Shadow Work

Shadow Work

Christine Ferch

Shadow work was created by one of my favourite early psychologists, Carl Jung, who concentrated on the unconscious and conscious much like his preceptor Freud, he focused on the psyche and two levels of unconscious. First, the personal unconscious contains our memories we are unaware of still exist because we have used repression. As we have used repression, we do not have access to these memories, but they do emerge in dreams, hypnotic state of regression. Secondly, the collective unconscious, which Jung believed we are each born with and consist of shared memories and ideas we all identify with regardless of the culture we belong. We cannot communicate with our collective unconscious but recognize these ideas from our archetypes.

Jung created the concept of our “shadow” archetype, which consists of the elements we do not like about ourselves; it holds both creative and destructive energies. This is a side of ourselves. We do not typically show in public because our shadow can cause anxiety or shame. The shadow is kind of like our inner evil. The shadow shows itself when we least expect, causes us to act impulsively, usually into actions we regret later.

Our shadow may contain our repressed ideas or thoughts which we do not want to bridge with our masked or ideal self, our persona. However, Jung believed, these repressed memories needed to be solved to have individuation. He also believed the shadow is also a moral problem as we juggle the challenges between ego and personality. To become conscious of our shadow, we need to recognize the dark corners of our personality and see how they are present and real. However, we naturally try to distance ourselves psychologically from these behaviours, emotions, and thoughts which we find dangerous. These range from aggressive impulses, taboo mental images, shameful experiences, immoral urge, fears, irrational wishes, and unacceptable sexual desires.

Some common shadow behaviours are:

1. A tendency to harshly judge others becomes more severe as the judgement becomes impulse. Moreover, deep down, you would hate to have someone judge you the same way
2. Pointing out one’s insecurities and flaws in another. An easy example is internet trolls found in comment sections of various posts. These individuals tend to be the most insecure.
3. Quick temper with people who are below them or do not hold any power. When the shadow tries to exercise their presence over another, they are compensating for their feelings of helplessness.
4. Frequently playing the victim of every situation or refusing to take accountability. The shadow will go at great lengths to state they were an innocent bystander.
5. Willingness to step on others to achieve one’s means. For example, competing for a promotion, we may try to outshine the other competitor, at all costs to get the promotion.
6. Unacknowledged biases and prejudices, making assumptions too far.
7. Messiah complex, the belief of enlightenment, they can do no wrong. Their efforts and actions are meant to save others.

Overcoming the Shadow

Jung believed the shadow could be released by releasing what has been repressed with “shadow work”, to make the unconscious, conscious. Through different strategies aimed towards meditations, we gain awareness of our unconscious impulses and choose how we would want to act on them. We take a step back from our usual patterns and observe what is happening with our body.

AS we are imagining ourselves in our dark places and reaching to psychological triggers, we learn to identify an appropriate time to pause, and ask ourselves, why am I acting this way?  We then backtrack our thoughts and feelings to our memories. When we do this, the pause also creates the opportunity to weigh the pros and cons or complete cost-benefit analysis.

Additionally, when we can identify what our triggers may be, we are aware of our shadow and have overcome our instinctive fear of our shadow. Shadow work can be a rewarding experience as we gain a profound understanding of ourselves as we evolve into individuation.

Jung believed that because we all have shadow work which needs to be addressed individually and as a collective. Jung also believed in the collective shadow, which houses society’s impulses such as greed, hatred, and violence. This premises are demonstrated in criminal behaviour, as these impulses can do much harm to others.

When we work to heal our shadow, we end up enhancing our ability to control our impulses and therefore, hurt others less. We build trust in our relationships as those who are close to us begin to open and build a genuine relationship. When we engage in random acts of kindness, we are also engaging shadow work as a collective as that individual, in turn, is more likely to be kind as well.

How to get started on the Shadow

1. Silence: Silence is a virtue with shadow work, and is the beginning process, sit with yourself in silence, with no tv or cell phone.
2. Uncover the darkness: As the silence progresses, things will rise to the surface. This may be hopes, dreams, fears, worries. As you move through your shadow works, these thoughts will continue to come to the surface at random. If these memories or thoughts arise are scary, try and sit with them for as long as you can. Remember to breathe.
3. Sit with the emotions, just like #2. Our emotions tell us things, also known as a gut feeling. When our gut is right, we are intuitive. Sit with your emotions. What do they tell you? Where do you feel them in your body?
4. What are you avoiding? When you sit with your emotions, which emotions are you trying to avoid?
5. Write it out: write out your thoughts and emotions as you are experiencing them; this is the best way to do shadow work. Writing opens a stage in our consciousness that allows the shadow to be represented as your unfiltered self. You can either toss or keep what you wrote in a journal.
6. See a professional: can help rationalize the mechanism of the subconscious set free from the shadow work and help to plant new seeds

Carl Jung’s theory of the shadow and archetypes is fascinating and connects well to what we are experiencing in the present day. If the idea of shadow work interests you, or if you have any further questions contact us admin@ovcs.ca. Call us, if you’d like to book an appointment with one of our counsellors to teach you how to do your own shadow work.

You may also enjoy reading about our article on self-compassion.