Shadows.
A child meeting its shadow for the first time.
Two shadows meeting to create a new story cast against a wall.
Shadow puppets.
Shadowing someone's day.
The casting of me from the sun.
My silhouette laying on the ground beside me.
My companion when sunlight is out.
A reflection of me in daylight.
My shadow dancing around me as the sun dances around the sky.
Shadows.
A play between human and light.
Between light and being.
I have danced with my shadow long enough but never quite confronted it.
Not until being called to face its truth.
I have learnt that my shadow never leaves me.
Instead that it embodies itself into me.
Using my own light to cast itself in the depths and corners of my body.
Hidden behind heart.
Grounded beneath gut.
Cast beside rib and bone.
When I began my inner journey,
At times I wanted to retract.
For I thought turning towards my shadow self would mean a conversation would be had.
A few guiding insights would be cast upon me and we would part ways.
Leaving me healed and complete quite quickly.
I didn't enjoy looking at these corners of me.
For they kept me from feeling that I am pure and light and loving and kind.
It was difficult to look toward my most undesirable and shameful corners.
The thing about taking a healing journey is when you look for the light you will find the dark.
You will always find the other side of the coin.
I could never understand truly why light and dark have to exist together.
Until I allowed the light and dark to exist within me.
I had forgotten that it is the sun that casts my shadows.
So now when I see my shadow self I too feel the light of the sun on my back.
Warming me and ushering me to accept them both as equals.
In this meditation today I would like to usher you to do the same.
The way we enter this sacred and vulnerable space is through the warmth of the sun within us.
The warmth of the light that emits from our heart space.
In this space we are in together right now we can begin to experience ourselves in our heart's truth which is unconditional and welcoming love.
Nurturing,
Understanding and divine love.
I ask of you in this moment in all the ways you have ever been held can you muster the warmth within you to hold yourself in this way in this moment as we begin a journey into facing our darkness.
As we begin a journey into facing our darkness can you begin to soften your body,
Your muscles,
Your tissues and your heart to welcome the fullness of you in.
For all the pushing and distancing,
Denying and shaming,
Turning your back on and wishing away.
The parts of yourself that you repress and hide,
The parts that you consider undesirable.
Could you whisper words of apology as you begin to open yourself to the whole of you.
Coming to the altar of our shadow self means we can bow down and kneel to the sacredness that is our darkness.
We can remind these corners of ourself that it is our light and our love that will help these corners within us heal.
That will draw them through forgiveness and out into compassion and acceptance.
With eyes closed,
Resting gently now into your inhale and your exhale.
Looking into the empty space and darkness that lays behind your eyelids.
Can you welcome the darkness you see before you?
Can you soften into this moment and step one step forward into the abyss?
This darkness you see in front of you is half of you.
We spend most of our waking life with eyes wide open seeking the light and longing to feel love.
But sometimes the best way,
The only way you can see clearly is in the closing off of your eyes and the coming within.
This is where love is needed the most.
So as you welcome the emptiness that you see before you,
Can you encourage a part of yourself that you try to hide?
The shadow you push away and neglect.
The part of you you don't want anyone else to see.
Can you ask it to show itself right now here in this moment?
To step out from behind your heart or whatever corner of your body you are in.
To step out from behind your heart or whatever corner of your body it hides.
To take one step forward and into sight.
As this part of you reveals itself,
Can you witness the head bowed in shame?
The reluctancy to come forth.
The lack of love that they hold within themselves.
The loneliness and discouragement painted across their face.
The lack of nourishment and life force within them.
Present and vulnerable,
Naked and alone.
Can you let your warmth comfort them?
As they feel the hug of your heat brush against their wounds.
Can you open your heart to them?
Like a child once abandoned,
Can you feel the tenderness and softness?
The deep desire and need for love that your shadow carries.
And can you vow in this moment to never again close the door to this half of you?
When your shadows next call on you,
Can you promise to listen and respond?
To begin the journey towards helping them heal.
It is this very distance that we create within ourselves that causes this longing that we feel.
The longing from our darkness to come back home to ourself.
No matter how uncomfortable,
How often you have to visit these parts of yourself.
No matter how long it may take.
Can you vow to keep the door open?
To let the light from your heart shine in so that your shadow can see clearly.
We must realize that we are both the dark and the light.
So when one is in needing of the other within us,
It must be us who shows up for its calling.
Your shadow has its own story.
Its own paint of where it came from and what lies it learned about itself along the way.
And somewhere along the way it was shamed or abandoned.
Starving for love.
Your shadow has no desire to harm you or your life.
But to come back home so it can heal.
This is why loving the entirety of yourself is so important.
This is why loving the entirety of yourself is your greatest gift.
And will become your greatest joy.
When we begin shadow work we begin a journey towards fullness.
Fullness does not mean being full of love.
It means accepting the fullness of who you are firstly.
So that you can step into a more loving relationship with yourself.
There is deep work to be done here.
Deep work involving kindness and understanding.
Of sewing back and mending the broken.
Of listening to and lifting the shamed and abandoned parts of you.
There is a relationship here to be mended between these two halves of who you are.
Every single part of you that you have ever experienced has turned you into the most beautiful story.
Every single page turned or to be turned.
No matter if they are pages of darkness or pages of light.
This story written in the name of you is a masterpiece of what it means to be human.
You can hold several truths at once.
And zoom out of your own suffering enough to create consistent space around your response to your darkness.
Eventually you will not mind the weight of these feelings for they will not be the culprit that disempowers you.
They will not stop you from showing up for yourself and doing the work.
For when you choose to love yourself and accept your fullness,
What power does the darkness have anymore?
I invite you to open your eyes now.
Bringing your shadow with you through your heart space and into the room that you are sitting in.
Your journey towards the most loving relationship with yourself starts now.
