Emotional Freedom - Deep Shadow Work For Emotional Healing

A deep and powerful guided meditation that slowly, gently and thoroughly encourages long buried emotions into the light of conscious awareness. Through the recognition that any emotion can be welcome, seen and accepted by consciousness you can develop the ability to tolerate emotions that ordinarily you would find distressing and habitually avoid or resist. Learning this practice is true emotional freedom, in time you will cease to avoid or resist negative emotions and therefore the associated cognitive suffering related to these emotions will cease. (Note: This is not intended to replace any therapy or professional input you may be receiving, it is a complimentary practice and not a substitute for professional healthcare)

Transcript

Welcome to this Shadow Work guided meditation for deep emotional healing and well-being.

Begin by exploring the current emotional state.

Simply ask yourself,

What am I feeling now?

And do not be vague with this answer.

See if you can define the edges of the current emotional state.

Turn up the vividness,

The brightness,

The saturation on the current emotion.

And just a sense of noticing this emotion.

Just be aware of it.

No need to analyze.

We're not trying to fix or change anything.

Just purely observe and be aware of the emotion that is present in the here and now.

You may find that the current emotion is somewhat elusive,

As though it doesn't want to be clearly seen.

Just continue to be aware,

Even if the current emotion is somewhat foggy or misty.

Just keep turning up the brightness on this inner picture.

Asking yourself,

What am I actually feeling?

And remain fully in the present with this emotion.

There is no future,

There is no past,

There is only now.

So do not refer to memory in order to truly feel the present.

Just feel the present.

What is already here?

So just a sense of deeply feeling the current emotion as it is in the present.

And be as though this were the very first time you ever encountered this emotion.

So there's no associations,

There's no past to refer to in relation to the emotion.

And there are no implications of the emotion,

No prediction of the future.

How this emotion may feel in future,

Nothing like that.

Just now,

Just this.

And allow yourself to just feel everything present.

If the current emotional state still feels somewhat vague.

If it's challenging to define what it is that you are actually feeling,

You can cycle through a few names of emotions,

Just to see if any of them fit.

Some of the commonly vague and shadowy emotions might be guilt,

Fear,

Resentment.

Shame,

Rage,

Grief.

Just cycle through these until one of them seems to land.

And sometimes it may feel as though one or two,

Or perhaps even three names of emotions may feel like they describe the current state in some way.

Just see which ones land.

And see if that allows you to define and narrow down the current emotional experience.

And once a true picture of this inner emotional world has developed,

Then we can drop away with the names.

Just feel.

Disengaging from the content of the mind.

The only practice here is to develop the ability to feel emotion raw.

Uncategorized,

Undivided.

Just a sense of being able to tolerate the presence of any emotion.

Recognize that pure conscious awareness is always safe.

That pure consciousness itself does not suffer from emotion.

Pure conscious awareness is aware of emotion.

But does not suffer.

So even emotions that we ordinarily consider painful,

Unpleasant,

Or uncomfortable,

Can be observed by pure conscious awareness.

And all is well.

Emotions are not dangerous.

They are not harmful.

They do not damage consciousness in any way.

In the same way that no amount of bad weather will damage the sky,

No amount of uncomfortable emotions will damage awareness.

So they are all free to be here.

And from this deep recognition,

This deep understanding,

We can begin to go a little deeper into our inner emotional world.

As the presence of awareness in this present moment,

Begin to open yourself to a sense of total acceptance.

A sense of total allowing.

Whatever emotion wishes to be here,

Needs to be seen,

Needs to be felt,

Is now free to be here.

We can welcome difficult emotions out of their hiding place.

And in the pure light of conscious awareness,

We can love them,

Accept them.

All emotions are natural and healthy.

They are all meant to be here.

So no matter what deep,

Dark,

Shadowy emotions are,

Unfurling from their repressed shadow space,

There's no need to panic.

Just allow them to come out.

This is the healing now.

Begin to deeply inquire.

