Why Your Shadow Side Is Showing Up
Your shadow side is showing up through triggers, negative thoughts, and tough feelings, so you can clear the lies you’ve been telling yourself and move forward as a clear expression of your true wholeness.
The trick is to RECOGNIZE that your shadow is showing up not to antagonize you or to trigger you, but to be REINTEGRATED, and for the emotional charge around it to be dissolved.
Then you see a whole different perspective of possibilities.
I want to take a second to address a common misbelief in spiritual circles and teachings. Are you deceiving yourself into thinking that if you can ONLY THINK POSITIVE THOUGHTS, then you’ll have it made? You’ll be THERE?!
I hate to break it to you, but that’s not what’s up.
True, when you clear your junk (societal conditioning, limiting beliefs, etc.) and reintegrate your shadow, life gets easier.
You DO think positive thoughts more often because you’ve cleared and transmuted the seeds of limiting beliefs that negative thoughts come from. But this is more of a side-effect than a cause.
Your negative thoughts and feelings are gateways into your shadow side, not something to be feared or banished. They are signs and signals of conditioning and limiting beliefs that you’re subconsciously operating from.
When you clear your junk and reintegrate your shadow, life gets more fun and fulfilling.
You have less resistance in your day-to-day life. You live more in flow. Your dreams and desires become your realities. You’re not triggered as often.
It’s because you are no longer resisting the flow of what’s coming up to be reintegrated and LOVED by you.
You’re human, and it’s inhumane to expect a human to NEVER HAVE A NEGATIVE THOUGHT. It doesn’t work like that.
It works by becoming that ninja who notices that thought before it has time to reach its tentacles into your entire being and consume you in the storm.
Notice it and then don’t fight against it.
Work with it.
Acknowledge the thought or feeling without judgement or shame.
Ask yourself, “What thoughts, beliefs, or fears are hiding below the surface of that thought?”
Notice what part(s) of you this thought is pointing to that you’re ignoring, and then give that part of you what it needs.
Challenge yourself to see what part of you has been banished, suppressed, and hidden and is now asking to be accepted and loved.
If you’re willing to ask for help from the spirit side, call on your spirit guides and the angels of healing, forgiveness and clarity. Ask them in your head and heart or even out loud to help you move gently and gracefully through this reintegration and to KNOW your power, to KNOW your wholeness, and to KNOW your true being.
Gently is key.
You can learn this with great turbulence or with gentle, loving surrender. It’s ok either way. You’ll get there.
You’re already there.
If you don’t want to do this by yourself, find a trusted, skilled helper like a professional who is trained in lovingly facing and reintegrating the parts of you that are hurting (Somatic Therapists, Shamanic practitioners, etc.). Or an elder who has been through this process. Or someone who you know, in your heart of hearts, is willing to hear you and help you dig deeper into what’s been coming up (of course ask them consent for their help first!).
If you are feeling called to do this with others, trust that call, and ask your helpers and guides to bring you the people who are willing and able to help you!
One modality we love for this is Somatic Therapy, a technique that helps release stuck trauma and stress without having to go into the “story” of why you’re carrying that trauma or stress. You can learn more about Somatic Therapy in our Body Speak: Intro to Somatic Therapy workshop.
But no matter how you do it, decide now whether you want to give yourself the gift of clarity, so you can liberate your power and energy that is being spent on keeping those parts of you hidden in the shadows of shame and judgement.
Welcome those parts of you back into the wholeness of your being with love.
Then take a nap, a bath, or go out and play!
It’s no joke that you are changing on every level right now: mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. Like a snake shedding its skin, you’re shedding the old and stepping into your truth.
Be gentle with yourself. Give yourself some rest, compassion and space.
xoxoxo
Natalie & Shawna
PS - Click here to check out our Body Speak: Intro to Somatic Therapy workshop!