Shadow Work For When You Feel Out of Control In Life
Ever feel like your reactions are extreme? Maybe you feel like something is wrong with you because you often feel irritable, short-tempered, impatient, and lack empathy. There isn’t anything wrong, there’s just some fine-tuning that can be helpful.
We are not inherently bad or mean people, we lose touch with our highest self because life loves to be messy. More often than not we were not given the tools to self-regulate and care for ourselves in the way that we truly need.
There are so many avenues of healing and becoming aligned with yourself, and one way is shadow work.
In 2017, I took a self-defense class that turned into a full-time hobby. I learned about holding spacial boundaries in dangerous situations and how to react to them. Still, it ended up being a gateway to holding that same energy in my relationships with friends, family, and myself. How to learn about myself so that I could speak up for myself in more ways than just “STOP! GET BACK!”
One avenue I stand by is Shadow Work and for those of you who are ready to dive in but need somewhere to start, I have some here for you.
Please keep in mind shadow work is diving into the sides of yourself you hide away and don’t or won’t acknowledge. It’s often draped in shame and left alone. But these are the sides that surface as irritability, lack of compassion, and reactive like mentioned above. The goal is to shine light/awareness onto it, and uncover what is is and where it comes from so that we can nurture it in the way it’s screaming at us to.
It can be emotional, challenging, and heartbreaking to face these facets of ourselves. But healing and growth are not easy or comfortable, or else there wouldn’t be so many hurtful people in the world. This is not for the weak-minded.
SHADOW WORK PROMPTS FOR WHEN YOU FEEL OUT OF CONTROL IN LIFE
If you met yourself for the first time, what would be your first impressions?
How would your loved ones describe you? Are they accurate? Why or why not?
What emotions am I seeking to be met when I seek others’ approval?
When in my life did I first feel emotionally invalidated?
What did I need to hear instead?
In what ways can I fulfill this need on a regular basis?
Make a list of your positive traits and negative traits. What are some things you can do to strengthen your positive traits? How can you start healing your negative traits?
How do you handle stress?
(some prompts have been provided by https://www.soberish.co/shadow-work-prompts/#shadow-work-prompts)