3 ways you can work with your Shadow: How to acknowledge and integrate the fragmented parts of yourself.

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Oftentimes, we can be scared of the unknown...

Or is it the desires that we have yearned for and not expressed?  

Your shadow will continue to get your attention through the wounds that you hold.

These shadow aspects that have been banished are seeking understanding, and to be witnessed just like your inner child self who is waiting for your love, to be seen and heard.

The common thread here is fragmentation where those parts are looking for acknowledgement, acceptance and integration. What is important to acknowledge here is that those parts that have split off can be integrated so that you can come back into right harmony and balance.

Only when you make the decent into your underworld to reclaim that which has been rejected, can you then make the journey home.

What if the decent into your underworld is really a discovery of your power and gifts?

Through a journey of self-discovery, we are learning to integrate the parts of ourselves that have been unacknowledged or rejected. This path can feel liberating and terrifying as you may begin to see how the unintegrated parts of you hold the keys to your gifts, power and inner treasures. You will gain more clarity and insight for the ways you have been hiding from yourself and your brilliance. It is like a shattering of the false self to reclaim your truth so that you can come into wholeness.

To bring your shadows into the light is to become more conscious about your daily triggers and the way that you respond to each situation. Go gentle with yourself for this is a practice and you are learning how to weave those parts of you into your everyday life.

3 Ways to Integrate your Shadow

Look at your patterns through Mirror work.

Become the observer and notice what recurring themes are looping around in your life. This reflection can often be mirrored to you through your relationships. The pattern will replay the same old story where you attract and experience what is unacknowledged within the self.

What is being reflected back to you? What are you struggling to accept or see in yourself?

Through emotional awareness you can start to feel into what is unresolved. Often, we can lack compassion and understanding for ourselves, in all the ways we feel not good enough or worthy. These emotional responses are an invitation to see from a higher perspective about your inner landscape and how the Soul is initiated through earthly life experiences. 

The painful repeating loops are the keys to your liberation

My own journey of survival has been mainly through people-pleasing and in a caretaker role. This childhood pattern meant that I was continually outsourcing my power and shrinking my light in order to feel accepted. Underneath trying to keep other people happy, I held deep pain and a fear of abandonment. This pattern meant that I would remain in the chaos if I could receive acceptance and love. I was trained to keep hidden and small as a way to stay safe, hence I squished down parts of me that I was afraid to express. I was taught that love had to be earnt, and that my worth was dependant on what I gave and did for others in terms of emotional support. Relationships have mirrored back to me where I have denied my own feelings and values in order to feel safe.

The shadow illuminates our survival patterns and how they have shaped our identity and narratives. Only when I began working with my shadow was I then able to finally feel all the ways I had been repressed.

Anger was at the core of what had been denied.

I had put anger in a box and somewhere along the way I believed it was a very bad thing to feel this emotion. Embracing this sacred rage felt like a homecoming, for I was shown where all my unexpressed needs and desires were kept.

The shadow shatters the illusion that keeps you stuck - it opens up a whole new inner world of treasures that can support you in creating a new story, one that is aligned with your truth.

Notice what you Judge in Others

Behaviours that we judge in others are often the unhealed, and unintegrated parts of ourselves that we struggle to own in ourselves. As children, we have been taught that some parts of us are less acceptable that others. This is especially true if you found yourself repressing parts that you felt were judged or shamed.

This is where childhood survival patterns are forged to help us navigate the chaos or lack of safety. For example, if you had parents that were very critical of your sensitive nature, then you may find yourself disowning this part of yourself as a way to ease the pain of this rejection. Additionally, you may struggle to see and accept this reflection from others.

What is this experience or person showing me that I am struggling to acknowledge in myself?

And then just notice what is happening is your body when you are engaging with a person or when you are in a certain situation that is uncomfortable. This then becomes the access point into a story, a memory or trauma.

The body holds memory, stories and trauma. The body remembers what you’ve long forgotten or repressed in your unconscious…

There will be a shift as you become more conscious of your triggers and judgements you have of others. These souls are the messengers that are teaching and showing you something.

Here you are invited to become the observer of your life and the way you interact with life and others.

Your Dreams Reveal Symbolic Messages.

Dreams are like messengers from your subconscious and often providing guidance for what you are processing and working through in your waking state. They can also show you through symbolic imagery what you fear and what you are working through at a soul level.

Dreams are also a way for your shadow to make an appearance, sometimes this may happen if you feel like your being chased or there are figures that keep appearing in your dreams. This is how the subconscious mind, your psyche is trying to get you attention.

Having a dream journal can support a deeper understanding for the messages that you are receiving. You may be surprised at what you discover through the communication of your dreams.  Notice and observe if there are any themes within your dreams as they can reflect what you may be struggling to see or accept in yourself.

You hold the keys to your liberation

Facing those challenging aspects of your life is the journey to wholeness where re-patterning supports behavioural changes and emotional regulation. You are learning about who you are beyond those limiting beliefs, earlier childhood conditions and programming. There is a whole inner world for you to discover, and bit by bit you will find that there is strength and beauty in all parts that make up you. It takes time and patience with yourself but as you take this journey of discovery, you’ll find that your outer world and inner world start to reflect your truth. 

Healing is layered and self-inquiry can feel overwhelming. Uncovering the root of the pain is often from earlier childhood experiences which forms your identity and the lens in which you perceive the world and yourself.