Sep 24, 2026 · 1 hr 3 min · 15 segments
Send us Fan Mail Why doesn't self-awareness lead to change? Shadow journaling coach Oliver Mann, author of Shadow Journaling: A Field Guide to Personal Alchemy, explains why self-acceptance is the…
Oliver MannGuest
Abhra PalHost
Because I came into... i've been writing all my life as far as i remember i mean i'd say like i've been writing journaling for around 30 years or so but a bit large part of that was using fiction as a tool And I'm sure I said this in the other episodes as well, because it's such an important part of my development in this.
But I came into the shadow side of my work through fiction, because I realized that if I want to be a better fiction writer, I need to understand myself better.
Because essentially, I can only write a character that has the same emotional depth as myself.
So if I want to write somebody that experiences a deep emotional pain, I need to be willing to feel and look into mine to be able to put that into the character.
And if I'm scared of my own feelings and I try to write a character that has deep feelings, it won't work.
And when we read it in a character that feels trustworthy and believable, we can feel that connection.
So for me, the journaling aspect is really powerful in the sense that it gives me an opportunity to explore myself very, very deeply because I do it with intention.
Important differentiation in the sense of journaling, because just like fiction is this crazy world from, you know, high end literary fiction that's very difficult to read down to things that are considered trashy and pulp.
When it comes down to journaling, I feel there's a similar thing where people are using journaling as a way to extract what's going on inside their lives in one way or another and to externalize it.
And for some people, that might end up being a scrap journal with travel notes and elements of how their lives are lived to somebody...
Perhaps even deeper than what I'm doing, where I'm digging in very intentionally into finding out why do I feel the way that I do? And in order to figure out more about how I can live a more congruent and authentic life.
And I think it's important that I see this as a horizontal scale, not like a vertical scale of a qualitative measure.
So I think the essence for me is I want people to write because I think that the more we can get in touch with who we are, the more we're able to change the world and make it a positive place.
So I do believe that once we have a deeper understanding of who we are as people and what makes us tick and what makes us get angry and what makes us get happy, We can see that we are complex creatures.
And once we can understand the complexity that we carry inside, it's much easier for us to understand the complexity in other people.
And it doesn't match the human experience because the human experience in between people is incredibly diverse and dynamic.
Because I came into... i've been writing all my life as far as i remember i mean i'd say like i've been writing journaling for around 30 years or so but a bit large part of that was using fiction as a tool And I'm sure I said this in the other episodes as well, because it's such an important part of my development in this.
But I came into the shadow side of my work through fiction, because I realized that if I want to be a better fiction writer, I need to understand myself better.
Because essentially, I can only write a character that has the same emotional depth as myself.
So if I want to write somebody that experiences a deep emotional pain, I need to be willing to feel and look into mine to be able to put that into the character.
And if I'm scared of my own feelings and I try to write a character that has deep feelings, it won't work.
And when we read it in a character that feels trustworthy and believable, we can feel that connection.
So for me, the journaling aspect is really powerful in the sense that it gives me an opportunity to explore myself very, very deeply because I do it with intention.
Important differentiation in the sense of journaling, because just like fiction is this crazy world from, you know, high end literary fiction that's very difficult to read down to things that are considered trashy and pulp.
When it comes down to journaling, I feel there's a similar thing where people are using journaling as a way to extract what's going on inside their lives in one way or another and to externalize it.
And for some people, that might end up being a scrap journal with travel notes and elements of how their lives are lived to somebody...
Perhaps even deeper than what I'm doing, where I'm digging in very intentionally into finding out why do I feel the way that I do? And in order to figure out more about how I can live a more congruent and authentic life.
And I think it's important that I see this as a horizontal scale, not like a vertical scale of a qualitative measure.
So I think the essence for me is I want people to write because I think that the more we can get in touch with who we are, the more we're able to change the world and make it a positive place.
So I do believe that once we have a deeper understanding of who we are as people and what makes us tick and what makes us get angry and what makes us get happy, We can see that we are complex creatures.
And once we can understand the complexity that we carry inside, it's much easier for us to understand the complexity in other people.
And it doesn't match the human experience because the human experience in between people is incredibly diverse and dynamic.
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