The term 'shadow' was first postulated in psychology by Carl Jung. Human shadows are simply parts of your psyche that you have disowned, suppressed, rejected, or keep in the dark about yourself. Shadows are generally thought of as 'dark,' 'bad' and even 'evil' and because of this, people attempt to hide, control or suppress them.

Shadows often have harsh labels such as loser, slut, liar, weakling, sissy, control freak, rebel, victim, cheater, or abuser. However, they can also be what we consider to be “light or good” but cannot seem to attain or acknowledge such as our beauty, power, value, greatness, joy, worth, creativity, brilliance, or our divinity. For many people emotions such as anger, guilt or shame get suppressed and show up as shadow. These qualities that we hate, are often projected onto others, essentially hiding our disowned qualities 'out there' in plain sight.

The classic story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is a story about shadow. No matter how 'good' you attempt to be by shutting down these 'dark,' unwanted qualities, they will eventually take over from time to time and cause havoc in your life. Behind all your emotional 'upsets' in life are un-integrated shadows.

What are qualities that you hate or can't stand about yourself or others?

What triggers you emotionally and gets you very upset and reactive?

The war against your shadow-side is a war that you cannot win because you are fighting against parts of your self. Instead of fighting shadow, the only way to resolve the conflict is to create peace with these parts/energies by reintegrating them. Shadow integration work is a process of self awareness, forgiveness and surrender. This radical self acceptance eventually brings an end to all war. 

Embracing the shadow does not mean that you will exhibit or act out the unhealthy aspects of the shadow material. Instead, by embracing the shadow, it will actually not act out in unhealthy ways, and it will no longer take your energy or run your life.

Imagine you are a child discovering your shadow for the first time, following you around, expanding and shrinking as you change your orientation towards the light. In that first noticing, it might have been shocking, scary. "What is this thing following me around?" Why can't I get away from it?" Or, maybe it was a de-light-ful dance right from the get-go, and you jumped into a playful dance with it, running, jumping, crouching and trying to make it disappear. Later, you noticed that you could make shapes on a wall with your shadow; rabbits, dogs, dinosaurs and monsters. How fun it was to dance within the light and notice all the shapes and forms of the shadow that danced with you as you danced. Then, stepping into full light, the shadows completely disappear.

The shadows of our inner psyche are not so different. They don't exist in themselves, but show up only when our mind blocks the light. In shadow-work, you forgive or let go of the beliefs, emotions and traumas that are blocking the light, and the upsets/triggers disappear. Through shadow-work, you wholly claim and stand in your true light.

At sometime during our life, usually in our childhood, we suppressed or pushed parts of our psyche away in order to feel loved, accepted, or to survive an uncomfortable or traumatic situation.

As human beings, “shadow” begins to be created from the moment of our conception. Our DNA contains reflections of the shadows of our ancestors, and our Soul comes in with reflections from “past lives” including purpose, direction and “karma” of how we might experience and contribute to conscious evolution in this life. But even if you do not believe in these concepts, imagine that a “Shadow Self” gets born with you in a similar way that the human “Ego Self” begins to develop very early in life. This 'shadow-self,' often considered our 'dark side,' holds all these unwanted parts until we are ready to come back, accept and reintegrate them. 

What are the symptoms or signs that shadow is showing up?

1. Reactivity:

The most obvious sign that you have unresolved shadow is reactivity. Rather than just notice and respond to a life experience, you have an "over the top or amplified emotional reaction." If you are "triggered" then you have shadow acting out and "running you." In that moment of reactivity, you are not free, and your shadow energy is in charge, rather than you. It is also likely a pattern. If you don't want to repeat this unhealthy and upsetting reactive pattern, you need to do the work to embrace the shadow that is ‘acting out’ to get your attention.

2. Judgment and projection onto others:

If you judge others harshly and or even make it personal rather than just an undesirable or limiting behavior that you notice, then it is likely a projection of your own shadow material! When we point our finger at someone else, there are three pointing back at us. When this occurs, it is important to "turn it around" to ourselves and examine if this is our own shadow... a quality that we dislike or are unable to own within ourselves.

