Shadow Work
What is it?
Shadow work is a huge part of us healing and evolving into our greatest self. It is coming face to face with the aspects of ourselves that we'd prefer to leave out, ignore and abandon completely. The shadow is a direct reflection of our most hurtful wounds that store in our minds and persuades us to believe that we aren't enough, aren't loved, and aren't deserving of our desires. It is said that the soul sometimes program certain shadows from past lives into this life, for another attempt to overcome it. Certain elements that our shadows can correlate with would be acceptance, trust, validation, anger, sadness, feeling, cycles, forgiveness, reflection, compassion, and tranquility. Other elements shadows can include would be fear, lust, addictions, greed, and insecurities.
A psychological view of the shadow would be identified as, the unconscious or disowned side of our personality. In other words, the part of you that you ignore or fail to notice right away. The shadow is born in childhood, as a result of certain experiences you've had with your family. They usually emerge when parents decide to project their beliefs onto you.
A spiritual view of the shadow would be any part of you that you fail to see, acknowledge, or accept within yourself. This indicates that your shadows relate to more parts of you than just the mind. You will never heal entirely by only using your mind.
Example of a shadows birth...
A young boy, that happens to be sensitive and cries a lot for simple things, is constantly told to stop crying by his parents, and is called a cry baby by his older siblings. The shadow is born once the little boy decides to suppress his feelings and avoid seeming like "cry baby" in order to feel accepted by his family. Now as a result of this, the boy will now block off certain aspects of his true nature, and at the same time block off or even shut down his heart chakra completely. This can be extremely detrimental for the young boy as he grows into a man, subconsciously suffering from the imbalance of a disconnected higher and lower self. Now his lack of emotion can negatively impact the lives of others causing him to seem like a completely cold hearted and emotionless individual for the remainder of his life; simply a victim, completely misunderstood.
How to discover and identify?
There are many affective ways and methods you can use to identify your shadows. One way can be to pay attention to your projections onto other people. Projection on others is a result of spotting something you subconsciously dislike about yourself in someone else and expressing your hate for it while pointing it out. Certain things that stand out with other people are the things you subconsciously dislike about yourself. Another way that can be helpful would be to focus on things that trigger you. Your triggers are the things that can bring out your shadow side as a result and you should always attempt to have awareness while in the act, in order to avoid your shadow taking over.
One of the most affective things you can do while seeking acknowledgment of your shadows would be to ask yourself certain questions that would guide you to certain answers that'll lead directly to discovering your shadows and their origins. A variety of questions to ask oneself during self evaluation would be: "Why am I feeling like this?" (During a heated situation), "What parts do you dislike about yourself?", "What parts of yourself do you judge?", "What parts of yourself do you fear?", "Was/Am I fully accepted by those around me?", "What was expected of me?", "What behaviors and emotions did my parents judge?" ... Sitting and asking yourself these questions will not be comfortable as you begin but will certainly help you discover and inner-stand aspects of yourself that you did not know existed.
What is the goal of Shadow work?
The general goal for shadow work would be for the integration of the "good" and "bad" sides of yourself. You would seek to gain that balance in order to fully reap the benefits of your entire existence and being with an enhanced clarity. It is to initially help discover and inner-stand every element of oneself along with gaining conscious control in your daily life.
The more things you decide to own and accept is the more energy you balance and shrink your shadow, stoping it from effecting your life. On the other hand, the more things you decide to disown and not accept is the more energy you feed to your shadow causing it to grow and have more of an effect on your life.
Some Things To Remember:
Never antagonize the shadow while acknowledging it. This process is about compassion, love and self acceptance. You must accept.
You should observe without any type of judgement towards the shadow. Judgement causes the shadow to grow in a negative manner.
Acknowledge the possibility that you may also need some past life regression. This can aid with gaining access to past life memories to identify and heal, providing a wider inner-standing of your shadows.