Have you heard about shadows or aspects before?
In Jungian psychology, the shadow is either an unconscious aspect of the personality that the conscious ego does not identify in itself; or the entirety of the unconscious, i.e., everything of which a person is not fully conscious. In short, the shadow is the unknown side.
Shadows or aspects are part of our being that we are unaware of owning them.
We tend to push away, be annoyed with, and basically deny them to be parts of us.
The easiest way to recognize our shadows is by seeing them in others.
Based on the universal law of resonance, like attracts like and energies vibrating in the same frequency will be attracted to each other. What it means is that if you notice being annoyed or triggered by a specific behavior in other people repeatedly in your life, most possibly you own a similar hidden behavior or shadow.
This behavioral pattern or shadow is something that you are NOT easy about at all or comfortable to be identified with and blame in other people. Usually, there's an intense emotional reaction when confronting our shadows in other people.
Shadow work or aspect work
Aspect work is the process of identifying shadows, find the roots of them, and release shame, blame, denial, or any negative energy around them. This process is such a tricky work as most of us refuse to acknowledge our aspects or confront them.
The most important step to do the shadow work (aspect work) is to identify these parts in us. We tend to suppress, deny, hide, or run away from these shadowy parts of us.
The next step is to acknowledge and take responsibility to own them. Then depending on the depth of each shadow it usually takes a long process to embrace them and receive this so-called "dark side" of us in compassion and love. And that's exactly when the magic happens! As soon as we are easy with our shadows; we see them less and less in our life and people around us, events, or others' behavior. This shadow either completely disappears or we are not bothered about them anymore.
To step into power and claim our success in life we must accept all part of us the good, the bad, and the ugly! Identifying our shadows and do the aspect work to release the negative feeling about them is a crucial move in this process.
The only way out is through!
Having experienced the deep impact of aspect work on my personal growth, I'm so passionate to incorporate it into my self-discovery workshops and one to one coaching sessions. I use various creative techniques like art therapy, meditation, kundalini meditation, etc... as part of my shadow work process.
How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also If I am to be whole.
[Carl Gustav Jung]
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