A Guide To Understanding What Shadow Work Is

If you have recently started your spiritual journey, you will know that there are so many things that you need to learn to progress on the journey at all. It might take you months or even years to reach the place you are trying to spiritually.

Many people struggle with this because they expect their spiritual journey to be filled with light and love when there are some truly dark places along this road. One of these is shadow work.

Shadow work can seem like a daunting concept, but we’re here to break it down for you.

What Is Shadow Work?

Psychiatrist Carl Jung once characterized our shadow selves as the parts of our personalities that we reject and are blind to simply because we don’t want to see them. These are the parts of our personality that we wish weren’t there or that we would prefer not to deal with.

Shadow work is the act of recognizing those personality traits and bringing them to the surface. It can be an incredibly taxing process, but it is a rewarding one, and when it is all done, the results are more than worth the work that went into getting them.

The Goal

People on a spiritual journey will often do shadow work. Still, it can be done by any person because the goal is simply to acknowledge the parts of your personality that you had previously ignored or suppressed.

Doing shadow work is done so that the person can know each part of themselves well enough to know what they need and then deal with any situation that is healthy for them. You might also find that things that trigger you don’t affect you as much anymore, and you feel like a more well-rounded person.

DIY

If you have been on a spiritual journey for quite some time, you can easily do shadow work by yourself, but it won’t come without some effort. Doing this kind of thing on your own is a simple process but a complicated emotional rollercoaster.

It is best to start shadow work with meditation. You can do your meditation or find a guided meditation that works on your shadow self, but be sure that you have someone nearby to seek comfort in afterward should you need it.

Therapy

The best way to do shadow work is in therapy with a qualified practitioner who knows exactly how to help you safely and healthily. This will allow you to figure everything out in a safe environment with someone who can help you make sense of it all.

The Benefits

While the process of shadow work can be a grueling one, it is important to do because of all of the benefits that come with it. It is not a process that can happen overnight, but you will have improved your life in so many ways once you have done it.

You will have improved your intuition, brought to light your subconscious thoughts so you can control them better, empowered yourself, and taken one more step forward towards self-actualization.