Example: If you say, "They are a loser!!!", then honestly turn that around and examine "I am a loser!!!" or "I can't stand losing." Are there places in your life where you are not admitting that you also feel like a loser, or it would be devastating to lose? If so, there was likely an early experience in your childhood where being a loser was traumatic or unsafe. You learned to hate or be ashamed losing. To hide that part, you may be spending a lot of energy trying not to be seen as a loser yourself. This is wasted energy that could be used elsewhere, couldn't it? 

3. A repetitive a behavioral pattern which you do over and over again.

If you keep repeating the same limiting behaviors again and again in your life or work, then a shadow or multiple shadows are likely keeping you in this pattern. The way out of the pattern is to discover and integrate the shadows that are running you here. When they are embraced fully, the story will change or at least you will catch yourself and make different choices to break the pattern.

Example: You keep attracting the same kind of relationships into your life which proves to you that you are unlovable or unworthy, or men/women can't be trusted, etc. This may have come from an earlier traumatic experience with a parent.

4. You are "stuck" in parts of your life:

You just can't seem to accomplish your goals or relieve your suffering, no matter how hard you try. This may be goals for prosperity, relationships, better health, greater spirituality. You could be following the same plan and process/actions that others use successfully to accomplish their goals, and yet for you, it just does not work, no matter what you do. Alternatively, you sabotage yourself and don't take the actions that you need to successfully achieve your goals.  If you are stuck somewhere, there are likely shadows blocking your success.

Everyone has hidden shadows, unless by grace you have become 'enlightened.' In a sense, shadow-work is a process of enlightenment - shining light into all of your shadows, one at a time, to transform or transcend them. You reclaim or re-member your wholeness.

In life, everyone experiences or perceives trauma. We also carry forward the trauma of our ancestors, and we take on cultural conditioning in the form or beliefs and shadows from our family or community environments. Some people experience more trauma than others and can take on more pronounced, destructive shame and shadow-based thinking and behavior. Shadow integration transforms shadow into gifts and while it can be difficult work, it is also one of the most rewarding and expansive processes you can do.

Your shadows are everywhere, hiding in plain sight! You may not be able to see them because you were the one that has cleverly hidden them, and deny that they were ever yours. You have become accustomed to seeing them as your enemy, or "not you." Despite being largely invisible, they run the show.

Sign up and Download this free Shadow Discovery e-Book which will help you identify some your shadows. When you are more aware and ready to take full responsibility for your life, shadows will emerge for you to notice at just the right time - hidden in your reactivity, judgments, should's, should'ts, can'ts, and blame. Shadow integration is more of a life process, rather than a destination to get to. Life will guide you on the perfect path to reveal your shadows as you are ready to see them.

Discovering and reprogramming limiting subconscious beliefs that hold you back is a powerful personal development process. If you are not reprogramming subconscious limiting beliefs, then you are missing an important piece of the life success puzzle. If you would like to learn a process to do this, check out the Refreshing Beliefs e-course and how to use affirmations for success. 

Shadow elements are more core than limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs are often the symptom or side effect of a trauma and the shadow, so not the source of the issue. If you are not then prepared to examine and reintegrate your shadows, you will find that reprogramming limiting beliefs simply will not work to shift the issue. You need to do the core work to change your life experience.  

Just trying to reprogram limiting beliefs in many cases can be considered 'spiritual bypassing.' Are you trying to get away from, or escape what you don't want, by affirming what you do want? If you cannot forgive, accept or be with what is happening, the affirmations will not work. The shadow will block your success until you turn towards it and integrate it.

Instead of ignoring the shadows that are limiting your success, you can use affirmations to accept the shadow and release the blocking energies in your belief reprogramming. For example:

"I am OK and feel safe, even when I don't have money."

"I love my body as it is and as it changes"

"I love myself and feel loved, even when I am alone."

"I forgive myself for feeling shame and recognize how beautiful I am"

The shadow-self is not a dark or evil part of you. Rather, it is a part of you that holds your wholeness and needed life capacities and gifts that you have lost.

Imagine that the 'Shadow Self' is a “Being” inside of your subconscious, similar to the Soul, the “Inner Child” and other archetypes that live in you, with you and through you. This subconscious Shadow-Self becomes the ‘container’ or ‘Being’ that holds all the uncomfortable, unprocessed, rejected energies and qualities from your life. Whenever you experienced a trauma that you could not deal with, rather than process it, it was pushed into the Shadow-Self which gladly took it from you, knowing that some day, you would need it back. It took all those energies that your inner child rejected in order to survive, fit in and feel loved in those early developing years.

