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Shadow work... what is it?
Well the shadow self is part of the brain that is the unconscious. Its the main reason for our behaviour, our bad habits, deep rooted fears & anxieties. It's the driving force to your reactions to situations, objects & people. Within the spiritual world you will often come across the term "shadow work" and there are many mixed versions of the term.
The history of the term "shadow work" was first conceived by Carl Jung, a 20th century psychologist from Switzerland. In his field of of psychology, often referred to as Jungarian psychology, the word "shadow" refers to hidden parts of our being.
Now thats the history out the way, shadow work is something I believe everybody should do. Especially those that are seeking spiritual growth, to be able to grow you need to put the work in. Anyone that has ever done shadow work will tell you... it's a never ending cycle, the more we do, the more we need to do.
A lot of people forget we are living in a human body, and this human body has various malfunctions... one being pushing emotions downwards... its a belief that if we bury it, then it will go. To some extent yes it may go, but not forever. This is where the unconscious mind comes into play, you display behaviours that you may hadn't even realised were due to past experiences & buried emotions. We can seem aggressive, we may have deep rooted social anxiety, arrogance, neurotic behaviours & uncontrollable out-bursts.
I found that before I started doing shadow work, it was harder to ground, to still my mind & let the growth begin.
How to do Shadow Work
Grab a journal & a pen, its time to write those emotions down!
First things first is acknowledging what you are feeling. What emotion do I feel?
Why do I feel this way? If, on this second question you can't really pin point what it is, then maybe you need to delve deeper... start to unpick those webs of emotions & experiences.
Journalling is a brilliant way of recording what is going on and also useful to see if there are patterns started to show. Where do I start to question & doubt myself? What point does the experience start to create the feelings?
Identifying your dark side
Please don't mix "dark side" with dark magic or practises as this is NOT what this is. I was shocked to hear that some think that your shadow/dark side is stuff of black magic. It is NOT, this is spiritual growth & getting to know the inner you.
Start to look for the "I am not lovable" "I am not good enough" "my work isn't very good", look for those statements that are in your conversations, in your minds voice. These are what you need to indentify. As you start to learn about your shadow you will start to recognise before you say something like that, you will notice that you start to change the way you think. Your conscious starts to over-ride your sub-conscious.
I started this post 3 years ago, so much has changed in those 3 years! i felt like i had just started to understand myseld & my triggers.... then bang, another business of mine started to go downhill and all my emotions came flooding out. Stress, over-whelm & just one big emotional mess. I couldnt face the stress. But with the previous work i had done i knew that i needed to face this straight on. I needed to work through it. It wasnt pretty, it was actually pretty ugly.
Shadow work isnt a fix all, gosh i still get the odd road rage, the days im not so patient. But thats ok, we are living as humans & as humans we go through all sorts of emotion! So please dont think after doing shadow work then we are going to be gliding through life smiling from ear to ear 24/7. Its not about that... its about understanding yourself.
It's time to get the know the whole you... and its ok that we don't always love all of it. But I hope this blog helps you to identify you, the whole you, the honest you.
Lets live life authentically us.
Blessings to all of you,
Ayla x
Please don't forget that this type of work does not replace therapy & counselling. So always go with a professional on advice.
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