Shadow Work - Your Spiritual Evolution Depends On It
Nov 19, 2021

Reading time 3 min.

Shadow Work: The Most Crucial Part Of Your Personal Growth & Spiritual Evolution

Shadow Work

"It hits different when you can look at all the parts of yourself - the good, the bad, the ugly, and still choose to love it all. It makes you feel whole. Complete."

What is shadow work?

A term coined by psychiatrist Carl Jung way back in the day * hehe *, describing a method or process of consciously becoming aware of your unconscious self, and consciously integrating it back into the true being of a person as a whole. Jung believed that at a very young age the psyche develops a compartment of filled with unfavorable parts of themselves, referred to as the 'Shadow Self', as a result of past experiences. As we go through life we tend to identify with parts of ourselves, only part of the time - and therefore never truly are tapped into the 100% authentic version of our being. Everyone has a 'shadow self', unknowingly or not; and the 'shadow self' is a whole half of what makes you, YOU. Shadow Work is a way for you to come into your full power and undo what the 'shadow self' has done.

Benefits

improves communication;
improves relationships & interactions with others;
heals past & generational trauma;
feeling of completion.

How-To Do Shadow Work?

Awareness

The very nature of the shadow, means that your unaware of its prescence & what it holds within. What you can see however is projections of the shadow self in the form of triggers.

Write

Start by documenting situations that happen throughout the day, that may have triggered you. Go back and read what was written and look for patterns of behavior that caused undesirable feelings or emotions.

Journal Questions to ask yourself:

What does my inner child want me to know?
What am I hiding from myself?
What am I not seeing?
What qualities am I projecting onto others?
Where do I need help?
What is the source of my pain?
What will I be able to achieve once I remove this pain?
How do I move forward?
What are the next logical steps?

Acceptance

Accept all the emotions that came up, feel them, validate them, and accept them. They have served you well and kept you alive. Thank them for protecting you. It sounds silly, but talk to them outloud as if they were a child. Be compassionate.

Unconditional Love

Self-acceptance is perhaps the best gift you can give yourself.

Unconditional self-acceptance is a valuable quality, as it is linked to a variety of positive outcomes such as enhanced psychological wellbeing (MacInnes, 2006) and life harmony (Garcia, Nima, & Kjell, 2014)

Try using this words of affirmation for self-acceptence & unconditional love:

I accept & respect myself.
I welcome & embrace all my of my thoughts, feelings, actions as an innate part of my being.
I am perfect as I am.
I am whole.
I am complete.
I am grounded.
I have people all around me supporting me for who I am.
I am not responsible for the opinions of others.
I surround myself with people that love me unconditionally.
I am worthy of all I desire.