Shadow work is something that people often suffer from instead of facing it and healing it. The shadow self is part of who you are and the dark parts of your personality that you don’t want other people to see.
If you are someone that is always fighting this, you can do shadow work and you can begin healing. Here is how:
Be Conscious
You need to know that you have a shadow and be conscious when you start doing your shadow work. Everyone has a shadow, but you have to face this and make sure that you are being brave and facing your weaknesses.
Practicing shadow work can make you consciously aware and instead of pushing it into your unconscious mind, face it.
Find Out Your Shadow Type
The shadow is the dark part of yourself that you don’t want others to see. Some of the common archetypes of the shadow include:
- Father: The authoritative and controlling person.
- Mother: Nurturer and comforter.
- Child: Innocent one.
- Hero: The one that wins and beats the odds.
- Maiden: The modest and pure one.
- Trickster: One that deceives.
You have to figure out what shadow self you have.
Know Your Mental Health
It is important to make sure that you are strong in your mental health. Being aware of your negative feelings is a part of deep healing. You will learn more about your phobias and other things.
The things that stop you from being able to move forward in life are part of your shadow and you have to face these things to really heal.
Hidden Shadows
There are also things that might be so deep that you don’t know you have them. You have to find out why you are sabotaging yourself and what is going on so you can do your shadow work.
Make sure that you research your ego, wholeness and that you figure out what is going on deep in your shadow self. You can also look at Carl Jung works to help you with this.
Talk to Yourself
Talk to yourself so that you can figure out what you are going through. You can talk to yourself so that you can figure out your shadow and you can bring healing to your heart.
Once you start talking to yourself, you won’t be afraid of being alone and you will be able to address what is going on inside of you.
Love Yourself
One thing that you will have to do is to learn how to love and accept yourself. You will often spend a lot of time not liking your inner personality and you are negative, which is part of the shadow.
Accept the weaknesses that you have and work to reach your goals.
Believe in Your Worth
You are someone that is worthy of life. You have to have value in your life. You have weaknesses, of course, everyone does, but instead of being stressed about it, know how valuable you are. Work on your self-esteem.
Things Will Improve
Tell yourself that you will have a better life once your work is done, and you start feeling better. Things will get better as you face the hard things and notice your behaviors and your habits that have been holding you back.
Have a positive mindset and keep looking for hope and happiness.
Unconscious Versus Conscious
People that do healing work often forget that they have a difference in their conscious and unconscious thinking. Conscious thinking is where your feelings and thoughts are that you are aware of, and the unconscious is when you have feelings and thoughts that you aren’t aware that you have.
The unconscious plays a role in addiction and the behaviors that you make that you don’t like. You have to learn the difference between these two types of thinking.
Notice Your Emotions
Focus on the emotions that you have rather positive or negative. In order to heal, you have to let your emotions come out. Most want to see their positive emotions but hide from their negative emotions and you have to address both.
Evaluating Your Shadow
Take time to evaluate your shadow and figure out what your faults are. There are things hidden and you cannot blame yourself for these things, but you can work to fix them.
Have Compassion for Yourself
You must show yourself compassion so that you can bring healing and empathy to your life. You are kind and loving but there are things that you are working on. Love yourself through these hard things.
Facing the Shadow
Be confident and strong when you start your shadow work. It will be hard, and it might get you down but as you boost your healing and love yourself, you will see that you can face anything.
Go Deep
You have to go deep when you are doing shadow work because of all the hidden things in your life. Make the decision to get this done and to dig deep into your conscious and unconscious mind.
Do Exercises
There are different kinds of shadow work exercises that you can find. Look online and watch videos as you address the problems that you are having that you weren’t aware of.
Deep Breathe
Deep breathing is one way to calm yourself and it helps you in many other aspects of your life. Do this while you meditate, and you will see that you have less stress and anxiety, and you have more natural energies.
Love Your Inner Child
Everyone has an inner child, and you have to love it and embrace it. Don’t hide the personality of this inner child and if you have a fit, have it. The inner child is there until you fix the parts of you that are broken, and you might be rude, angry, or upset, but you will be successful as you do your healing work.
Find Your Shadow
There are things inside of you that you will need to face and figure out. This is part of shadow work healing. Take time to write down things about yourself that you never realized before. Meditate and work towards your healing.
How to Face Your Shadow
Here are some tips to face your shadow and to be confident:
- Get rid of shame: You are doing the right thing by facing this.
- Journal your feelings.
- Laugh at things that you aren’t good at or your flaws. Remember, everyone has them.
- Be proud of the work that you are doing. Build your self-esteem.
- Stay aware of who you are and what you need.
Types of Archetypes
Here are some shadow archetypes:
- Caregiver: Being a victim or a slave. Being someone that mistreats people.
- Everyman: One that is ignored or someone that is left out.
- Trickster: A person that lies and deceives others.
- Creator: The unjust person that has no hope.
- Innocent: The person that doesn’t take responsibility and takes on the mindset of a child.
Conflicting Parts of Yourself
When you want to live a happy life, there are parts of you that might be conflicting including:
- Conflicts that you have with yourself. Focus on these and meditate.
- Figure out why these things are in your life and how they are part of your shadow.
- Overcome the conflicts by listing the benefits of getting rid of them.
- Heal your inner self first and then let the other parts heal.
- Work on each conflict one at a time.
- Work on the beliefs that are limited by you.
- Let a spiritual guide help you.
- Ask your partner or friends to help you and support you.
- Keep practicing until you get it.
- Be happy with who you are and what you are coming.
What is Shadow Work?
Shadow work is work that allows you to find out what you are repressing and to move forward in your life. These things affect your personality and how you see things. Some people blame others for these actions and behaviors that they have, and this is part of the shadow.
By doing this shadow work, you can heal things in your life that are broken. This is important so that you can grow, and you can accept yourself for who you are. This can help you to change your life and to be strong.
Final Thoughts
You need to figure out your hidden shadow and you can do that by looking deep into your life. Get to know what archetype you are and face both the positive and negative parts of yourself. This is not going to be easy, but you can do it.
Finding your shadow self takes time and you need to explore yourself deeply. You can do this work by yourself by following the steps above.