Shadow Work

What is shadow work? Shadow work is the work we do on our inner selves affecting our mind, spirit, and aura. This hidden part of ourselves is called our “shadow self.”

Apart from your intuition, there are many ways to tell when it’s time to take a beat and do some shadow work.

If you start to get headaches or have seemingly random aches and pains in your body- maybe you bumped your hip a few times within a short period of time- then your physical body is giving you cues to go inwards. Apart from the physical body, the calling to look within may also manifest itself throughout synchronicities in different ways in our physical lives. For example, if you’ve heard the same noise unsuspectingly everyday for a month or seen the same number, the Universe is using these to communicate with you and channel a direct message. 

Perhaps the same thought or song has been popping up in your brain and you’re trying to shove it down. You may be experiencing mood swings, anxiety, or even an emotional block. This is Spirit calling for you to acknowledge your shadow self, honoring and releasing any blockages acquired in our energy during our 3D experience. There are many different ways to do shadow work, and in this article I’ll go over a few. If you find yourself having a hard time meditating, healing your energy or receiving channeled messages, you know it’s time to reach out for a spiritual guidance session.

The first step healing our shadow selves is to become conscious of your unconscious thoughts. If that sounds paradoxical to you, try giving the Tao Te Ching a read… See, the thoughts that creep up in our 3D mindspace is nothing more than a mental translation of our aura/energy/qi pulsating through our minds in a way that- very similarly to our pineal gland- delivers to us important messages about our physical experience. To become aware of the thoughts that pass through our minds is to see what is really going on behind the scenes mentally and emotionally. By becoming an observer of our experience, we have the ability to rewrite our narratives and see where our wounds and blockages lie. 

One of my favorite ways to do shadow work is through meditation. Meditation can be such a ubiquitous experience depending on the time, place, and state of mind you are in at the time. Through meditation, one can learn to silence the mind and listen to Spirit- although this is just one of infinite ways to meditate. Notable mentions include journeying, cleansing/charging, channeling spirit guides/angels and divination. Begin by sitting in silence with your eyes closed and visualizing a blue dot in the middle of your forehead. This is your pineal gland, or Third Eye chakra. During meditation, we can choose to focus on any of our chakras (energy centers) and heal them so we can send that healed love and light onwards to the rest of the collective. (Remember: We’re in this together!) Let your astral body be carried away and allow yourself to fully receive the messages coming forth with loving kindness.

The next form of shadow work goes hand in hand with meditation: Gratitude. The vibration of Gratitude is closest to that of Spirit. It’s the vibration we tune into to practice Reiki, implement healing, and awaken our Kundalini. An amazing practice to spark the energy of Gratitude within ourselves is to sit, again silent and closed-eyed. This time, smile. Smile with your lips and smile with your liver. Let the sensations pour over you and finely tune into gratitude. As my Reiki master often said, “just for today do not worry or anger and be filled with gratitude.” In Buddhism, it is believed that all suffering in this realm comes down to wanting something you don’t have or having something you don’t want. Detach and practice gratitude, just for today. Watch your suffering melt away into the 3D as you awaken into the fifth dimension. You’ll find yourself holding more space, intended of course for acts of kindness. 🙂

Another way we can access shadow work is by physically handling our energy. This is an important step in the shadow work journey because it sets us more in tune with our energy and allows us to harness and navigate it for further development later. If you’ve found your way here, chances are you’re empathic already or you’ve at least felt a little electromagnetic “heat” coming from your hands before. That’s our qi, our life force energy. There are several ways to heal, harness and empower our qi such as practicing qigong or manual energy work. Acupuncture or acupressure can have similar effects as well. These practices release blockages and help our energy to flow more smoothly throughout our bodies and the universe. We can also practice energy healing, laying on of the hands or Reiki to release energy blockages and heal karmic wounds as well. The intention is for our qi to flow not only smoothly, but consciously too.

There are many ways to emphasize the strength of the shadow work we do. While the work we do is never for nothing (divine intervention!) it doesn’t mean we’re alone in healing our karmic wounds. There are actually many ways to expedite the healing process by harnessing the energy of crystals, rituals and ceremonies, singing bowls, or even deities and ancestors. We can call upon our angels and spiritual guides for assistance in overcoming our obstacles, and for them we are eternally grateful. If you need help channeling messages from Spirit, try booking a spiritual guidance session or intuitive reading to receive your messages and learn how to channel your own in the future. We can all receive direct messages through intuition, astrology, tarot cards, and divination- and it is up to awaken these gifts within all of us. 

It’s absolutely amazing what we can accomplish when we do our shadow work. While things like heightened intuition and healing can be the cherry on top of shadow work, the real prize is the evolution that comes along with clearing our blockages and helping others to do the same.