Why Integrating your shadow self a radical act of Self Love! Happy International Women's Day!
The shadow is the greatest teacher for how to come to the light.
― Ram Dass
Dear beloved friend.
Rebirth means death.
I have been facing and working with a lot of shadows, and death recently.
As I know you may have also.
I am holding this space for you to honor the hard, yet healing work you must do to trust Deat as your teacher.
To honor your loss and grieving.
To grieve with the world, while living the life You get to create from your desire to Love, to Live, to Trust that you matter, and that you are Meant to Enjoy this experience.
All of it.
The ecstasy of love.
The grief of letting go of our past selves, and those we love.
Ego-Deaths.
And this is what I know to be true:
Death is a portal to your awakening.
It is the much-needed pause between your life's many stories.
Your book chapters.
Your myths.
Death is the space between the leading roles you choose to play in the world.
Your awakening journey is not supposed to be all Love and Light.
Rebirth means that you must be brave to face the death of your old Self.
Death makes available the Love held in your Darkness.
Inside of your shadows.
Shadow integration into the light means that a part of you must die.
It will no longer exist as an egregor (scary through a form that terrorizes the unconscious in you and everyone else).
You expose the "monster" under the bed of your fear story.
You see it for what it is- a shadow of a sad part of you that just wants attention and your Love.
Then, you claim the sword of light to penetrate it with your Love.
You transmute the epi-genetic, generational, and personal experience that has been poisoning you from within.
To Re-Member your True Self as you do.
As someone who is whole, and on purpose.
These states are scary for the ego.
How about listening to your Soul Self today?
Where is Her Truth?
Where is Her dream for you?
How can you allow more of Her to guide you today?
What parts need to die to liberate more of Her?
Sometimes, the "comfortable" parts of our lives are the most insidious.
Comfortable "coasting" in relationships and work keeps you ASLEEP to your deepest calling and numbs your truth.
One of the most effective and empowering ways to heal yourself that I have found with my clients and myself is the process of embodied, progressive, and intentional shadow work.
Freedom is free, but it ain't cheap, as my spiritual mentor Mooji, says!
It will shed light on THE exact things in yourself and your life that no longer serve your actual needs and desires.
Know this: your shadow is always a teacher in disguise.
To truly heal using its guidance, you must commit to:
Allowing it into the light of your awareness.
Accepting it as part of your wholeness. There are no mistakes in your design.
Embracing and integrating it into your being by working with it as an ally.
Being in the goo of your transformation is supposed to be messy, weird, smelly, and deeply confusing.
Know you are doing the work.
Your heart knows.
What if healing your shadow is not supposed to be a clean and direct process?
It is not.
It is a process of honoring your ego - deaths.
Of shedding your toxic, old masks.
Of burning away your shame, regret, and anger.
Of liberation from the weight of your old beliefs.
Of Self-Forgiveness.
When we bypass the embodiment of our healing process, we sometimes push the shadow away even further.
This is why it is crucial to create a container for You to See, Feel, and MEET the feeling beneath the fear of your shadow.
What we are witnessing in the world reflects the collective shadow active in all of us. In me, in you.
And this is our sacred work.
To take responsibility for our healing.
Not to try and "cure" or "fix."
To HEAL. To become whole again.
To carry your wound as a sacred scar of your rebirth.
To learn to love yourself even more deeply through your Darkness.
Your ego will be gaslighting you to think that in witnessing and working WITH your shadow self (the angry, the jealous, the sacred and whiny, the needy, the aggressive, the wounded, the scary, the "ugly," the hurtful parts of you that you are rejecting, denying or ignoring,) will destroy who you are.
It will.
Except, not of who you are.
The death of what you are not.
The death of stories of victimhood.
That is the death that I invite you to honor as a pathway to your rebirth this spring.
Here is to your rebirth into:
More of your potential.
More of you joy,
More of your ability to feel, receive and give Love.
Your body takes on the shape of what you believe you are.
How can you unlock more of your joy through a shadow that is calling your name right now?
A quick, embodied journaling practice to support you in going deeper.
Ask:
1. What behavior from someone else is most recently triggering my "negative, lower emotions?"
2. What is one compulsion, habit, or behavior I use to "deal with the emotion I don't want to feel?" that comes from you ignoring this shadow inside your body?
3. What is the feeling underneath it that I am afraid to feel?
4. How can I BE WITH this feeling in a loving way today?
(Journal on it, loving touch, meditate on it, share it with a coach, a teacher, a d trusted advisor, a caring friend.)
Please email me and let yourself be witnessed by me. That in and of itself is deeply healing.
You are safe to be revealed in your fullness.
All of you.
Death-Life-Death is the cycle of your awakening.
Let us honor death together.
Make Sacred Compost with your old skin.
Become the divine gardener of your Tree of Life.
And know that I am here for you fully, every day.
I am asking you to play the infinite game of becoming Your fullest expression by Coming into Divine, Sacred Union within.
To dance, to cry and wail your death, to fall to pieces, and come into wholeness from a place of embodied Self-Realization and Self-Worth.
I invite you to journal on one question today:
"What does my shadow want me to learn to Love inn my true essence?:."
I love you.
Thank you for loving yourself today.
-Your friend and coach, Sasha
P.S. Self-love leadership resources for you!
Listen to the new "Being Brave" podcast episode on "taking responsibility for Your Purpose" here.