Monday Insight : Shadow Work - 5 Tangible Tools

The Journal as a container

Having a container to purge, reflect and process what is coming up from your unconscious and subconscious mind [spirit] is important when doing any form of Shadow work. This is where a Journal can become a tool and an ally in supporting you through getting the all the brain dumps, and information simmering and sifting to the surface, to give all the content swirling around in your mind a place to be, in a cohesive or incohesive way.

The way in which you use the Journal as a container will be of course reflective of your style, the nature of the content and your intention. Some days when I am going into my own Shadow work I am using a conversation to spark a stream of conscious splurge that I can later go back and work with on an ever deeper level. Other times I use more structure and a firmer systematical approach. I may use for example: bullet points and quick notes. It varies what I bring to the practice. The sensation and connection to my Shadow issue becoming clearer the further I go with my bullet points.

Books as a lifelong Resource

Some days the issues that will arise will be full of heat, and will be easier to sift through and work with.  It is pragmatic to be aware that on the days that there is smoke or fog in your consciousness that you allow the space to welcome resources that can offer fresh perspectives, and a starting point, or reference point to leap from. 

Books, magazines and other materials; such resources can hold a wealth of juicy goodness that you can work with inside and outside your Shadow work to encourage it in your sessions, and to feed the fuel, and to tempt it to the surface to give you something to explore when you finally make the time to get into it. 

Books such as Creative writing, Journal healing, Meditation or quote books as well as Wellbeing and interest magazines all contain prompts, passages, usually pictures and exercises that call all be incorporated into the practice.

Some I have used in the past: 

• The Right to Write by Julia Cameron
• Writing down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
•  The Dark side of the Light Chasers – Debbie Ford
• Fruit flesh by Gayle Brandeis [Fantastic for creative divine women]
•  The New Diary by Tristine Rainer - Preface by Anais Nin 

It is worth mentioning that these are books that I pick up and use when I feel guided and inspired and not ones that I would read right through. Although if you feel motivated to follow a book from start to finish as a form of Shadow Practice let that be your shining beacon.

Tarot 

I love the Tarot. It has been a guiding part of my own practice into Shadow work long before I even knew the term Shadow work.  It is always the first tool that I go to alongside my Journaling, and used together it can create powerful shifts in awareness, as well as intent, direction and progression. 

A few basic ways you can do this is by using spreads already made by others to break down what works and what does not work for you , or you can create your own by focusing on the area you want to work with.

For example: My Client’s apparent work is relating to the attachment they have to an old job, partner, passion or experience. I would work with them using the Letting go spread which is comprised of a three card draw: 

• What the resistance is there around the issue?
• What can be learned from the experience, or already has been?
• Where can they go from there using the experience and the lessons from the cards in unity with whatever comes up in the session or private practice?

When I am doing Shadow Work, the ultimate take from it is clarity, specificity and action that I can take into my life, and the world as a healer and mentor. The knowledge, 

experience, reflection and connection to the cards and their energy and outcome is mine to begin with, though my belief is that when I use the cards to connect with myself I am tapping into the collective consciousness, the universal juice and divine and when I do I also glean wisdom that I can then take into my work with my Clients and fellow Sacred Journeyers. 

 It is important to embody what I teach, and the techniques I use in my sessions.

Brainstorming and Dumps

Lists, charts, diagrams, vision boards, collage, artwork, poetry or mind mapping, whatever form you decide to use, one or many of these tools can be a platform for expression. The integration of your light and shadow side is a nourishing, cathartic and engaging way to open the three elements of your psyche and to work with your Shadow.

If you feel you aren’t creative, or as creative as you want to be take some time to investigate the area of your brain that you are drawn to the most. For some the left brain method of making lists, drawing up graphs or using spread sheets really gets them going, for other Right brain creators using paint, mixed media, writing poetry or film making can aid them in connecting with their self in all its forms. 

The aim here is to address what is coming up for you through a different practice or perspective. I encourage you to experiment with both sides of your brain, even if you favor one. Both have fantastic qualities and you will always be using one side more, or less in unity with the self and the Divine.

Tap into your Network Tree

Whether it be your mentor, your partner, best-friend or a fellow spiritual entrepreneur, building a network tree for engaging in the Shadow work is essential. You don’t have to share the entire process if you want to keep it intimate between yourself and the Divine, though I do recommend having at least one to two people who you trust who you can be with whether that is to support you with a hug, a cuppa tea, or to bounce ideas off when you are having a rough day. There will be days when we need that extra bit of encouragement and a shoulder to cry on when it all comes to the surface.

