Mind                Body                Spirit                Shadow

 
shadow background information The shadow refers to an individual’s “unconscious” or “repressed emotions.” Western psychology, yes even Freud, gave us the gift of the shadow that theorists such as Carl Jung popularized and brought to a broader audience. Basically the shadow is experiences, emotions, and underlying defense mechanisms that surface in our lives at often inopportune times. Where many contemporary conceptualizations of wellness include “mind, body and spirit,” the inclusion of the shadow or emotional world is absolutely necessary if one is looking for an integral and comprehensive notion of wellness. what does shadow look like? If you reflect on your life, have there been times recently or in the past where you had a reaction to a situation that seemed overreactive or out of context? Usually, the times in which you snap at someone, or feel emotionally hurt or reactive in response to a relatively unobjectionable situation. Other manifestations of shadow that you may be familiar with are pervasive guilt, shame, regret, deep anger, sadness, etc. There of course are appropriate displays and experiences of emotions, but when it begins to interfere with your life, it usually means that there is a larger iceberg under the surface of your awareness. the golden shadow The shadow does not necessarily refer only to “negative” aspects of our repressed emotions. The “golden shadow” refers to positive aspects of yourself that for a variety of reasons you are unable to internalize as your own. Examples of the golden shadow are when you idealize someone for all the amazing qualities they have, only focusing on the positive aspects of who they are. Oftentimes, you have the same qualities in yourself that you admire in another that are just waiting to be uncovered. Maryanne Williamson said, “it is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most.” Any comprehensive work on your shadow enables you to shed light on and then integrate both your dark and golden shadow elements. the good news Although the idea of shadow can seem fairly deep and emotionally intense, there are plenty of ways of working with the shadow that does not involve turning into a blubbery puddle of tears. There are practices and processes that alleviate some pressure in the shadow and facilitate awareness to help you deal with the underlying issues that then affects the surface manifestation. Oftentimes, this aspect of wellness is easier for people to ignore. You may think that it is much more feasible to start working out (body), spend more time in silent contemplation (spirit), and challenge yourself with some interesting reading (mind), than it is to deal with emotional reactivity and that sadness, anger, etc. that resides inside of you. However, when you have practices that pace your shadow work slowly, you will find immense degrees of mental energy feeing up inside of you. It takes a lot of energy to keep the lid on the shadow, and when you learn to explore the shadow with more openness, you will find that you have more energy, focus, and vitality to dedicate to the other practices in wellness and to enjoying your life in general. so if I have a shadow, what do I do with it? The short answer is honor and acknowledge that no matter how spiritually advanced, altruistic, or emotionally intelligent you are, we all have shadow elements and working with shadow is a lifelong process. This website will provide you with practices and processes to deal with the shadow. If you are interested in ongoing tools to work with the shadow, please sign up for our newsletter on the homepage. Each month, we will include at least one new way of working with the shadow in order to help you shed light on the dark places of your psyche. If you are interested in group or individual work, private as well as corporate programs can be delivered. Please visit the services page to find information about these services. Once you begin working with the shadow and it becomes part of your practice, you will find more room to breathe emotionally that will enable more focus and presence to living the life that you love.Home.htmlServices_Old.htmlshapeimage_4_link_0shapeimage_4_link_1