In the spirituality and self help world, there is a lot of talk about how we need to 'face our shadow' in order to REALLY heal and grow as human beings.
When we get into any kind of healing work, 'manifestation' work and even when we get into 'liberation' work and looking to be someone who has a positive impact on the world - much of the time we are going to find ourselves being directed towards doing our 'inner work' - towards 'clearing' or 'healing' our own karma/trauma/negativity/low vibes/past experiences/judgements and so on - so that we can become our 'higher selves'.
Within this community of people who are delving deep into their negative emotions, thoughts, feelings and behaviors - there can be a tendency to get into the realm of FORCING people to look at their 'shadow.'
There can be a promotion of the idea that ANY ignorance of our true emotions, any denial of reality, any level of not being willing to call things out for 'how they are' is bad, harmful and always something that needs to be addressed and fixed.
There can be a tendency towards having a lot of judgement towards people who aren't doing their 'shadow' work.
There can be a tendency to think that it's ALWAYS appropriate to be diving into our trauma, feeling our emotions to their fullest extent, looking and and deconstructing our belief systems - and there can be a sense that no matter what this work is ALWAYS going to be beneficial.
When the reality is, there absolutely IS such a thing as doing TOO MUCH 'shadow work.'
Today I want to explore where shadow work can be harmful and re-traumatizing, where doing too much when we aren't ready can lead to us swinging back to our coping, numbing and self sabotage in more extreme ways and why trying to force shadow work almost always leads to worse outcomes than allowing ourselves to go slow and 'stay in delusion' sometimes.
Shadow work is profound and important - AND it has the potential to do a LOT of harm - so lets explore how we can navigate it so that we get those benefits without making ourselves vulnerable to the 'shadow side' of shadow work.
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