I would recommend only sharing this experience with someone you know would offer the same to you in a healthy manner. Honoring each other for your resources and time is essential to get a great synergy of energy, an exchange where both people feel nurtured, nourished and can learn from one another. 

I do believe Shadow work is an independent and individual exploration of the self and it is important to know where you are embodying responsibility and power for your practice. Be aware of when you are seeking validation or confirmation from others, when you really need it from yourself, this is something Shadow work helps to build on and expand, confidence in your direction, opinions and choices.

Questions to Consider

What tools do you currently use to process the often intense or dark side of your psyche?

What are three ways you can explore one or more of these tools in your practice?

Do you have a Shadow work process or practice at all, and if you did what would it look like, smell like, sound like? Really delve into the sensory and visionary power of your mind and body.

Do you have a network tree, and if so who would you call upon to support you during your Shadow Work practice?

 

Monday Insight: I'm Busy - What We Really Mean

Make yourself a lovely cup of tea & enjoy this Monday's Insight.

I was lying in my bed. 

The exhaustion of an intense week of shifting emotions, re-constructing beliefs, and laying new foundations in my relationships had brought me to the realization early in the day that I needed to spend a great deal of time sleeping, and recouping.

In my mind, as I delighted in picking up a book I’d been wanting to start for months now, and I turned the page, all the things I needed to do, and wanted to do other than reading the book sprang to my mind, along with the self talk that I needed to be productive.

That is when the voice started backing me into a corner of my own mind. The book fell by the wayside, and I became paralysed my my own actions.

I had to keep busy, and if I wasn’t busy I would not be successful in the areas I had been putting all my energy into. 

I attempted to pick the book back up, my body fighting to stay in bed, while my intellectual mind buzzed with the knowledge that I had a book to write, and I better get busy.

12 hours later and I have started the chapter, only not in the way that I wanted it to look like when I started it, and not by pushing myself into doing. I did it by letting go, and working with my body, and the messages it was sending me, and yet it wasn’t my only push into embracing the rest that I needed and the truth that what I had left, would still be there when I woke up, ready, and if not even more full of intention and inspiration than before.

How did I get to the realization that I could take a break? That even in sleep I was being productive and that I needed to listen to the process rather than me attempting to control it by being busy?

I was confronted with my Shadow, a part of myself that I had long been attempting to understand, yet had never quiet pinpointed until I received a call from a loved one. In the conversation we were discussing our week, and both of us shared that we were tired, for different reasons. I made a comment that my week had been ‘busy’ and that I was not tired and needed to rest. 

What I really wanted to say was that I was tired and I needed rest, but to me resting and staying stagnant was not something I appreciated, and I will do anything to remain active, even sometimes to the cost of my health [I am learning] I went about expressing this to myself while I listened to my loved one talk, and make plans. I thought about how I am practicing voicing what I really need, and want, rather than feeling justified.

The conversation took a turn; I was met with a laugh, one that hit me hard. The conversation proceeded with my loved one’s long list of things that they had done, and how I couldn’t be as tired as them, or even really justify that I was, because they had done so much more, and deserved the title of being the busiest. It was at that moment I felt in competition with my loved one, that they were creating a podium in which to express themselves in a way that was more showcasing then embracing. I was triggered, and I nearly reacted, and I would have verbally, had I not picked up on it in that moment: the truth, the shadow and what it meant.

The truth that this was a belief I had been told my whole life, and had experienced with this person, and others around me, and participated in myself as the receiver and giver of the projection.

I let myself feel the fear, the pain, the understanding of difference, and went inwards to look at how that one idea had played out in my life in various ways, begging to get my attention, and awareness.

That belief was that if I was not busy, if I was stagnant, if I did not do as much, or was not exhausted by submitting to the obligations that were created by others and from by myself, then what I had done was not valid, and could not be measured by that person as a success.

Since that person was a primary caregiver in my life from birth, it was no surprised to me then that I have taken on this belief as my own, even when I knew within myself that there was as much importance in relaxation and making your own choices, and path as there is in being busy and working for others.

This hurt, it cut me to realize that they were mirroring back to me a side of myself that I continued to suppress and deny existed. I thought back to the times when I had done the same thing to those I loved, and while I experienced a few minutes of shame, and guilt that was suffocating, once I could breathe through it and accept that I did that, I was also able to be compassionate towards the person mirroring it to me, and embrace it as a gift. I had brought it to the surface, seen it, lived in it, and know I could work with it, use it as a path of light rather than darkness to integrate into my daily life, and to lessons in my thoughts about busyness had to offer.

