Shadow Work | Going Within and Living Authentically
By: Sydni Hatley
Spirituality, “wokeness”, and self-love have become trends that millions have begun to follow. Maybe it’s for people to feel like they are a part of something substantial, or to give them a sense of direction. There are so many people on social media that claim to be spiritually enlightened, and even enough to the point where they feel they can guide the spiritual journeys of others—but this is not how spiritual journeys really work, nor should anyone believe that it takes someone else telling them what spiritual choices they need to make to help them grow personally.
One very powerful aspect that can attest to the importance of yourself in your own spiritual journey is shadow work. Not many spiritual-enthusiasts online talk about it, but shadow work is the truth. It is ugly, it is painful, but most importantly it shows you parts of yourself you never knew you needed to understand.
Shadow work is the process of going within and literally reading yourself. It is the process of taking down any and every filter that is your ego, and forcing you to see yourself in your rawest form. Admittedly, it takes a certain level of maturity and self awareness to even get to this point...or even a level of being fed up with your own shit...to want to work on yourself and be real with whatever on the inside needs healing.
One of the first things you can do with shadow work is begin to think about who you are. You’ll find yourself listing a lot of traits that are more based in your ego, and who you want to be or who you think you are. Make the list, nonetheless, and see what comes up. If you feel you can hold yourself accountable, you can immediately go to identifying what qualities you listed are based in an idea of yourself, vs. the reality.
Pro-tip: usually the reality of the qualities listed are normally the ones that make you uncomfortable with yourself, or make you cringe a bit—they are usually the parts of yourself you aren’t comfortable accepting (and that’s good. Keep going). Either way you will find yourself with a list and you must identify what is based on an idea of yourself, vs. what is reality.
Once you have done this, isolate the uncomfortable qualities and be open to analyzing them. Identify what about these things makes you uncomfortable with yourself—is it a childhood memory? A story? A traumatizing experience or person? Or was it something in your upbringing that made you think and operate that way. This would also be a good time to try and start identifying your triggers as well. What about bringing up those memories in association with that listed quality makes you uncomfortable, and why? This process is meant to ultimately break you down, so that as you progress you will inevitably be building yourself back up, just in a healthier way. It may not feel that way in the thick of things but this process will make a huge difference.
Essentially with shadow work, you are being your own therapist. It takes time and it is a process, but once you learn your triggers and analyze why you are the way you are, you can accept it and release misconceptions about yourself. You identify what makes you uncomfortable and even see how those things manifested into your ego, break that down as well, and finally start living in your truth. This process is not easy by any means, as it takes a level of vulnerability. However, the power you will feel from working on yourself and relearning how to love yourself will be worth it, with the best part being that no outside person got you there—-it was just you facing yourself.
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