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It has come up often this past month that I must engage in more of this, what they call "Shadow-Work". I say in the title "whatever that is" because honestly, how does one really do this in a meaningful way? Of course, this is extremely important work for everyone to do so let me first describe how it is I understand Shadow-Work to be, as someone asked me what it meant lately. I see Shadow-Work as seeing your "shadow aspects" of yourself, i.e. what emotions and correlated beliefs to those emotions have you suppressed to either protect yourself or hidden away due to shame? We tend to take those things and put them in the dark, not to be looked at for fear of how it just might hurt if it were to be put out there in the open.
But hiding these important things away in the corner forever more just means you are carrying unprocessed emotions and these emotions will continue to rear their ugly head. This may mean that when something in life happens that hits a hot button of yours, or you could call this your trigger, then your emotions will erupt and show you things about yourself that are holding you back in life, without you even realizing it.
Abraham Hicks Shadow-Work Example with Weight Gain Discomfort
For example, this morning I looked in the mirror and had a thought "you are looking really fat lately", which didn't feel good. What a critical judgment to make at myself? So mean right?
But instead of just walking away after making that proclamation and going about my day, I instead noticed it was an opportunity for me to reevaluate this belief and so I brought some awareness around it. I have been rereading the Abraham Hick's book "The Astonishing Power of Emotions" (Ester & Jerry Hicks - The Teachings of Abraham] and tried to remember what I had learned here. So first thing's first I thought of reiterating to myself "where am I now with this subject?", "Okay I feel fat and less attractive". There's a start. Doesn't feel good but acknowledging AND making peace with where you are is the most important step here. Next, to give myself some relief to move my emotions up along the vibrational scale, I thought of a few more thoughts [note, the vibrational scale according to Abraham Hicks is shown below for reference].
I believe I would say I was in the emotion of "Frustration", not that I used the Energy Vibrational scale in this moment, as it was just a quick thing in the morning. But I did think things like:
"Well at least this shows me where I am, in that I believe I am "fat" and seeing the evidence to support it. This clarifies what I do not want. Which means I am more clear on what it is I DO want."
"Isn't it an amazing thing that life presents me things I don't want so I can grow as a person and as a soul, as opposed to life not moving me in any way and not desiring anything at all?"
"So now I am clear on what it is I DO want. I want to feel confident in my skin. I want to feel beautiful. I want to feel sexy. I want to feel the ease of putting anything on in my closet I want to and feeling good in it. I also want to feel fit and toned and lighter day to day from eating lighter foods and feeling more physical and mental clarity from that."
"I'm actually kind of excited to get on track with food and exercise again. I love feeling lighter with foods, I love that clarity that comes that I have felt in the past. I love being on a steady exercise regimen. I love feeling my body adjust in the best way. I'm happy I know what to do! This is going to be fun!"
I would say that vibrationally that raised me on the subject from Frustration to Enthusiasm maybe. So there you see one example of Shadow-Work. It won't work for everyone or on all subjects or all the time, but it's an option. In fact, there are loads of options on how to do Shadow-Work, depending on who you talk to, there's the "Psychotherapist way", the "Spiritual way", and I hope it goes without saying that in either of these "ways" there are many hundreds of methods and ways of interpreting the methods.
Ennegram for Shadow-Work
About a month ago I was introduced to the power of the Ennegram. This is what I have been trying to explore lately. I learned that my Ennegram is likely #7 and when I read the description... boy did I feel exposed! As if my life's bad habits just flashed before my eyes! It was a lot to take in, and I have heard from other people that reading their Ennegram description made them also feel uncomfortably exposed. The gist of what I got from my Ennegram #7 is that I can lean on the side of gluttony - not about food, per se, but about everything - opportunities, consuming information or entertainment, etc. Furthermore, there is a tendency to not want to go into your emotions in the deep end which can mean living a bit shallow. All of this was hard to hear, but I knew to be true.
Working with my Spirit Guides & Channelled Entities
Last night though I thought I would take a different approach to Shadow-Work and I wanted to see if I could explore it within. I lit a candle and burned some palo santo, got cozy and pulled out my notebook. I set my intentions with this work and called in for assistance from the Spirit Guide Team, Higher Self, Yeshua (Jesus) and "The Seven" (another day can describe this particular consciousness).
Then I had a bit of a dialogue here. Asking a Question and tuning in for the answer from the Higher Benevolent Consciousness described above. Or you could say, I tuned inwards for answers. I asked what my Shadows were and one interesting answer that came back I'll save for the next post! It was about Marriage and relationships.
Until next time, thanks for reading and sending out love to you!