 What it made me realize; the shadow side to ‘being busy’

 If the shadow side of the ‘busy complex’ is the unexpressed parts of ourselves; both positive and negative, then it stands to reason that the shadow aspect of busyness is all the parts of yourself that deny what it is realling going on. What we have been told it means, and the battle between living the expectations of society, alongside or even outside our own.

We need to be seen as making a difference, being productive, living life to the fullest. The thing is, you can be doing that by taking time to rest, or reading a book or even spending an entire afternoon watching inspirational videos on YouTube; you can be productive by day dreaming and doing nothing.

There is a need to really look at the differences between stagnation and avoidance. For there are times when if we ask ourselves and listen to the truth we can see that we are using ‘busy’ as an excuse to avoid ourselves or other people. To resist looking at what we can do to change, and what needs to change so that we can move outside the energy of stagnation and the illusions of being trapped.

Another side of this is the idea around being obligated, and how ‘busy’ is often provoked by all the obligations that we take on, sometimes to the detriment of our mental and physical health. We need to let go of this victim mentality of suffering and step up into act of delegating, asking, and taking ownership of our path in life. No one can put anything on you that you do not have the choice to say no to, and learning to say no is one of the key tools in being able to let go of other peoples ideals of what busy mean and to really understand what your own are.

The reality is we make our own choices, and we can decide what we want, and need and when we want and need it. It doesn’t necessarily mean that will manifest it in the way that we want to. It is okay to have what we want, do what we want and express our emotions around that. It is okay to do, and act, and go after life, and live it to your own ideal of full capacity. To take that love for life and to filter it through everything you do, and every way you speak. I love to share my experiences with others, there is something empowering and encouraging in talking about what I have done and how it has changed my life, or all the things I am doing right now.

There is also the projected side of it, where I will stand on my grand podium and attempt to make people see the light about how being active and doing can assist you in making your life better. When really what I am saying when I am in this mode of thinking and acting, is that I sometimes believe if you’re not taking constant action, your life must be stagnant and going nowhere. I can see my own fears and reflections in that statement, and I know not to be harsh to myself about it.

I can look at what it means, and begin to question my beliefs around it, when at the core what I really want is for all people to be living their authentic bliss and to their full potential.

Coming back to the conversation with my loved one, I now had a starting point to first of all ask how that reflected in me, and take some steps into integrating that knowledge into my life, and also how I could better interact with that person when the issue came up again, if it ever does. Knowing this person, it will. 

Next time I may react, the difference is I know that the pull and power of it won’t be as strong, and I know I will better understand the reasoning behind it, and be able to be firm in my convictions around being busy, and how I define success.

Coming to business from place of compassion and gratitude rather than superiority means understanding that most of us are coming from an old paradigm that is generational and are all going through an intense shift out of the darkness of what was, to what is. Each of us is on our own journey. Some of us may feel we are going at a slower or faster pace than those around us.

By being gentle and receptive with ourselves and others, we can be open to the gift of what it brings up. We can begin to lessen the suffering and victim mentality that we have created to prove others and ourselves that our journey means something.

 What we are doing means something and go into the heart of what is true: That our lives already mean plenty. Being alive is enough.

 

Dream Den Healing : WOLF

 

 

Dream Den Healing is a 36 week journey into the Dreamscape, the Subconscious using the Dream healing card deck by Dr. Fiona Zucker and Jonny Zucker.

Each week I will interpret the card using my own method of Dream interpretation shared here How I Interpret Dreams 

I will give you insight into popular Archetypal symbols and themes in dreaming, and how to harness their messages and glean their depth. I aim to inspire, motivate and teach you ways to integrate each card into your waking life whether the symbols are apparent in your dreams or you wish to work to inject them into your dreaming for self empowerment and spiritual expansion.

DISCLAIMER: Note that these are my interpretations and methods for calling upon the cards that are created by Dr Fiona Zucker and Jonny Zucker and are used in correspondence to my own practice and business. I use them for support to glean personal messages from my own dreams or to assist my clients.

Take the essence of what I have to offer and use it in your own practice to investigate and enliven your approach to your beliefs, values, and your own opinions of dreaming and how it plays a part in your spiritual path.

WOLF

Looking at the card what are the first five thoughts that come to mind.( I can look at the light and the shadow side of this too)

Leadership – Native- Totem – Kindred- Warrior – Lone Wolf

Fierce – Loyal- Fighter- Pack animal – Dangerous

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Bring in the Dream Story

I saw a Wolf with a fellow classmate when I was running away, and hiding from a murderer on the loose. 