Most people are subconsciously afraid of their shadow-self. It is considered the 'enemy' because it is holding all the 'dark stuff' that at some you time you decided was bad, evil or unwanted. If it is holding all this 'horrible stuff' then it must be horrible, right?

Let's look again and reframe this fear. The shadow-self is holding all the parts that you have lost or pushed away, including parts of your Light. This 'Inner Being,' the shadow-self knows that you will need these parts back in order to feel complete and whole. To fulfill your purpose and destiny, you will eventually need the gifts and power hidden within these shadows. The shadow-self can therefore be considered as a friend, safely holding your treasure and ready to give it back to you when you are ready. You only need to ask. It will always tell you the truth.

The un-integrated, negative ego-self is another story. The shadow-self is the ego's enemy. The ego knows that if you integrate your shadows, the ego loses all power over you. The ego uses separation to keep you in unhealthy drama, blame, shame, and addictions. The negative ego will do everything it can to keep you from shadow integration work. It will lie and manipulate you. The negative ego is not your friend.

Shadow integration work can help you release the false power of the negative ego and build a healthy ego that can be your friend in the right role. As you do more and more shadow-work, your gratitude and joy expand. The shadow-self in the process becomes lighter and lighter as it hands you back your sacred treasure.  

This Shadow-self has a special relationship to the Inner Child. Even from your time in the womb, your developing Inner Child encounters uncomfortable experiences and emotions that it cannot fully process or deal with; coming from your mother and her experiences while carrying you. This rejection, suppression and denial of parts of yourself continues through your birth, childhood and adolescent when you experience situations that are too uncomfortable or painful to process. These uncomfortable feelings, and rejected parts of Self that your Inner Child “pushes away” are taken in by your Shadow-Self which holds them for you until the time you are ready to reintegrate them, collapse the separation, and claim your wholeness.

Shadow integration then is tied to working with your 'Inner child.' Since it was the inner child that rejected or suppressed parts of your self that it could not deal with at the time, in shadow integration work, your inner child needs to be supported and feel safe to process and reintegrate the shadow elements. In shadow-work, therefore, you are healing childhood trauma, helping the child in you also feel safe, loved, and whole again.

Shadow integration work will do more to expand your joy, success and love of life than almost any other personal development work that you do. Unfortunately, most personal and spiritual development programs only scratch the surface of shadow-work or ignore shadow-work entirely.

Spiritual Bypassing

Shadow-work is spiritual work. However, many self development programs prefer to only focus on “positive thinking” or activities that “feel good” rather than integrate shadow. "Spiritual bypassing” is when you deny, push away or ignore the “bad”, “dark” or “uncomfortable” parts of our self; preferring to focus only on what feels “light” and “good.” While focusing on positive thought and higher vibrations of being is also necessary, those higher vibrations cannot be sustained if we do not face and transform our conscious and subconscious fears.

If you believe in the 'law of attraction,' then you will understand that it is your 'vibration' that attracts things into your life. What is inside, gets mirrored outside. So, building a positive vibration and attitude of gratitude for life is a good thing. There is nothing wrong with this. But what about those hidden suppressed fear, judgement, shame and other vibrations hidden in the shadows? If these are not healed or transformed, do they not contribute to your vibration and what you attract in your life?

Most people and spiritual/religious groups are afraid of their "shadows" because they don't really understand how they can benefit from embracing something that they have attempted to push away all their life or don’t feel worthy of. These energies which we call shadow are often labeled as taboo, sinful, or evil. They also represent some of our deepest fears. It makes no logical sense from our conditioning to love the parts of us that we fear and hate. We are also attached to hating shadow parts because there was a benefit or payoff in creating it in the first place - we pushed away those parts in order to feel loved, to fit in or to survive early in life.

People may not be attracted to this work or are afraid of it because of beliefs or perceptions that:

- It might bring up old wounds or memories that are too painful to deal with.

- It is not safe to explore "bad energy” or the dark/evil parts within ourselves.

- If you open up the box, what if you cannot close it again, and could it be a bottomless pit?

- It might not work, like everything else you have tried.

- You can cope with what you know, but are afraid of the unknown.

- It is better to just focus on positive things.

- It takes too long, it is too much work or or it is too hard.

However, what we resist, will persist!