How to do shadow work to manifest your dream reality
4 easy steps
You must have seen people striving to reach their goals and grinding all the time, but they still fail to succeed. Or you must have come across such a situation yourself. This is because there are certain blockages and fears within you that are coming in the way of your ambitions. I’m going to take a deep dive into how to navigate through those fears and heal them so as to become the highest version of yourself.
Think of a river coursing its way from an ice capped mountain down through the plateaus and the valleys ending in the sea. When the water in the river was created from ice, it was in its purest and cleanest form. However, while traversing its way down through the Earth, it caught upon all the dirt and held onto all of those impurities that came along its way. At its terminal end, it almost became green and brown with all the algae and the mud that it latched upon, on its way.
This is exactly what happens with your soul. When you are born, you have all the attributes and the qualities that you require to become the best version of yourself. However, as you grow up, you are put into situations which require you to be a certain way and suppress some of your emotions. You begin to classify your qualities as good and bad, and you repress the bad ones. Although this does not mean that they’re actually bad, you fail to realise this because of the society’s expectations and set beliefs. In the need to find a safe space to survive, you unknowingly bring down certain parts of yourself. They get buried in your subconscious as depressed feelings and emotions. Over time, they start to gain control over you and manifest your reality in the most negative ways possible.
What is shadow work?
Shadow work is one of the most important components of spiritual growth and healing. By indulging in shadow work, you will ascend into a higher version of yourself in your spiritual journey. You will feel more connected to your souls or bus and will get one step closer to true enlightenment.
To understand shadow work, you need to understand the difference between your conscious and your subconscious mind. Conscious means something that has shed light upon itself. Your conscious mind knows about the things you are doing, the goals want to pursue and even how you will pursue them. On the other hand, the subconscious or the shadow part of yourself is the side that no one knows about, and maybe not even you. It is made up of all the repressed thoughts and emotions that are stored in your brain as negative beliefs. These beliefs stop you from having the best life experiences. Think of yourself standing in front of the mirror, the reflection that you see in the mirror is your conscious and the shadow behind you, which you can’t see unless you turn back, is your subconscious.
How your shadow self takes control over your life
As a child, I was always told to suppress negative emotions like anger. To find a safe space and to feel validated, I repressed anger for the longest time. Although I was known as the good and easy-going person, it wasn’t very pleasant for me. I was adapted to repressing my anger, even in the situations that demanded it. This got me used and betrayed since I was never ready to accept being angry. I also began to have medical conditions because of all this cluttered and suppressed emotion in my energy body.
If you had a bad break up where you were cheated upon, you will suppress the feeling of trust within yourself. You will think that it was your fault as much as theirs and that it was probably because you trusted them. You will now have a hard time in choosing your next partner, and you might even ignore the right people that come into your life. If, after a long time, you manage to gain a new partner, those beliefs will take control over you. You will begin to not only doubt your partner, but also yourself. You will start to doubt all of their actions, and mistrust them a lot, even if they are the biggest green flag. This will cause a lot of tension, disagreements and fights in your relationship, which might even cause it to end.
This is why it is necessary to heal all of your past wounds and traumas that are stored in your subconscious. You will gain all the power that you need to transform into your highest self by doing shadow work.
The technique
There are many workshops and mentors that help you with this part of your healing. Shadow work involves upheaval of a lot of intense emotions. It is an uncomfortable and challenging procedure that involves confronting and facing all your deeply stored trauma that might cause you to break down. Therefore, it is necessary to do this in a comfortable environment with a trustable person. However, as a beginner, you can also do this by yourself in the safe space of your home. I have enlisted here four simple steps to go about it.
Step 1. What is your current dream reality?
Ask yourself this question and think about what your life could have been right now if you were in the highest version of yourself. You don’t just have to focus on your goals and desires, but also on the feelings that they will bring with it. It could be a high paying job, living in a beach house or even exploring your hobbies. Once you have a clear picture in your head, it is time to move to the next step.
Step 2. What is stopping you from living this dream?
Finding an answer to this question can be a little challenging. You might just say that ‘I just can’t’ or ‘I don’t know.’ This is where you will have to dig deep and keep asking yourself ‘why?’ Keep asking again and again until you come up with an excuse or a story.
For example, If your answer is ‘because I am always procrastinating’, you need to ask yourself why you are procrastinating. And the next answer could be, ‘because I am lazy.’ You have to keep going on and on until you come to a story in your past, which made you feel oppressed and let down. Maybe the final answer could be, ‘because I was once told I am unworthy of living my dreams.’ This sense of unworthiness is associated with a past experience.
Step 3 – Visualisation
Try and recollect the past experience that made you feel this way. You need to imagine yourself living this moment again. Imagine your former self in that situation right in front of you. You can either do this by simply closing your eyes or sitting with an old picture of yourself. This can be hard and bring up a lot of negative emotions to the surface. You need to remember to be patient with yourself and treat yourself with grace and compassion. Allow yourself to feel all your emotions. If you are feeling sad and hurt, cry it out, until you feel lighter. You need to honour and accept your feelings, even if they make you feel low.
Step 4. Integration
Once you know that you are completely immersed in your past, say these words to your former self.
‘I am here for you, no matter what happens. You are worthy of feeling these emotions. You deserve the best. I love you.’
Make sure you connect to your inner self while saying these words. Speak to yourself in the most gentle way possible. Console yourself and hug yourself. Remind your former self that you are his/her biggest supporter, and that you don’t need anyone else’s validation or acceptance to complete them. You need to remember to be patient as this process might take some time, especially if you have a lot of stored trauma. Be completely present with your former self until you feel your inner child is comfortable enough to let go.
Once you have completed all the four steps, you will feel at ease with yourself. You will no longer feel the subconscious blocks hindering your path. You will be able to easily manifest all your dreams and have the best life experiences.
However, you need to remember that doing this once or twice will not cure all your wounds. You need to be consistent and do it time and again, however, uncomfortable it seems. Once you realise the power of healing and how it will impact your life, you will start to enjoy this journey and have more self-love. This will lead you to a lot of inner peace and commitment.
Thanks for reading :)
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