#Shadow work journal for beginners how to
#Shadow work journal for beginners professional

– Gail Sheehy How to use your shadow to improve your lifeĪll throughout the history of humanity, shadow work has played a powerful yet mysterious role in helping us discover what is at the root of our individual and collective mental illness, physical dis-ease, and even insanity resulting in crimes of all kinds. Growth demands a temporary surrender of security. If we don’t grow, we are not really living. We frequently “see” these disowned qualities in the world around us and we tend to strive to punish that which makes us most uncomfortable about the aspect of ourselves that we have not accepted. Seeing things in others that are genuinely within ourselves is referred to as projection.

Projections are one of the most prevalent types of Shadow rejection.

#Shadow work journal for beginners professional

Remaining unconscious of the shadow hurts our relationships with our spouses, family, and friends, and it will impact our professional relationships and leadership abilities. Addictions, low self-esteem, mental illness, chronic illnesses, and various neuroses are all attributed to the Shadow Self. Our facial reactions express emotions we don’t consciously feel. It acts as the root cause of our behaviors we wouldn’t voluntarily do and later regret (if we catch it). When the human Shadow is shunned, it tends to undermine and sabotage our lives. These unexamined or disowned parts of our personalities hide in our subconscious, where they still influence us and express themselves, for example, through feelings of anger or jealousy. So what happens to all the parts of ourselves we sweep out of view? Many of us go to great lengths to protect our self-image from anything unflattering or unfamiliar. Reading Carl Jung triggered my spiritual awakening so definitely proceed with caution. His work is mind-bending and transformative, but definitely not easy (or fun) to read. These books encapsulate Jung’s theories on the collective unconscious & the categorization of personalities into 8 different archetypes.

If this is something you’d like to learn more about, make sure to read The Undiscovered Self, The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious, & The Red Book. To keep this article short and sweet, I’m not going to dive that deep into Jung’s work. Of course, there is more to Carl Jung’s theories on the shadow side. All we deny in ourselves-whatever we perceive as inferior, evil, or unacceptable-become part of the shadow. This hidden place lurking within your unconscious mind contains all of your secrets, repressed feelings, and parts deemed “unacceptable,” shameful, “sinful” or even “evil” by society. The shadow is the “dark side” of our personality because it consists chiefly of primitive, negative human emotions and impulses like rage, envy, greed, selfishness, jealousy, and the striving for power. The Shadow Self theory was originally coined and explored by Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Carl Jung. The following shadow work journal prompts will help you bring this shadow self to the surface so you can create a pathway to healing, self-awareness, self-acceptance, and compassion. Shadow work is an exercise in exploring one’s hidden “shadow.”

Our shadow selves may appear briefly from time to time, but other times they may take complete control and completely upend our lives. We all have a secret shadow side that is impulsive, jealous, angry, deceitful, and lonely that we work to bury beneath the social mask we present to the world every day.