Let’s face it, shadow work has been tainted by the new age glamorization, gaslighting and glorification as another fad, a spiritual cloak or mask to make it appear as though Sally-Kundalini-Sue on the socials knows what she’s talking about and has all the answers.
This drowned out rendition of shadow work touches the tips of what it means and glosses over its true importance. Leave it to the false positivity of “love and light” to invert the shadow and demonize it by masquerading as its advocate.
The pretending remains and the spiritual gurus dance on the beaches of Tulum swearing they have overcome and transcended the darkness until the realness of being a human shows up and challenges the status quo created in the mind fantasy to escape realness, real life, real hard things, real talk, real consequences, reality.
Maybe I’m being too harsh, after all I do appreciate the awareness brought forth to challenge people to do some inner work, but also see through the bologna, even my own bullshit.
There is polarity within the shadow AND light and yet everyone talks about being “high vibe” like it’s a goal to accomplish by just avoiding all the rest of living as if it isn’t there.
The toxic side of the light is pretending there is no shadow and becomeing empty and unfulfilled consumed by staying positive or high frequency to the point one is so far into the polarity they have touched the other side. The toxic side of the shadow is falling so far into victimhood that you can no longer see (or seek) the light because you have lost humility, swollen in apathy, a sort of soul inflammation trying to ignite the soul on fire again, the body’s natural healing mechanism playing the hero in a last ditch effort to burn before melting into ashes.
The real shadow work is discovering your unconscious self, relcaiming that lost part of you, it’s a form of restoration:
Embracing the suck. Knowing life is going to give you challenges, obstacles and frustrations to overcome and when you can look at this as the grand adventure it is instead of the frustration, of Why me, why now, then you’re on your way to knowing your shadow.
Facing your fears. You see the Universe has a funny way of asking you to show up and do hard things and when you don’t raise your hand and volunteer it will find another way and it might not always be pleasant. How many nudges do you need before getting uncomfortable, before stepping into the growth calling to you of your own might and will without needing a push?
Stop. Trigger Time. Every time you are triggered or emotionally over-reactive, it’s an opportunity to STOP and ask yourself why? Is there a limiting belief, a contradiction of information? Is there a sensitivity, an old wound showing itself? Is there a reflection showing you a part of yourself you aren’t ready to see? Whatever it is, look at it, spend time in contemplation and know that it is coming up for a reason.
Finding calm in the storm. What if all that chaos is there to destroy all the walls built up to avoid the wondrous surprises in store for you if you just surrender. Can you see the beauty in ugly, joy in sorrow, meaning in what seems meaningless, good in the bad….flipping the inversion of reality is seeking the lesson or blessing by finding a new lens or insight, a desire of knowing that your own mindset and reflection can shift the story of what happened into something to take forward on the path and make it into something positive.
Holy Wholeness. Finding out that all those holes/the holyness of being, the missing pieces, the void inside and recognizing there is (w)holeness that lives inside emptiness because that emptiness is insight into the everlasting life, the Divine presence, the aetheric, the present, the now moment, the place to connect with the Creator, the inner knowing that you are not alone that there is more than this and yet everything in this very moment that you will ever need.
Watering Holes. If you’ve taken time to drown in sorrow at the discovery process through contemplation of your own shame then you probably have dove into some shadow work. The acknowledgement of your inner angel and devil dancing around all the topics you don’t want to see, all the patterns, habits, choices, lack of forgiveness, people pleasing, waiting on you to find the point of integration, of seeing the Sacredness of life, EVEN though it’s messy and imperfect…well, it’s like a watering hole, a well of prayer, memories, experiences moving through you and you can’t hold onto it all, sometimes it needs to be released. The flow state is not just a state of being but an opportunity to paint a picture with tears, to let the water fall, to let go, to be made (w)hole again….to let the thunder clank, to let the rain cleanse.
Into-It. Rediscovering that the intuition is not there to make you feel good, but to be a signal, an alert, to not only danger, but also growth. Your intuition doesn’t care if you feel good, it cares that you go into yourself and ask yourself all the questions necessary to excavate out your true self, the you tired of being told who to be in this world and ready to do something about it.
The Scales. Teetering on the edge of darkness from going down rabbit holes looking for answers can take us to places and emotions that pull us out of reality, that make us forget where we are yet offer up the reminder of our own demons and dare us to face them once and for all. The coming together of opposites, riding the waves of being “out of balance” is part of the human experience and coming back into center through each swell, each time you get knocked down, each level of interference, each rabbit hole, is like making friends with someone you don’t want to know, yet integral to knowing yourself. Keeping your enemy close is about yourself, the part of you that you don’t want to show the world, the part of you that holds your shame, the part of you that you rebel against….keep that part close, turn the enemy into a friend.
Ultimately the shadow is about intimacy with yourself and the more deeply you know yourself the more intimately you can connect with another from a place of seeing the humanness in them AND the Divinity. The more you love yourself the more love you can give to others. The intimacy that comes from shadow work is one of trust and compassion, it is special, it is not to be feared, but embraced.
This meeting place of the shadow is where roots are sprouted, where our authenticity can be nurtured, where the foundation is formed so that when we rise up again we are held by the grace of the hearth, the heart. This is where the fall into surrender shows us the way to move through uncertainty and find our way back up and out to the light, the True light, the one that doesn’t lead us astray, the path we can trust.
Just think of all the beauty in darkness, a lover’s kiss, a warm embrace, there is a reason we close our eyes when we feel from the inside out. And most importantly, like the stars that shine above, there is always a light on, a “night-light” there to pull us from the depths of the caves we dig ourselves into, where our shadows loom, the difficulty in getting out of our own way and the reminder that we are never alone.
~ Angela
www.angelamorris.com
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