they bring us down and things we avoid because we are actually afraid of our own capacities and potentials. But they are aspects of ourself that we need to face in order to be healthy and whole and to use our energy wisely. An example of shadow identifying and then owning could be like when you are angry but you don't want to admit that you are angry because it doesn't jive with the ideal image that you have for yourself. So lets say you are angry at your boss for whatever reason, they expect respect without trying to earn it or they play cat and mouse games with you to display and exercise their power and maybe they like that having that power just a little bit more than duty decrees (the corrupt bastard). So you have anger, you are angry, but you don't think you're angry, in fact you think that THEY are angry. Every time the boss comes around you sense a tension between you two and think that they are angry but really you are the one with anger problems, you just don't want to face the anger for whatever reason -maybe the stress and complexity that facing the issue holds. That's not necessarily the best example and I have to go now, but there is all kinds of information on the topic out there. read Jung or Ken Wilber or try searching for terms like "shadow work". I don't encourage embracing the dark side in the sense that you like it or give way to the darkness. but acknowledging and owning the shadow or being the shadow is a step in the right direction. the only things i really hate with passion are ignorance, what weakness does to people, oppression in general and fear, even though caution is useful.

So I guess the naughty thoughts I have are from my 'dark side'? I guess I own my shadow by expressing those thoughts with friends.

Practice meditation.

Some interesting comments on here.! Thank you Aloha Girl for your compliment Rosie GHM Jetpacker, I know you are bitter about things but I think your words are a bit harsh, could you accept the strong words if the shoe was on the other foot so to speak? x

Very good question. When I have a strong reaction to the behavior of others and then see that I am capable of expressing similar behavior, then I notice two things. Firstly I am less reactive and judgemental about the "others" behavior and kinder to myself sooner when i tend to be super critical of myself. This is just one small piece of owning my shadow.

not sure