Shadow work refers to the process of embracing the rejected pieces of ourselves, our darkness. This includes emotions viewed as negative like hatred, anger, jealousy, greed and neediness.
It also includes the most pained, injured parts of ourselves, the parts most vulnerable, those we wish didn’t exist.
We naturally prefer to avoid uncomfortable feelings, thoughts and memories. But that doesn’t mean they disappear. Instead, they keep living a secret life in our unconscious.
In order to become whole human beings, we have to learn to embrace not just our light but also our shadow and heal wounds from childhood (because we all have them).
The world we live in is bipolar. No day without night. No hot without cold. No light without darkness.
Shadow Work is the process of making the unconscious conscious by exposing our inner darkness to the light of our highest truth. It is a deeply healing process, because you develop true awareness of your WHOLE self and compassionately reconcile with that which is no longer serving you. Shadow Work is an ongoing process and not a one-and-done process you can knock out in a single therapy session or an hour journaling.
Shadow Work requires you to undergo 4 steps:
- Become aware of your Shadow: Acknowledge that you have a Shadow – a darker side of you that needs loving work
- Identify your Shadow’s voice: Identify the inner voice you’ve been listening to as that of your Shadow Self.
- Meet your Shadow: Directly engage your Shadow through journaling, internal conversations, guided meditations, and sometimes even through dreams.
- Befriend your Shadow: Your Shadow is still full of old information. Update it and invite it to transform and heal with you so that it knows you have released old patterns of thoughts and behaviours that are no longer serving you .
If Shadow Work is avoided or overlooked, then you further suppress your Shadow deeper into your unconscious, which leads to many concerns, namely poor mental, emotional, and psychological health, emotionally flooded reactions, anxiety, unhealed trauma, low self-esteem, poor relational health and other symptoms of mental illness.
When you should begin Shadow Work ?
If any of the below is true, you are ready to begin Shadow Work:
- You’ve been wearing an “I’m fine” mask.
- You feel fragmented, as if some part of you won’t let you rest.
- You feel like ‘the truth’ is eating you alive.
- You don’t feel like you’re living authentically.
- You feel ‘undesirable’ or ‘unacceptable.’
There are countless benefits, but the primary benefit to Shadow Work is that it allows you to be fully seen and known. As you re-educate and heal your wounded self, your inner light of truth will ripple out into every realm of your life – your relationship with yourself, your past, others, and even your higher self. There is wisdom hiding in those dark places, and it is only by facing the darkness that we find healing, our inner light, and our deepest most authentic truth. Integrating your Shadow isn’t easy – but it’s worth it.
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