What is your Shadow Self Saying? A Necessary Journey towards Inner Healing & Transformation
Healing The Darker Aspects of Oneself
What is your shadow saying to you? To become aware of the darker aspects of oneself you first have to choose to see it. Shadow work is some of the hardest light work you can do. It is the unconscious and disowned parts of our personalities that the ego fails to see, acknowledge, and accept. Many people don’t even give it a chance, because it’s about looking at the darker aspects of oneself, and who wants to dive into that rabbit hole? wink, wink.. One of the biggest reasons to do shadow work, is to integrate the unconscious into the conscious, leading towards deep levels of awareness, giving you the highest level of personal clarity that you need into your emotions and way of being.
Even though the darker sides of ourselves might be difficult to accept and see, doing so with an open heart, along with self-awareness, will lead you towards inner healing and transformation.
For example, you may find yourself progressing towards a healthier and more mindful lifestyle, but also wondering why the deeper changes you desire are not fully present in your life. Why have certain aspects of your life changed, while others continue to stay the same, like a hamster on it’s wheel?
Unless you do the work, it can become very difficult to find out who you truly are, break embedded habitual patterns, and achieve higher states of consciousness and the life that you desire.
How is the shadow self created? The shadow is born during childhood from certain interactions we had with the people closest to us. Those people make us believe that certain aspects of ourselves are good and others are not. The aspects that are seen as bad are rejected and consequently form the shadow. Shadow work is simply becoming aware of what’s hidden and gradually healing those aspects of yourself.
Simple ways to begin your shadow work:
1. Review your childhood
The shadow usually has its root in your childhood. Ask yourself: “Was I completely accepted as a child? How did I feel most of the time? What was expected of me and what behaviors and emotions were judged by the people in my life?” Those behaviors that were judged created some sort of shadow aspect within you. Once you find the answers to these questions, they will lead you to see the shadow aspects of yourself.
2. Become aware of your shadow
To become aware of something, you have to choose to see it. Once you see those rejected aspects of yourself, reflect on them. Are they positive or negative? If you find something negative, make peace with it and release it from the shadow. If it’s a positive aspect, reunite with it and call your power back. The most important step in doing shadow work is to become aware of it, and bring it out of the darkness.
3. Don’t shame the shadow
Once you become aware of your shadow self, don’t shame or blame it. Instead, give it your love, compassion, and acceptance. Your shadow was born from non-acceptance and rejection in the first place. It was created the moment you began to push it away. The shadow is part of who you are, so look at it from a place of love & respect.
4. Use Your Triggers
Triggers are messages and an invitation to dive deeper into unconscious things. The messages are the events that cause an extreme emotional reaction within you. Naming triggers as such change them and decreases the effect they have on you. It allows you to step back from your emotional reaction and observe it, instead of living it. Triggers are reflections of the deep unresolved wounds. They come to open your eyes to things that are suppressed.
5. Observe without judgment
One of the biggest mistakes you can make with shadow work is to judge the shadow once you identify it. If you let the harsh inner critic come up and judge the shadow, you are rejecting it all over again and therefore making it bigger and stronger. When you see your shadow, acknowledge and observe it without judgment. Observe it to understand it and then work to integrate it.
Shadow Work | Support in yelapa
We are provided with many opportunities to confront our shadow selves so that we can finally be free of them. It doesn’t matter how long you avoid looking at your shadow self, it will keep manifesting into your reality until you pay attention to it. The more you become aware of your shadow self and accept it, the more embodied you are as a conscious being and the more control you have over yourself and your life.
If you’d like to experience different types of holistic modalities that can be explored in supporting your shadow work, check out our holistic programs & services, or reach out to Julia at julia@vikarawellness.com, who will guide you into the right direction.