Shadow work is the work of bringing unconscious aspects of our psyches to the conscious. It is absolutely essential on the path of awakening, personal development or becoming a more free and happy person.
The 'Shadow' might sound sinister or as if it's all bad, but that isn't the case! A shadow piece could be your supressed joy, your erotic freedom, your abundance or any other 'positive' trait that you have repressed or disowned to gain acceptance and safety in your life. For example, suppose you had a very strict family growing up who prioritised work and study above all else. In that case, you may have had to repress your wild, fun and playful side to gain love and acceptance from your family, so this part will be hidden in the shadow. You might then even start to judge and shame other people who embody these qualities, because you've totally lost touch with them! Or maybe you find yourself romantically drawn to people with these qualities as a way your psyche is trying to come into wholeness, by merging with someone else who embodies this.
Our unconscious is powerful, and it will bring us into situations in life to try to find wholeness and healing, and if we're not aware of these patterns, they can show up in very harmful and painful ways.
That's why one of Carl Jung (the 'Godfather' of Shadow work)'s most famous quote is
"Until you make your unconscious, conscious- it will rule your life and you will call it fate."
- because we see that these repressed parts will keep finding ways to be seen and integrated, and we may end up repeating patterns in our life and relationships until we finally integrate them.
Keep dating people who hit on your core unworthiness wound?
Keep being eternally broke no matter how hard you try?
Keep feeling unseen no matter how much space you try to take up?
This is usually a sign of a shadow piece at work, and through shadow work you can bring this dynamic to the light and finally meet the unmet need at it's core, coming into more wholeness and self-acceptance in the process.
A lot of shadow work from the past was a very cognitive process- lots of journalling, reflecting and doing inquiry processes, as well as working with dreams and symbols. However, in modern transformational healing circles, we've started to bring the body into the mix to take this even deeper, as the body holds so much of our unconscious habits, trauma and emotions. Bringing shadow work into the body allows us to access so much more of our unconscious and to integrate what we find on such a deep level.
Shadow work is something that we can start to explore alone through journalling and inquiry, or with a psychotherapist or coach, but to really get to the deepest parts of us, we need other people to be our mirrors. This is why group environments are the perfect place for us to do shadow work- it brings out all these unconscious patterns, judgments, projections and feelings that we just can't access by ourselves. 'Circle work' has been a growing modality where we bring psychotherapeutic processes into a group container, where we can receive reflections and even allow other people to 'stand in' and act out roles for us to see what it activates inside. These circles invite 'transpersonal healing' where we work with collective shadows and patterns that play out not just individually but in all humans, and even just being a witness to one of these processes can bring your own healing and support your integration process.
What happens when we DON'T do shadow work?
When we have not taken any time to get to know our shadows and our projections, we will externalise our own suffering onto others through blaming, shaming and judgment. We'll also hold ourselves in a rigid box of who we think we are based on our ego identities. You'll often see people who haven't done shadow work attacking others online, shaming other people for their sexuality or their big personalities, being overly critical and closed off to other opinions or in continous loops of drama patterning (that friend who keeps dating the same kind of people and complaining eternally about it? Yep, they could use some shadow work)! There is a hypocracy to this too- someone who is agressive and unkind will go around attacking others claiming THEY are the agressive one. Someone who is out of integrity in their sexuality will go around attacking others for their sexual expression. There is a major blind-spot and what they can't accept in themselves they shame and attack in others.
The Play of Shadow Work
Shadow work can be fun and playful- it can sound like such a serious process, and it can be at times, but when we recognise the cosmic play of it all and our role in the great drama of life, we can bring a lighthearted sense of joy to the process and stop taking ourselves so seriously. Finding the play and humour in it can be one of the fastest ways to break out of our patterns, so we love to bring this playful attitude to the work to support the process.
The idea of this work is to come into our full humanity- to realise that we contain ALL the patterns of reality within us, the good, the bad and the ugly. How we relate to these pieces is key, and the more we have access to our full range, the more we can be in harmony with all of life. We're full-spectrum beings, and the more we repress, judge or shame aspects of our humanity, the more we suffer internally and within our relationships.
Awakening is a process of coming into deeper connection with the truth of reality as it is, and to move beyond the dualities and confines of our ego's limitations. Shadow work supports this process, as we meet all the contradictions, archetypes and full spectrum of life within us and within every other person we meet. We stop limiting people to our stories about them and our judgments based on a tiny aspect of who and what they are that we witness and see, and start to relish in the great mystery of what it is to be a human on this earth, in this great dramatic play of life.
Want to dive into some shadow work together???
Experience some embodied shadow work with us here on Koh Phangan, Thailand with our workshops and immersion retreat for your liberation
Join one of our upcoming taster workshops August 14/16/18/20
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