Shadow work 101

Do you ever get the sense that you have a dark side? Are there parts of you you’d rather keep hidden?

Is your life exactly what you want it to be?

Do you feel that you repeat the same old patterns year after year in your relationships, your finances and your career? Are you held back by feelings of insecurity or inadequacy?

If the answer is yes, then very likely your subconscious programming is undermining you and sabotaging your life.

The shadow is the part of our psyche that contains everything we were forced to reprimand and hide – our flaws, setbacks, and darkest secrets.
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The shadow also contains the suppressed needs and wishes, such as sexual wishes we never accepted we have.

Shadow work is a way to release past demons, energies, and people from your life. Shadow work isn’t just about the spiritual side, either. Psychologists talk about how we live with our shadows all the time… it’s just that some of us are better at dealing with them than others.

Think about the times when you feel something bubbling inside of you, and you’re wondering why you’re so upset.
You’re upset because there’s been a part of you that’s been hiding out for a long time… and wants to come out.
It’s important to step back and reflect on these moments rather than taking them at face value and moving forward.
A lot of times, we’ll hear about something or see it, automatically judge it, and shut it off, If you judge yourself, you distance yourself from yourself. Then, the analysis stops, and we move on with life. I encourage people to notice strong reactions and sit with that.
If you feel like something is standing in the way of blocking you from manifesting, it could be that you need to do some shadow work. Shadow work can help clear your energy for manifesting and make more room in your life for happiness.

Benefits of shadow work can include:

• feeling whole or integrated as a person
• improved interactions with others
• healing generational trauma
• learning healthy ways to meet your needs

Some therapists say the insights that come from shadow work may even feel like a spiritual experience.
Does shadow work help with manifestation? The answer: Yes, but not in the way you think.

Most people who get tied up with the idea of manifestation have usually have gotten it from what’s known as The Law of Attraction.
Manifestation, or The Law of Attraction, is the idea that you will get whatever you put your focus, thoughts, and feelings into. It’s the belief that whatever you set your sights on and truly desire, will come into your life.

So you surround yourself with pictures, quotes, and good vibes to get you closer Does shadow work help with manifestation? The answer: Yes, but not in the way you think.
Most people who get tied up with the idea of manifestation have usually have gotten it from what’s known as The Law of Attraction.

From the deck Shadows That We Call Karma by Vicki Martin www.loveinthe12thdimensions.com

Manifestation, or The Law of Attraction, is the idea that you will get whatever you put your focus, thoughts, and feelings into. It’s the belief that whatever you set your sights on and truly desire, will come into your life.
So you surround yourself with pictures, quotes, and good vibes to get you closer to the things that you desire.

Personally, I never found manifestation to work. And it’s not because I didn’t try.
But I wasn’t getting closer to what I desired.

Every day I would tell myself affirmations. My phone and laptop wallpapers would be images of things I wanted. For the longest time, I’d be a hopeful,
But I wasn’t getting closer to what I desired.

What they don’t tell you is that shadow work is actually Step Zero when it comes to The Law of Attraction.

It’s a secret reason why people don’t get what they want and fail at manifesting.

So you must do shadow work to go to step 1 on to manifestation.

Because when you do, you are finally accepting and celebrating the fulfillment of your unconscious desires.

And by doing this, your unconscious will let go of its celebrated desires, and shift its energies to help you achieve your own.

Can shadow work be dangerous?

Anyone can benefit from shadow work and that not doing it is actually more dangerous than doing it.

There’s nothing about you that is unbearable. Whatever is inside of you, it’s already acting itself out. Looking at it makes it safer.

Still, it’s recommended to have the support of a skilled therapist when you engage in shadow work.

Some facts about shadow work taken from the Shadows Deck from my website:

Since these shadows were created by us, we ultimately have karmic responsibility for them and all that they do.

Our Shadows are trying to protect us so that we won’t get hurt again.
A life on automatic pilot is usually a life controlled by the subconscious Shadows
A surprising amount of our impulses comes as a result of influences from the spirit world and not all are beneficial

OUR SUBCONSCIOUS rules 90% of our thinking and behavior. It is responsible for our habits, emotions, automatic reactions, defensive mechanisms

Though suppressed memories held within the subconscious mind (even those from past lives) can be retrieved through such tools as hypnosis, meditation and certain hallucinogens, awareness alone does not completely resolve, heal or clear the energies surrounding these experiences.

By rejecting aspects of your true self, you give those shadow parts power; hidden away, they challenge your more respectable traits, and will continue to influence and sabotage your behaviour.
Unless you face and embrace them.

Without the appropriate Shadows-Hygiene, our imprinted negative patterns bring us towards failures, disappointments and short-lived success.

If you do not admit to yourself what kind of unwanted reactions you have, the disowned dark sides of your nature will turn into your Shadows, hiding in your subconscious.

If an individual has an intact and healthy sense of self and a very strong energy field, they can walk away from this encounter unscathed.

People who drink alcohol or take certain drugs may experience often having no recollection of what happened the next day, as if that memory was lost, but only suppressed within the closet of the subconscious.

A man may reject or dissociate himself with his own feminine qualities (such as being loving, gentle, compassionate, feeling, nurturing) and in turn project them onto this outer woman.

A woman may reject or dissociate herself from her masculine qualities and project them out onto a real or imagined outer man.
Tricksters, as archetypal characters, appear in the myths of many different cultures

what Jung called an archetype that represents the irrational, chaotic, and unpredictable side of human thought and behavior.

To actually give your soul to another plants the seed of a dark contract to form, and over time be taken over by demonic control.

By rejecting aspects of your true self, you give those shadow parts power; hidden away, they challenge your more respectable traits, and will continue to influence and sabotage your behavior.
Unless you face and embrace them.

Most people believe themselves to be essentially ‘good’ The theory of shadow work is that for every good trait we consciously attribute to ourselves, we have an opposite contrasting one which exists – but we repress.

Shadow work is practiced through active imagination with daydreaming and meditation

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Cheers, 
The Red Ferrari