An intimate look at reality

Here we are and for the first this year we are cycling back to a topic that has become near and dear to me…shadow work. 2020 was filled with such work for me and engaging in it has taught me to not be afraid of it as there is really nothing to fear if our goal is to learn about ourselves and to be open and honest with ourself. An article @carolyngraceelliott.com claims that when we consciously integrate the darker side of our soul, we can also radically improve our manifestation result. Could this be a reason that motivates us to do the work?

I have spent quite some time last year focusing on my shadow self and if this article holds truth to it, I find myself even more excited about the possibility of shifting my circumstances to the way-better. I can recognize that they already have. And that all, without a single affirmation or a vision board, but because I have done the work. I’m intrigued to see how this might have influenced my “now”, let’s take a look closer.

1. Shadow work changes our fate. Until we make the unconscious, conscious, it will rule our life and we will call it fate said Carl Jung. In simple terms, your shadow is your unconscious. Your shadow is all the very taboo desires, emotions, and attitudes that you reject as being “so not you” and so you push them out of your normal awareness. Nothing ever changes and the same pattern repeat. So unless you want the same results over and over, you will have to do something different.

2. Shadow work leads you to see yourself as already fulfilled in a genuine, not fake way. There is no hiding and only a genuine picture can emerge. Not a wishful one or an incomplete one, perhaps not the one you would like to see, but it will be a genuine one. Let’s face it – if everything was perfect already, you wouldn’t be here, so expect to find something that might initially scares you.

3. Shadow work makes the nature of desire clear. It’s common in law of attraction circle for people to talk about the way that desires creates reality, but often it seems that we get the opposite of what we desire, doesn’t it? Desire does create reality, but your unconscious desires have much more creative power and electricity behind them than your often weak-sauce conscious desires.

4. Shadow work helps you to stop feeling “at the mercy of cruel fate.” Once you do this kind of shadow work for a long time and get very good at recognizing where your taboo unconscious desires are at work, you gradually start to see how just about every circumstance in your life that you “don’t like” is actually passionately loved by a previously unconscious part of you.

5. Shadow work perfects your bullshit detector. After you’ve spent a long time getting cozy with how much a shadowy part of you adores your own “negative” patterns and situations, it’s a lot harder for you to get pulled into the “poor me” stories that folks use to manipulate. That doesn’t mean you’ll stop being generous and helpful. It doesn’t mean that you will lose your compassion, it just means you’ll have a clearer insight into the shadow desire dynamics of everyone around you. You will be better able to help people to get in touch with their strength rather than enabling their weakness.

6. Shadow work gives you access to power you didn’t;t know you had. Think about all the energy you currently pour into resisting and feeling sorry for yourself about certain situations in your life. What if that energy was liberated and directed towards creating beauty?

7. Shadow work liberates your sexual energy. All magic is sex magic. Even if your act of manifestation doesn’t involve physical sex, it still involves the electric energy of life energy. When you get into shadow work, you start to realize that it’s possible not only to celebrate and approve of your previously unconscious, previously shamed taboo desires. And when you do this, your sexual energy, and therefore your energy for magical manifestation goes through the roof.

8. Shadow work alchemists fear. Everything you think you’re afraid of – the scariest things in life – including death – I promise you, some hidden part of yours being desires those scary things, just because those scary things are part of the range of experience and our human souls happen to be curious about all experiences, not just the safe and wholesome ones. When you realize this, gradually you’re no longer able to be as afraid as you used to be. You realize that even the worst things that could happen to you would actually be fulfilling to some part of your shadow.

9. Shadow work increases your ability to receive. Think about this: every “good” thing in life has a downside to it. A new career with lots of money, a wonderful new partner – can expose you to envy and additional responsibilities and commitments.

10. Shadow work removes your denial. You will have to face up to the reality of it. It’s a common human game. This means: you can face and handle the reality of life. And ultimately, thats what all magic and manifestation is: intimacy with reality.