His great virtues are the flipside of his failings

I'm struck by a paragraph in one of the national papers about Gordon Brown - I quote:

"He has the ability to see where the politics of something is going.  But that means he is constantly trying to trick everything to get to where he wants".

Politics aside, I think this statement is saying that strengths and weaknesses go side by side, such as transparency versus deviousness, clarity of vision vs being blind.

Often we deny aspects of ourselves - they stay in the "shadow" because we're busy getting on with our lives and are managing OK.  It's not until we hit a crisis we begin to ask ourselves different questions, and then it's harder to change because we've got more to uncover.

Adults can be wonderfully defended.  We have spent years perfecting our craft that we often end up over-identifying with some part of ourselves, ie. I'm strong, I'm weak, I'm ambitious, I'm a pessimist, I'm not angry, I'm always happy! 

We are so much more, yet in being so much more, we have to expose ourselves to our "shadow" ....

Allan Shore defines mental health as the "ability to bear more pleasure and pain" and for me this represents being more open to our strengths and vulnerabilities.

Politicians have to play this game out in the public arena - yet I think each of us can learn from their lessons!