The quest to become our highest self isn’t about cherry-picking our best qualities and nurturing those attributes. Instead, it’s about seeing yourself, the beautiful and the ugly, and learning how to be your best version of that whole self.This is where and why shadow work comes in.

What is shadow work?

Shadow work is the process of exploring the darkest parts of your subconscious mind. Your “shadow self” is the representation of your subconscious mind. Whether you realize it or not, your shadow self is constantly influencing you, reminding you of old wounds, patterns and all of the repressed feelings coming back to you as logical thoughts that keep you in old loops.

Psychiatrist Carl Jung coined the term shadow self, describing it as that which the ego rejects. It is the hidden, repressed part of our psyche, full of emotions, desires, and beliefs we have been taught are wrong or bad, so we pretend they are not there. This is a lot of UNLEARNING and RELEARNING!

So we take January to honour these parts of ourselves. Meet our shadows where they are and walk hand in hand with them. We cannot fix our behaviour if we do not know the root cause of it. It requires some deep work.

We’re all here to uncover our path to paradise; to become our highest self, we must learn to look at ourselves in our entirety and accept the whole picture. This includes embracing our darkest selves.

If you have any past experiences, stories or learnings with shadow work, we would love to hear from you below. 💛 let’s heal together.