We will get more into this later in the post, so keep reading! There are different exercises and activities to help explore those aspects of yourself, but you must first acknowledge your shadow. The idea of shadow work is to bring your dark sides out into the light and learn to accept and love them.

But along the way, we also bury an authentic part of ourselves, our shadow side… What Is Shadow Work? We learn to change and adapt our behavior in a way that is acceptable in society. The shadow gets developed in our childhood from our ego while adapting to social norms. However, when you bring the shadow into the light, it no longer has power over you.Įveryone has a shadow self. The shadow may appear as rage, jealousy, hatred, greed, and selfishness, and it affects every aspect of your life.

And because it is hidden, it runs around without supervision, often causing damage and pain in your life. However, the shadow is not bad, it’s just hidden. The shadow self is the unknown part of you, it’s the psychological term for all the things you can’t or won’t see in yourself. “ Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.” - Carl JungĪccording to Carl Jung’s analytical psychology, the shadow represents the “dark side” of your personality.

Into the wild shadow work journal pdf