The fall and winter is the perfect time to do shadow work. As the day's light becomes shorter and the night's longer, it is time for a deeper reflection. Doing self-shadow work can be beneficial for many people. Please seek professional counseling if you suffer from severe abuse, trauma, and mental illness. Counselors will help you navigate your feelings and emotions. Shadow work is not a replacement for professional counseling. I started doing shadow work in group therapy before beginning independently. Be patient; healing takes time.
What Is Shadow Work
"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate." — Carl Jung.
We have two layers of our personality; what we see and what is hidden. We would like to present the positive parts of character to the world, such as humor, empathy, and confidence. Carl Jung was the first to coin the phrase "Shadow Side." an aspect of our personality that we reject and repress. The element of our personality traits that we try to hide from society and sometimes ourselves. Examples are insecurity, impulsivity, and trauma injuries. The shadow hides in the unconscious; without introspection, it can create havoc and direct our lives. If we spend just 10 seconds pausing and quieting ourselves before acting on impulsive reactions, we save others from harm. Waiting has positive ripple effects on our families, friendships, and communities. How many of us would like to take back our words in anger, having to go back later and apologize for saying something we didn't mean. Working with our darker side is not to shame but to face what is directing our behaviors and actions and create change.
How To Work With Your Shadow Side
These are my different ways to do shadow work; these are my top favorite techniques. The focus is not to fear the shadow and eliminate the energy. Instead, work to transform the energy from dark to light. Can hate be transformed to love, jealousy into compassion, and anger into forgiveness?
Journaling: I love to journal and write down all my feelings and emotions daily. Rereading what I wrote about a particular shadow side of my personality is beneficial. I will write down all the negative aspects of my personality and reactions and look at deeper reasons why I am reacting the way I do. Anger or hurt could be from past unhealed trauma. Writing is also a joyous release from the circling of thoughts and emotions.
Review Agreements: We may have made many agreements in our lives that we are unaware of. An example is someone insulting your artwork or project, so you give up trying. Giving up what we love and validating what they say. Words can be potent. Do you speak harshly and say negative things about yourself to others? What agreement have you made about your image that needs to be changed? It is essential to analyze your agreements with others, both present, and past, and most importantly ourselves. The book "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz profoundly changed my life and how I interact with people. It is an excellent book to dive deeper into this topic.
Meditation: This is a great way to destress and refocus our energy. I did a blog post guide on how to meditate blogpost. The mediation I like to focus on at least once daily is cord-cutting. Here is a quick youtube cord-cutting meditation video I enjoy Video.
