And exploring that dark side – truly learning to understand, befriend, and integrate it – is an essential task for every human being.
Perhaps one of the most powerful and bone-deep practices out there for examining the shadow is journaling.
Our shadow self is our dark side, our inner ‘basement’ that contains all the parts of ourselves that we have a hard time accepting.
In the words of psychotherapist Robert A. Johnson:
The Shadow is comprised largely of elements of our nature — our repressed sexuality, fears, frailties, secret desires, and so on — that we have rejected for various reasons, and as such have been effectively split off, forming a type of secondary personality that emerges under certain conditions, like stress, anxiety, strong emotions, and anything involving sudden changes.
Is the shadow self only full of dark and negative stuff? No, not necessarily.
There are also positive elements stuffed within the shadow such as hidden gifts (e.g., intuitive, artistic, humanitarian) and qualities like sensitivity and even compassion that we may have needed to hide away as children for fear of being punished, bullied, or rejected.
Shadow work is quite simply the practice of actively choosing to explore our shadow selves.
As one facet of inner work, shadow work is most effective when we have a strong foundation of self-love and inner child work supporting us.
Without knowing how to show self-compassion toward ourselves, shadow work can be harmful and even retraumatizing (e.g., we can beat ourselves up over what we discover and use it to torment ourselves)...<<<Read More>>>...