It can involve visualisation exercises, journaling, and maybe even talking to others about your shadow self – but this isn’t required! Some people find it especially helpful to work with a therapist when doing shadow work, as it can be a process that accesses distressing memories and brings up difficult emotions.

Shadow work often involves working with dreams, fantasies, and repressed memories. It can be a challenging but ultimately healing experience. Shadow work is the process of exploring your shadow self and bringing those aspects of yourself into the light. One way to access your shadow self is through shadow work. The shadow will continue to haunt us until it is brought out into the light of day where it can be dealt with, accepted, and integrated into our egos. To access our shadow selves, we need to have an honest look at who we are, warts and all. The only way to bring this darkness into the light is through consciously engaging with those aspects of yourself that you would rather not acknowledge. In other words, the less you look at your shadow self, the darker and denser it becomes. Jung wrote: “Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.” You Might Like: Childhood Trauma, Spirituality and the Human Condition How do we access our Shadow Selves? Think of the shadow as a collection of all that you don’t like to see in yourself, but which still exists deep down below the surface. Your shadow may include anything from your early childhood experiences to your most humiliating moments, your sexual history and urges, your deepest and darkest secrets and any traumatic or disturbing memories. Jung believed that we rejected these parts of ourselves to avoid feeling discomfort or pain, and also to protect our egos. The shadow self is often associated with anger, aggression, fear, and other negative emotions.Ĭarl G. It’s the dark, rejected side of your personality that you keep hidden from the world. The shadow self, known in Jungian psychology as the “shadow,” is all of your repressed and suppressed thoughts and memories that lie outside of your comfort zone.

I’ve also put together 17 example shadow work journal prompts that you might find helpful. In the rest of this blog, I’ve put together some key bits of info on why journaling is an incredible form of shadow work, and offer a bit of a guide into journaling for shadow work. But what exactly is a shadow self? How can we access our shadow selves? And how can we start healing through the use of shadow work journal prompts? Everyone has secrets, things they’re ashamed of, things they block out of their mind or numb as a form of protection. Your Guide To Shadow Work Journal PromptsĮveryone has a shadow self, or an unconscious self.

Shadow work journal questions