Is there any emotion that would like to be seen?

Is there any deep emotion ordinarily hidden from view?

Is there any emotion ordinarily buried,

Repressed,

Resisted,

Or avoided?

And begin the process of welcoming those emotions back out into the world.

Into the light.

Recognize you are the presence of conscious awareness.

Perfectly safe.

Perfectly serene.

Perfectly able to observe and be aware of any and all emotion.

All is well.

Pay special attention and give extra love to the emotions that are ordinarily considered taboo and not socially acceptable.

Envy.

Resentment.

Shame.

Rage.

These emotions are natural and healthy.

And healthy.

They are meant to be here.

They don't say anything about you.

They don't need to be hidden from your awareness.

They are there to serve as guides.

Just be aware of them.

No behavior needs to arise out of these emotions.

We may receive the intuition and insight that these emotions are there to provide for us.

They do not need to be resisted.

They do not need to be buried.

They do not need to be ignored.

Once these deep,

Socially taboo emotions are allowed into the light of awareness,

They can be integrated,

Felt in a healthy way.

Felt in a way that is conducive to your health and well-being.

It is only when things are repressed and buried that they are allowed into the light of awareness.

It is only when things are repressed and buried that they cause problems.

But in the pure light of awareness,

Just feeling those emotions,

Welcome them.

Purely in the here and now.

There are no implications about emotion.

They do not say anything about you.

You are not going to behave in a particular way just because the presence of a certain emotion is there.

The only intention of this practice is to feel.

Very good.

And going very slowly.

Very deeply now.

Recognize that as the pure conscious awareness in the present moment only,

We will not be referring to any of the stories in the mind,

Including memories,

Including all the usual methods of analysis,

All of the usual methods of interpretation,

Trying to deal with emotion,

Fix emotion,

Change emotion,

Handle emotion.

That is not the intention of this practice.

The intention of this practice is now to develop a deep,

Profound emotional safety and emotional freedom.

The ability to be aware of any and all emotions,

No matter how painful or uncomfortable we had previously been experiencing.

Now,

In the pure light of conscious awareness,

A sense of total integration through acceptance,

Compassion.

So with courage,

Patience,

And a sense of unconditional love.

Visit those deepest,

Darkest,

Most repressed core emotions that you may not have felt in many years.

Upon contact with some of these deep,

Dark emotions,

You will notice there is a lot of mind activity,

Perhaps memories,

Narratives,

And stories arising.

Realize that you are fully safe here.

You are fully secure,

Fully free to be able to simply feel the emotion raw.

Do not refer to any memory.

Do not refer to any of the content of the mind.

The mechanisms of the mind is what represses,

Resists,

And avoids emotion.

So we are disengaging from the mind now.

Inquire deeply within yourself.

Which emotion do I least want to feel?

This may be uncomfortable at first.

Recognize that if there are uncomfortable and painful emotions arising,

This is a good sign.

These are emotions that have been buried for a long time and were too painful to fully integrate when first experienced.

But now they have a profound opportunity to come up into the light of awareness.

It is okay if they feel uncomfortable,

Painful,

Unpleasant.

That is a sign that the right emotions are coming into the light of awareness here.

And develop this sense of safety and security.

The pure conscious awareness is simply observing and is free to deeply feel any and all emotion.

It is the mind that tries to avoid,

Resist,

Constrict the emotion.

The mind tries to bury and hide emotion from the light of awareness.

So disengage the mind and just make direct contact with those emotions that have been in the shadows for so long.

Recognizing the pure light of conscious awareness is like the sky.

And even the deepest,

Darkest emotions can simply be considered to be like weather.

Perhaps we could say bad weather.

No amount of bad weather damages or harms the sky.

So taking two minutes here in silence to see if it's possible to truly bring the light,

The space of pure conscious awareness to even the deepest,

Darkest,

Most hidden parts of yourself.

Simply inquire what is it that I least want to feel?

Very good.

