If you are choosing to do shadow work, that’s great for you! If you haven’t already, you can read more about it, for a more complete grasp on the concept, in our previous articles: Light Vs. Dark and Shadow Work I.
There are things that you are best knowing about shadow work before you get started with it, as a manner to both fuel and prepare yourself for it. The following are a few of the most essential…
Changes & Results
• After thorough shadow work, you won’t be the same person. Consequently, you may not have the same life and people around you. You will be drawn to discover what genuinely resonates with your core and fulfills your purpose.
• Shame and guilt will affect you less and/or you will be less prone to put it on others for shallow, selfish, or misguided reasons and motives.
• Excessive control over your image, over how others perceive you and interpret who you are, won’t be operating by default in you. Instead, you’ll simply show up as who you are. Or as you’re comfortable or required by the circumstances, situation, or role without wholly identifying with that.
• Ego and vanity, while you may still acknowledge their contributions and how they factor into various types of success, will cease to impress you or even, depending on the degree and the implications, downright repel you.
• Facing certain fears, as well as harsh and crude truths, will come with less reluctance and hesitation. You may even actively seek this out. They’re less likely to hurt you, torment you, and cause you pain, for there will be fewer defenses against them that they will have to break to get to you.
Precautions & Measures
• Doing shadow work can be revolutionary - especially if you have done little to none so far. Therefore, it is necessary to make enough room for it by being flexible and driven to evolve. You must be open to contemplating and rearranging things within and outside of you in a way that better serves your personal integration.
• Because there are other responsibilities and commitments to take care of and becoming fully consumed by this endeavor is not advisable to everyone, it is important to segment it and distribute it for it to have its own reasonable and sensible time and place. It can be done intensively or gradually, however optimally fits you.
• Do not expect instant understanding and relatability from others. Remember, shadow work is something that many are scared of and refuse to engage in. Besides, there are numerous levels to it, some much more complex and delicate than others. What you can be is confident that this is your self-discovery journey and trust that you will be able to communicate and translate it to others if you wish to later on.
• Watch out for labyrinths and abysses, along with spectral monsters lurking there. Anchor yourself firmly to states you can return to. You can think of it as stepping through a portal into another dimension and being able to remember what you found, built, or developed there. Rather than letting it permeate your current reality. You decide what becomes part of your day-to-day reality, where and when.
• If it gets too much. Pause. Stop. Take a break. Collect and recharge yourself. See if you need to lower the load and the pace to keep going. Take your time to process and restore yourself. It is fine to do it in bits and even to turn away from it for an indefinite amount of time. Come back to it once ready.
Does shadow work come naturally and easily to you?