It can be as simple or as detailed as I want. 

The Wolf was a typical Gray Wolf, while my classmate wore a helmet, held a staff and wore a robe wrapped around his shoulders.

Remembering the more details I can bring to focus, the deeper I can explore the meaning and the message behind it.

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This is where I would hone in and start asking questions [also looking at the symbols that stand out]

Do I know who or what I was actually running from? No it is just a sensation of fear and I cannot breathe. I know in my mind it is a murderer.

Did my classmate and the Wolf mean to harm or help me? Help me. He reached out and allowed me to step away from my hiding place unharmed and protected.

Is the Wolf loyal to him or does it have its own agenda? The Wolf is loyal at his side always. He is calm and has an old soul feel to it. I sense that I am safe with it.

Where am I running away too? I am running around a childhood neighbor’s house and hiding in their open garage.

What color was the robe that my classmate was wearing? He was wearing a Red robe.

 *

Tying my current life situation with my dream interpretation

In my current life at school I am coming up to a deadline. I am intimidated by the pressure of getting all my assignments on time and pleasing my teachers. I am passionate about the course, and have been seeking assistance from my Classmate Jay. I admire Jay for his dedication to his study and his knowledge of the area in which we are focusing on, an area I feel I could use more assistance with. I am also afraid that if I fail I may disappoint Jay who has become an ally in learning.

From here I can start connecting the dream to my waking life. 

Jay is somewhat of a leader or a mentor to me which is why he reached out when I was in the fearful situation that I was in. He has an ally in the Wolf whom I see as an animal full of wisdom, courage, and a kindred spirit on the journey of life. 

Since undertaking study in an area I am passionate about that will in turn affect the way I can move through the world. The fear of running from something that scares me, and the old self that will die when I transform is apparent in the murderer who to me is only a sensation not a reality.

 Being in my childhood neighbor’s garage could go two ways; either I associate it with a negative experience or a positive one. If I dig deep into my past I know that to me it always was dark, but open to the sunlight and lead into their house. I was safe there, vulnerable, but safe.  To me this shows that while I am hiding in fear, and am vunanerable I know that I am still within the confines of safety and in relation to school, this would come back to the time frame in which my assessments are due and the resources I have in Jay to get it in on time.

Lastly the Red of his coat really stood out to me, and when I look into the correspondences with the color Red I see that it symbolizes: hard work, leadership, passion, temperament.  It is also related to the BASE or ROOT CHAKRA which is the center of “ I am or I have.” If I combined the definition of red with Jay’s robe I can see that even his robe has meaning and is certainly a reflection of how I view Jay’s personality, and could also denote the personality traits I wish to embody now that I have noticed them in another. 

A great way to turn the reflection around is to understand as in like we may often find ourselves mirrored in others. What we see in Jay we also see in ourselves, or can if we look at ourselves from a different perspective. I can be hard working. I am passionate and I can take the skills I have learned from Jay and become a leader in my own right.

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The message of the dream at its basic is a form of validation or confirmation. If I can focus, remain dedicated and ask for help, rather than stress or run away from the feelings of being overwhelmed. I will finish my work, be supported in my response and have a further ally to work with in the future as well as gain confidence that I can achieve the tasks that I set out to do.

Of course I can continue to keep going deeper until I am satisfied, or leave it at that. The truth in the message is unique to each of us, and the message that is coming through. You may be directed to go off on a tangent, focusing on the Wolf and what it has to tell you, or use the dream as a mark in the map to begin to ask for more assistant and become diligent in your studies.

Another way you can go deeply into the cards is to ask what the card may be teaching you based on your Triggers and Key Symbols.

 

In terms of the Wolf these are a few questions I created to expand on in my interpretation and Journaling practice. Feel free to use them to explore in your own practice.

 
·         Where do I need to be a leader in my pack [class, work, friendship circle]

·         Where do I need to look at my aggressiveness in relation to my independence?

·         Why am I running to the familiar in my life, is it because it is less dangerous, or is it a way to resist or restrict a current form of expression I am afraid to explore?

·         What areas in my life to I need to embody the expression of being a ‘Lone Wolf’ or what areas in my life do I already embody that expression?

·         What causes in my life do I need to be loyal to?

·         How can I be accepting of help from likeminded people?

·         What areas are prominent in my life that I could benefit from stepping up in a fierce manner?

·         Who is my ‘Tribe’ or my ‘Pack’ and how do they mirror my life in relation to my dreams?

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