What is shadow Work?

The reason for doing shadow work is to develop a relationship with our conscious and unconscious. To form a sense of balance between the one-sided conscious attitude and the unconscious depths.

We all have good and evil in us all. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. On a day-to-day basis we hired Mr. Hyde and shame the demons inside us. The negative emotions and behavior rage, jealousy, shame, resentment, greed, lying, suicide and murderous tendencies. They’re all just beneath the surface. We go about our days wearing a mask of what we think is our perfect self. That is a true shadow. And it comes out like a terrorist when we are triggered. Taking over our emotions and actions. This untamed beast is also a big part of us. We must explore, expose and be friends or shadow self. Or shadow self comes from agreement that we made with ourselves but do not fit into society. Things that we determined to be bad or wrong we place judgment on. That is Ego (shadow self) It is our unconcussion shadow that complement our ego. You could say it created it. The more we create denial or disown it We are pushing our Shadow deeper into our unconscious mind. And then it can act out indirectly in the form us depression. Or I can act out compulsively in a form of addiction. So the more unconscious our shadow is the more power it has over us.

Where does our shadow come from? Why are we made this way? I believe it has been passed down to us for Generations. The unfulfilled dreams of our ancestorsCan be seen in the eyes of our parents. As children we give our power away to our parents to teach us until we are ready to step into our own true authentic power. During this time we make agreements with ourselves on what is right and wrong. Two things we deem wrong we push into our unconscious mind. We then begin to form our ego and a personality in order to survive.

We must sees Shadow work as spiritual work. Look at the story of Siddhartha. He sat under the banyan tree and faced his demons before he reached nirvana and became Buddha.Or the story of Beauty and the Beast. He let his shadow overtake him so much that he embodied the Beast. Until Belle showed him what real love is and then the spell was broken.Every great spiritual leader has done their Shadow work to become what they are today.

It is important to see our shadows as multiple personalities. Each aspect of our shadow comes with a story to tell, a wound and a gift. Our shadow is guarded by our ego. Ego is dynamic and it has multiple different characters that have been created throughout our life. Shadow characters could be lonely, anger, sadness, jealousy and so on.

Whether we are doing Shadow work or just going through waves of emotions it can feel like being in the ocean with no life raft. that's why it is important to have somebody help you guide you through these emotions. Someone experienced who is done shadow work or helps people through their own shadow work. Shadow work is not about taking big steps. You do not want to find yourself on a top of a beautiful wave surfing through life only to just crash into the coral below. it is much better to take small steps. to deal with one aspect of your Shadow at a time integrate it learn from it and adapt it to your day-to-day life before moving on. It is better to sail in calm waters then to ride emotional waves. When we make big steps we might feel on top of the world and feel filled with joy only to crash back into our emotions of sadness and pain. Just because people want instant gratification.

Darkness only exists in our psyche. It is the creation of our ego and therefore it does not exist except for our belief of it. but to deny it is to give something power without power. And you only walk in light is to believe in the absence of Darkness. And that's where Darkness likes to be hidden out of plain sight.So to forget Darkness is to give something power that is non-existent. This is very dangerous.

But to acknowledge that darkness is light only then can we find balance. There is no Darkness there is no light. Because they are both one in the same. Just like there is no good and evil. They are both just concept created by our psyche. When we integrate this philosophy into our psyche we then can transcend The Duality between Darkness and Light and see that there is only nothingness.

Shadow work never Ending my friend. We are working with generations of conditioning. It is not something a year of work can solve. -Elise Headley.

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