Need an extra boost to start your shadow work? Here are 27 ghost work exercises and prompts to help you get started with the process. “The work of the shadow concerns the unconscious, which consists of things that we suppress and hide from ourselves, such as traumas,” and shadow personalities, explains Danielle Massi, L.M.F.T. Your shadow self can appear when triggered, in your relationships and through different levels of anxiety and depression, she says. And when that seemingly dark side emerges, it can reveal something about your personality that deserves closer inspection. There is light and darkness in all areas of life, and spirituality is not exempt. The spiritual shadow is what happens when we fall into the traps of spiritual materialism – a phenomenon in which we use spirituality to boost our ego and become arrogant, self-centered, and even narcissistic. The spiritual ego arises from spiritual materialism. We can begin to work with the dark side of ourselves to make positive changes in our lives. It is a form of self-examination.
One shadow work practice I really enjoy is paying attention to anything that secretly shocks, disturbs and excites me. Essentially, this practice involves discovering what I have unconsciously given power in my life, because: Sometimes in a lifetime we push small parts of ourselves so far away from ourselves that we don`t even know what`s in the shadow self. (In a sense, we often don`t know what we don`t know!) Bring, processing and reintegrating these small parts – piece by piece and one by one – to achieve a complete, complete and integrated self is what shadow work is. Journaling: Journaling allows us to do a pictorial “brain dump” to better process thoughts and feelings. This treatment, in turn, leads to greater awareness of these thoughts and feelings. Also, systematically writing down these kinds of things (on paper or somewhere digital like the notes app on your phone) can help us see things from a broader perspective, make connections, and find patterns in our emotions, actions, and past experiences. Overall, the reflective nature of journaling makes it powerful for personal growth processes such as parallel work. When you`re ready to dive, check out these shadow work log prompts to get started. Here, we dive deep into what shadow work is, how to get started, and why it`s so important. When we suddenly act in an “atypical” way, or surprise ourselves with the anger and impulse we have, we know that everything in the pocket has evolved. Your inner shadow consists of parts of you that you unconsciously reject.
I interrupted my shyness by forcing myself to do things that a “shy” person would never do. I stood out, popped up on social media, shared my voice, and even started hosting virtual workshops. Was it easy? Damn no. It was unbearably unpleasant. Was it worth it? Absolute. “It`s actually a perfect example of how to change the experience,” Massi says of my efforts. “If we can force you to do something you don`t want to do, we`ll break the feedback loop, and you`ll have different feelings, different physical reactions, and different thoughts about it, representing the fact that you`re doing it.” Then you can meditate on them in order to take a step back and look at what`s going on. Observe without judging. When emotions arise, allow yourself to have them. And because we are all human beings who have experienced trauma to some extent, we all have shadows. Massi says a traumatic experience can be as small and seemingly ineffective as a friend at school telling you couldn`t sit with him at lunchtime, making you feel like you`re not enough, or watching your parents struggle and think it was your fault if you had suffered a capital T-trauma like domestic violence or a serious illness.
In fact, I`ve learned through a lot of deep inner work that it`s not just about focusing only on the “bright side of life,” but that it`s actually a form of spiritual circumvention of your deeper, darker problems that, let me assure you, are basically guaranteed to exist. So how do you actually do the work behind the scenes? As Caraballo and Swart explain, it`s about bringing the unconscious into our consciousness. “This is something that psychoanalytic theorists (like Jung and Freud) considered important for maintaining mental health,” Caraballo told mbg. Is parallel work dangerous? The short answer is, most of the time no, but it depends. The long answer is: it`s still a worthwhile endeavor, but if you have untreated trauma, it`s best to take things slowly and do it under the guidance of a therapist or expert. Suspend judgment on yourself: Shadow work is a practice of healing and personal growth, which means it requires dedication and acceptance. Instead of attacking everything you don`t want to think, feel, or address, enter this process with an attitude of compassion for yourself and your experiences. Treat yourself with patience and kindness, and you will find that shadow work is more effective and less difficult. Ask yourself, “What is mine, what is theirs, and what are we both?” Not all triggering situations reveal a projection, but most of the time they do.
Also look for things you like and love in others and discover hidden projections. Shadow work is the process of working with our shadow self to eliminate its negative effects on our lives and integrate the individual parts of us into a whole. By dealing with the emotional baggage that has long been buried in our shadows, we can be more holistic and aware of our obligations and relationships in life, whether it`s a better partner, sibling, child, parent, teacher, mentor, friend, or one of the countless other roles we fill throughout our lives. Working in the shadows also allows us to feel a greater sense of power and personal agency in an ever-changing and sometimes limiting world. To heal our shadows, we must first discover them. To do this, Massi recommends deep meditation. “When you fall into deep meditation, you allow your mind to reach a level of relaxation where you can access theta brain waves,” she explains. “At this specific frequency, the subconscious mind is easily accessible and your shadows can enter the light.” Anger, envy, resentment, grief, regret, gluttony. Anything we try to ignore would not be silenced any longer.