Itâs a really, really good question â seeing is shadow work is pretty much looking at your worst negative traits, isnât it?
âŠAnd itâs the reason a lot of folks are wary of shadow diving in the first place, especially if youâre into Law of Attraction or read a lot about how you should be keeping your frequency HIGH. (And if youâve been into spirituality for at least the last 10 years then THAT program can run pretty deep).
What is Shadow Work?
A quick re-cap â shadow work is the process of looking into your unconscious, to find out whatâs hidden there.
Pretty much all of us humans have spent lifetimes disowning aspects of our personalities.
Parts that are âtoo thisâŠâ
âToo thatâŠâ
âNot enough thisâŠâ
âNot enough thatâŠâ
And these parts get pushed away and forgotten about by the conscious mind (ego), either gradually over time (due to family, social or cultural constructs) or sometimes suddenly due to shock or trauma.
Makes sense. We all have to fit in here.
Yet there comes a point in many peopleâs lives, when they go searching. Searching for the pieces that they lost⊠the pieces that got hidden in the shadow. But of course, the journey into the shadowlands often involves:
a) looking at all those unwanted, unlovable and âtoo thisâŠâ or âtoo thatâŠâ pieces, and
b) searching out and remembering the trauma that caused those parts to fracture off in the first place.
So the process of shadow work isnât a walk in the park!
Itâs not pretty, itâs not glamorous, or uplifting, or anything close to âhigh vibeâ and âlove and lightâ and all those cliched spiritual states of being.
But we do it.
We do it because the results of shadow work are worth it.
The gains made through searching out your shadow self, and piecing your story (and yourself) back together are absolutely re-empowering from the core. And no amount of surface-level âlove and lightâ will compare.
(You can read about 20 benefits of shadow work here)
BUT will the process of healing your shadow, bring negativity into your life?
You know â before you actually get to that place of shadow integration and âwholenessâ, will shadow work attract bad stuff?
Letâs get back to the question.
I get it. I am also one of those people who found a dusty copy of âthe Secretâ on an old bookshelf about 15 years ago, and agree that yes, what you focus on does create your reality âŠSo will focusing on the shadow bring more âshadow into your lifeâ
The quick answer is: No.
Whateverâs in your shadow, is in your shadow already, whether youâre conscious of it or not.
This means that by doing your shadow work, youâre not bringing anything into being⊠youâre only bringing it to light. Your shadow (and any perceived negativity it holds) may feel more present in your life, but the truth is itâs no more present than it was last week.
Whatâs contained in your shadow IS already creating your reality
Those hidden fragments of your shadow self have already been attracting every experience you have!
âŠBut up until this point, you simply havenât had any conscious awareness of it.
So the most important first step of any shadow work method or program is self-realisation. Itâs seeing whatâs already there.
But something else happens when youâre doing your shadow work properly too:
The way I teach shadow work, self-inquiry is guided with absolute compassion.
Thereâs no space for self-judgment or self-criticism (thatâs what caused the fragmentation in the first place!) But instead, the work is to hold and witness whatever unfolds with a kind and generous neutrality. What then happens is that any suppressed pieces of the self that choose to re-emerge from the shadow, come back because they know theyâre not being seen as negative anymore.
This is a really, really important step.
And itâs got to be genuine too â no spiritual bypassing or mental gymnastics to convince yourself something is âgoodâ when your heart says it isnât. (And itâs also why shadow work is a practice of peeling back layers⊠this reframe usually doesnât come in one go).
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Join me on a potent 13-day journey of self-discoveryâŠ
Ultimately, with work and practice, shadow work actually dissolves ânegativityâ
âŠBecause it helps us all to realise that ânegativityâ is a construct. Itâs a perception: a lens we look through. But in truth, all that any of us contain are love and beauty and power and potential
Shadow work unlocks your own access to those pieces from the inside.
Now leave me a comment â do you have doubts about doing shadow work?
Are you frightened it will bring negativity, or even be dangerous?
Let me know below!
K
X
How do you bring the shadow into the light? through meditation?
shadow will that be things like being jealous, procrastination etc ?
Shadow work is a term that encompasses so many different methods, but essentially itâs about making conscious parts of you that youâre unconscious of.
The way I see it, traits like jealousy and procrastination are almost signs of shadow, rather than shadow aspects themselves. So you maybe jealous of someone â that could be revealing of some kind limiting belief you have (for eg) which stems from something in your shadow. Or maybe you procrastinate because of a deep unconscious belief that youâre not worthy or capable⊠so that is whatâs in your shadow.
Shadow work is all about peeling back the layers, and in my experience itâs rarely what you first think it is!
IT IS ALREAD THERE. Acknowledging its existence does not give it power or more power, it exposes it and sheds light on itâs truth that has been hiding from us in the shadows THUS allowing us to expand our own self awareness. AND THAT can never be a bad thing. The deeper the insight into ourselves the better chance we have to come to peace with who we are.
100%!! Shadow work is the work of self-realization and coming into wholeness. Thank you for being here.