Plot Twist Dairies

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

– Carl Jung

Do you have a dark side, according to psychology, everyone does! It is not always easy to come to terms with our shadow shelves. If I am being 100% honest, I have always been the person to repress my dark side, it has always been easier than dealing with it. Is that also the case for you? How many of you push that shadow to the back and forget about it?

But repressing your inner shadow can have dangerous consequences. Most often, the shadow manifests as our triggers — emotional reactions that we haven’t fully dealt with, but bubble up to the surface under the right (wrong) circumstances. The sudden explosion, the mental break down, the extended periods of depression.  

How do we correct those unconscious fixations? — such as the pain of a traumatic event — part of your conscious awareness so that you can then work on them in therapy

What is shadow work? – Working with your unconscious mind to uncover the parts of yourself that you repress and hide from yourself. This can include trauma or parts of your personality that you subconsciously consider undesirable.

What are the benefits of shadow work?

1. Feeling whole or integrated as a person
2. Improved relationship with other
3. Learning healthy ways to create new habits
4. Healing generational trauma

Bringing your shadow self into conscious awareness is the goal of shadow work. However, it can be quite difficult at times.

When I started this journey, I would stop and throw away my journal, I couldn’t believe that the things that I was writing about myself were true. Was I really that dependent on someone else for my self love? Will I drag this baggage I have on into my new relationships? Did the continued trauma of my prior relationship cause me to think of myself in such a negative light?

• You aren’t pretty enough
• You aren’t happy
• You need him, he will make you happy, without him you are nothing
• You are just a shell and this will be your end

So many thoughts will cross your mind and in that time, you have to fight and face them head on. You might fail in this process but the important part is that you get back up and try again. It will be easier the 2^nd time around.

Tips for shadow work

Start Small– Don’t try to face everything head on at one time. This is a process. Shadow work is not a lighthearted exercise. It is both equally intimate as it is personal and it make crack open some topics you may have thought were healed. Set a 5min timer to start out and when the timer goes off, stop! Pick it back up tomorrow, or even take 2 days if needed.

Try using journaling prompts- Maybe you don’t know where to start (I have some listed below). Maybe you have a fear of starting. Instead of making yourself the Instead of making yourself the practitioner AND the leader of your own shadow work journaling, use pre-made prompts to get started. Through your journey, you will develop your own questions and you will be able to expand on the topics you need to face.

Celebrate your personal growth- An important aspect of any type of personal growth journaling is a celebration. It’s hard work to look internally and to examine the parts of ourselves that have been hidden from us. Remember to celebrate the process and the discoveries that you uncover. Celebration can look like many things, a party with your best friends or a simple coffee date with yourself. It is whatever you make it.

How to get started

Without judgement, list some of your potential shadow traits, such as aggression, selfishness, or cowardice. Consider how these traits inform your actions, reactions, and values. If you’re having trouble identifying your shadow, thinking about which people or situations cause you to respond with strong emotions could offer some insight since this can be a sign you’re projecting an unconscious trait onto that person.

5 Shadow work journaling prompts to try

1. Who has the most influence over me and my decisions?
2. What memories bring me the most joy?
3. What memories bring me the most shame?
4. What do I think is my worst trait? Why?
5. What traits do I notice in other that I wish I had?  

We will drive deeper into this topic, look forward to some of my own shadow passages uploaded soon.