Shadow Work

Shadow work has become the current buzzword. Images used are always pretty daunting - like it’s going to evoke the devil within.

What if we see it as Innocent parts of us that got pushed down?

Parts that were so sweet in natural expression until someone's ‘all-knowing and grown-up’ or a peer told us they were unacceptable?

Or someone rejected our need for intimacy, so the need for connection got pushed down.

Or the one who was so open, so loving, and someone very unconscious didn’t care about that?

So that sweet open heart gets closed down.

All these squished-down bits - innocent parts that can’t express themselves - are shamed into exile.

They live in the shadows.

In somatic sensing, we help these parts back out, gently, like you would a child who has hidden away in fear.

Showing these parts they are ok.

That they can express themselves - along with our conscious help - in a way that takes care of us and our environment.

The shadow can be dark and scary - the unknown, the forbidden.

And it can be luminous - shining a light on parts that aren’t as ‘bad’ as we were told.

The disallowed/ disavowed can be welcomed with acceptance rather than judgment.

The trouble is when we shove everything into our shadow, it comes out sideways.

It has the power to cause us to ‘play out’ unconscious behaviour.

When we become conscious of what we’ve relegated to the shadow, it can be included.

We become more whole.

We have a choice.