Have you heard of shadow work? It is the process of healing and shining light on wounded aspects of the self.
''I must also have a dark side if I am to be whole.'' C.G. Jung
When one of your shadows comes to the forefront of your consciousness, instead of beating yourself up, get into the habit of saying “Thank you’’
The Magic is in embracing your shadows
Have you heard of shadow work? It is the process of healing and shining light on wounded aspects of the self. Since we never stop growing and evolving and this task is sometimes daunting and lengthy, wouldn’t it be great if we could learn to do this work in joy? There is a way to do this by realizing that no one is perfect, that we are all in the same boat and that it simply is human work to transmute darkness into light. When you do shadow work you are practicing radical self acceptance.
But how is this done?
When one of your shadows comes to the forefront of your consciousness, instead of beating yourself up, get into the habit of saying “Thank you’’, because gaining awareness of what was once out of view means half the battle is won. Having a shadow-work journal is helpful. You can write down your triggers, negative thoughts or painful memories in it. If you don’t have time to sit with them and address them right away you can go back to it later.
Having this information is priceless because it means that now, you can use self-love and self compassion to heal your wounds.
How to heal a negative thought pattern?
You do this by realizing that you are a not your thoughts, you are not the mind. You are a powerful sovereign light being experiencing a 3D human experience. Take a step back into the seat of your soul and observe the human mind at work. As you detach and are able to have love and compassion for it’s struggle, the thoughts will loose their power.
How to heal a trauma:
Triggered by a painful memory? Take time to sit with it and fully feel the pain. Go back in time and re-live the experience. This time, imagine you are your own loving compassionate caretaker. Hug yourself and give yourself the compassionate support or advice that you would’ve needed at that time. You can say something like: “I’m so sorry you went through that, and didn’t get the love and support you needed. It sounds awfully hard, but now I’m here for you and I will make sure that this never happens again…’' Even if you did something wrong, you probably didn’t know better or had the proper guidance at the time. Doing this is like re-writing your story. The next time this memory will come back, you will remember this new version instead. As you heal all the different painful fragments of yourself it is as though you are glueing them back together and becoming whole again.
When you learn to do your shadow work in joy, you can actually get excited when triggers come up because you know you are given an opportunity to heal another part of yourself.
Ask yourself:
Do you identify with your thoughts? Who is observing your thoughts?
Do you have compassion for yourself when you go through a bout of darkness?
Do you put up a perfect front or do you accept your imperfections?
