Shadow Work and Self Love

I’ve talked a lot about my self love journey on this blog and today I wanted to talk about shadow work. Shadowwork is something I’ve been trying to work on for the last couple of years and I’ve restarted doing it again post-breakup. It is something I truly recommend doing it no matter where you are in life. It can help increase your confidence and sense of self as well.

Today I want to talk about different ways you can do shadow work and how they can become part of your self-care routine.

So first off what is shadow work? It is working to unearth your subconscious’s perceptions, beliefs and more and pushing through to overcome any negative ones. Doing this can help your mental health which is why it is so important. Personally, I’ll do anything that may have a positive impact on my mental health, but I will say this can be very difficult to start, but it’s so worth continuing!

The best way to approach shadow work is to pick a time when it’s quiet, and you have nothing else on your mind. Personally, I like to meditate first, usually a body scan meditation. Then choose anything from 2 - 4 prompts to start with (I’ll have 5 listed below!). Find a notebook and write the question with your answers. Really think before you write and write down everything that comes to mind.

Some of my favourite prompts are;

• What do you wish your friends and family knew about you?

• What are the three most important relationships in your life, and how have they influenced your beliefs about who you are?

• What values were you brought up with? How do they still affect you?

• How do you normally react to negative experiences?

• What were you like as a child?

You can find more online by googling shadow work prompts, like this blog and this one.

Shadow work doesn’t have to be a spiritual practice, but I personally do use it in mine. But it can just be used to focus on bettering yourself. If you give this a go let me know in the comments!