What is shadow work, you might ask? Rooted in the psychological theories of Carl Jung, shadow work involves delving into the unconscious mind to uncover and integrate the hidden parts of ourselves. This practice has evolved over the decades, influencing various fields such as psychology, spirituality, and self-help. Today, I wanted to share my recent experience with shadow work, and what I uncovered. I hope this will give you some ideas, and motivation, to try and dive deep into the process. I’ve been doing shadow work in the past year or so, and here’s what I’ve learned:
Not every session will be a groundbreaking experience. Sometimes you just come up with a bunch of questions you don’t know about yourself. Then, other times, you’ll be crying for two days straight.
Yesterday, I’ve had a session resulting in the latter. Today, it’s 7 AM, I’ve been up for 30 minutes, and I can already feel the tears coming again. I feel the pressure in my chest. I’ll need to find something that gets the water flowing.
Yesterday, it was a movie. The Gladiator. I really like it, especially because of the heroic deeds and unwavering integrity of the hero. For me, our values and integrity is the most important thing in life. But even more importantly, it showed me the strength of character.
“You do everything the way you do one thing”. This was shown especially well in the movie, how Maximus, the great general, becomes a slave, then one of the best gladiators, and wins the heart of Rome by the end. You can force a man out of his environment, but his character will determine his fate. Even if you are not where you want to be, your character will get you to the place you deserve.
After the movie, I felt the tears coming. A beautiful ending, but something more was there. I felt it. I pulled out my journal and a pen.
Just before the movie, I was writing some shadow work related notes to myself. “Let your current self die. Be reborn as more capable. No fears. No obstacles. You can do anything. You can be anything”. Right after the movie, I read these words, and it hit me. I started scribbling again.
“You are a leader. That’s your shadow. Come to the Light. Stop hiding. Come to the Light. Come to the Light. You’re a leader. Come to the Light”.
Needless to say, tears were shed. A lot. It felt liberating. The pressure went away instantly. This was the sign I struck gold with the questions and answers. I hit my shadow, and my current self was weeping. It was dying. This is what the tears meant. I killed that self.
Sometimes our shadow is not a negative trait we were hiding. Sometimes, it’s a positive trait, that we felt the need to repress. I’ll need to travel more in depth into my subconscious on why I was repressing it, but for now I can thik of a number of reasons:
I felt I wasn’t up to the task. It was too big of a responsibility. I’m not capable enough.
All these limiting beliefs. I will get to the bottom of this. Now comes the integration part.
Shadow work can be an overwhelming, but also liberating process. You might find diamonds hidden deep inside your psyche, and uncover deep truths about yourself. I can only recommend it, but make sure you are ready physically and mentally.
Godspeed traveller!