Projecting is a defense mechanism that occurs when a conflict arises between your unconscious feelings and your conscious beliefs. In order to subdue this conflict, you attribute these feelings to someone or something else. We often project things onto others when we have repressed anger, guilt, shame, or other emotions that we’ve convinced ourselves are “bad” and that don’t have a right to exist.

Instead of acknowledging these feelings and dealing with them in a way that’s healthy and productive, we repress them. The problem with doing so is that those swallowed emotions don’t just disappear when we stop paying attention to them. We push them away, deep down into the void of our unconscious, and since they’re not allowed to be released in a healthy manner, they manifest in less delightful ways.

Sometimes, you may not even be aware of the fact that you are projecting because it can be a difficult situation to navigate. Therefore, before you can truly address the underlying issues, you must first recognize when and how you might be projecting onto others. When you are capable of facing unwelcome feelings head on, you’ll find they are far less draining or damaging in the long term.