Now,

If anything has arisen for you that may be surprising,

This is a very good sign.

Take that emotion and notice any tendency to try and avoid or resist the presence of that emotion.

And simply let go of all resistance and avoidance.

Bring your awareness fully into the here and now and be here with the emotion.

Turn the vividness up,

Turn the brightness up.

This is a courageous introspection now.

Define the edges.

Just the emotion,

No memories,

No words in the mind,

Just the emotion itself.

Hold it.

Let it be in your body.

Give it the space of the body to work through.

A deep contact with this emotion.

How does it actually feel in the here and now?

It was too painful to be aware of when you first encountered it,

But now things have changed,

Things are different.

As the pure conscious light of awareness with a mature adult body and resources,

It's time to reconnect with these shadowy parts.

And finding how surprising it is that although it's very difficult to recognize,

To first bring these emotions out of their hiding places,

You can feel very sensitive,

Feel very raw.

It doesn't take long to just breathe that love and space into that emotion.

And this develops a profound emotional security,

The freedom to feel anything.

No behavior needs to arise out of a certain emotion.

Nobody else needs to see it.

Nobody else needs to validate it.

Only pure conscious awareness needs to be present to validate the emotion.

All is well,

All is fine.

When first encountered certain emotions,

You probably expressed when you were younger.

And these were very severely discouraged or punished.

And that's why we don't like to touch them now.

But things are different now.

You are free now.

You have freedom,

You have strength,

You have power.

You have resources.

And bring these emotions back up into the light of consciousness.

They can be here.

You are free.

So how does it feel now,

In this moment?

And which was it for you?

Is it shame?

Is it guilt?

Is it rage?

Is it grief?

What is there?

Sorrow?

Homesickness?

Terror?

Have courage,

You can integrate all of these.

It is only when these emotions are buried in the shadow that they can cause harm.

They pull the strings from behind the scenes.

And cause us to act in unconscious ways,

Selfish and unhealthy ways.

But once fully integrated,

Once all parts of yourself are incorporated into the light of your present conscious awareness,

They can no longer cause harm.

They are just there.

They may be unpleasant,

But no more so than a headache.

They may be painful,

But just like stubbing your toe.

It's not a big deal,

It's not a problem.

No emotion is a problem of itself.

Behavior can be a problem,

But the initial emotion doesn't have to be,

It just is.

It can be felt,

It's another element of experience.

Another facet of life to simply be observed,

To be integrated,

To be worked through,

Understood.

And that is all.

And we don't need to suffer from these emotions anymore.

Instead,

Just accept,

Love and allow.

This is the true emotional freedom,

The true emotional healing,

The true emotional safety that we can develop through this shadow work.

In a moment,

We will be leaving the formal aspects of this guided meditation.

So you can begin to reopen your eyes if they have been closed and begin to shift and move the body.

You may wish to spend a little longer now in silence or with some ambient music to just allow the emotions that may have risen during that practice to just pervade through the body and just sit in a quiet contemplation for a while.

But remember to not engage so much with the content of the mind,

That's where the suffering takes place,

And instead continually return to the heart.

Total acceptance of any emotion arising and just practicing the emotional security provided by this practice.

Thank you so much for doing this meditation with me today.

I know how much courage,

Strength and energy it requires to even begin this inquiry and introspection.

It's very simple,

Yes,

But easy,

No,

Absolutely not.

So I congratulate you on your courage and wisdom in doing this practice.

And by choosing to heal this shadowy material,

You're helping not just yourself but those around you.

And you're going a long way to alleviating the collective shadow of humanity itself.

So my gratitude to you for doing this practice.

Take care,

Be well and stay present.

Reviews

Corin. This is awesome!! Thank you so much. This will be part of my regular meditation. 🙏🩵

Corin , I just discovered you this morning I’m in Massachusetts, I jumped on your live wee early on but stayed till the end . Your message and delivery resonates with me profoundly thank you, thank you, thank you ❣️