Hi team,
Just a short video here to introduce a new series of short guided meditations that I'm calling Shadow Sips.
So,
Shadow simply refers to the repressed psychological and emotional material.
That ordinarily sits just outside the peripheral of our conscious awareness.
Nothing more sinister than that.
The word shadow has a connotation that it's dark or sinister or evil or something like that.
It's really not.
It's just the psychological and emotional material.
That we're not ordinarily conscious of in our daily life.
So it's our subconscious beliefs and assumptions and our repressed,
Buried emotions.
Now,
Naturally,
We repress and bury things for a reason.
It can be quite uncomfortable facing some of this material,
So the prospect of shadow work can sound quite daunting,
Can sound like quite a lot,
And we worry sometimes that.
.
.
If I open that floodgate,
Won't I be overwhelmed by a deluge of shadow?
Won't I be drowning in shadow if I start to open the Hurt Locker in that way?
So what I wanted to do with these meditations is just take a very small sip.
It's as though each time,
In each very short moment,
Meditation very short we're just going to open the floodgate just a little It's a sense of.
.
.
Integrating a single percentage of the shadow,
Opening that aperture by a single percent,
Increasing our conscious awareness.
Of our subconscious.
By 1% at a time,
Just turning the brightness up.
On that shadow a single percentage at a time.
These tiny bite-sized chunks almost so that it's not so overwhelming.
So that we don't feel so afraid to face the shadow or integrate the shadow because we know we're just doing it.
In very small amounts at a time,
Which gives the body and mind a chance to integrate.
This material because that's the key.
It's the key with shadow work.
We're not trying to get rid of the shadow.
We're not trying to destroy the shadow.
We're just becoming aware of it.
And it's becoming aware of it that shines light on it and that integrates all of this material into your conscious awareness.
That's when really deep healing can happen.
Really deep healing we're uncovering a lot of subconscious assumptions about life subconscious beliefs about ourselves subconscious beliefs about our emotional world and we're uncovering emotions that we often try to resist or avoid,
We try to get away from.
So by bringing them close,
Welcoming them,
Befriending them,
We integrate them and we can enjoy a much more harmonious.
And accepting,
Loving relationship with our own inner emotional world.
There's a beautiful old African proverb that states.
.
.
If there is no enemy within,
The enemy outside can do us no harm.
It's so powerful and so true,
Especially when it comes to shadow work.
So we're forming a relationship with our inner world that is one based on awareness,
Consciousness.
Compassion.
Patience.
Wisdom.
It's not an adversarial relationship that seeks to push away or avoid or resist.
It's a welcoming of the shadow.
But we do it just 1% at a time,
Just small amounts,
Tiny sips.
So with these short guided meditations.
It's just an invitation each time we'll focus on a single aspect of the shadow and it's often just going to be a prompt just a gentle inquiry to point you inwards,
To look inwards to our inner world.
Could be along the lines of.
What emotion am I currently avoiding?
What emotion am I currently resisting?
Or an inquiry along the lines of.
.
.
What do I believe about my fear?
What do I believe about anger?
What do I believe about my ability to cope with emotions?
What do I believe about the world and other people?
Are they a threat?
Are they a problem?
These inquiries.
Just turn the brightness up a little on our shadow so that we can just become aware of some of these mechanisms that might be having more of an impact on our life than we're conscious of.
Carl Jung,
Who used the term shadow quite often.
He said,
Until you make the unconscious conscious,
It will direct your life and you will call it fate.
So that's all we're doing in these is we're just making the unconscious conscious,
Nothing to be afraid of,
And you won't be overwhelmed.
Consciousness.
It'll only give you as much as you can handle anyway.
So all we're doing in this approach is actually cooperating with reality.
Cooperating with the way it works anyway.
Consciousness only gives you a sip of shadow at a time anyway,
So we're just cooperating with the system as it is.
Anyway,
I hope it's going to be real helpful for you.
I'll be scheduling one a week,
So let me know how you get on.
I look forward to reading the comments and reviews and things,
So you let me know.
I hope some of that's helpful,
And I'll see you in the next meditation.
Thank you.
Take care,
Be well,
And stay present.
