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Episode 57: Shadow Work
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Welcome back Witches! Who's ready to talk about the tough topic of Shadow Work?! Being that we both have backgrounds in mental health, this topic is so very important to us to share. While shadow work is practiced outside of the witchy community, it does have a very significant role in witchcraft. So get in losers for an episode on Shadow Work.
We would be forever thankful if you left our podcast a 5-Star review. If you really loved the show and want more Get in Loser content, check out our Supercast & Buy Me a Coffee links below. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @GetinWitches, on TikTok @weredoingwitchcraft or email us at weredoingwitchcraft@gmail.com. You can support our show through our
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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio- The Witch
References
- Mayer, Beth Ann (2021). “A Guide to Shadow Work Plus 5 Exercises from Experts to Get Started.” Healthline. Shadow Work: Benefits, How To, Practices, & Dangers (healthline.com)
- Caro, Tina (2022). “What is Shadow Work in Witchcraft? How to Deal With it?” MagickalSpot.com. What is Shadow Work in Witchcraft? [How to Deal with It?] (magickalspot.com)
- Bradberry, Travis & Greaves, Jean (2009). Emotional Intelligence 2.0. Talent Smart
- Cotec, Isaac (2020). Witchcraft and Shadow Work: A Complete Ritual Guide. Hero Rise. Witchcraft And Shadow Work: Complete Ritual Guide - HeroRise
- Fosu, Kimberly. Shadow Work: A Simple Guide to Transcending the Darker Aspects of Yourself. (2020). Medium. https://medium.com/big-self-society/shadow-work-a-simple-guide-to-transcending-the-darker-aspects-of-the-self-e948ee285723
- Ragan, Sarah. The Value of Shadow Work + 3 Exercises to Get Started, From Mental Health Professionals. (2023). Mind Body Green. https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/what-is-shadow-work
Wooll, Maggie. The Benefits of Shadow Work & How to Use it in Your Journey. (2022). Better Up. https://www.betterup.com/blog/shadow-work#:~:text=reflect%20those%20traits.-,What%20is%20shadow%20work%3F,shadow%20work%20on%20their%20own.
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Transcript
Introduction to Witchcraft Journey
00:00:00
Speaker
Do you feel drawn to learn more about witchcraft in the occult but feel lost on where to start? Then welcome to Get In Loser, we're doing witchcraft, a podcast all about what it means to be a witch and where to get started on your journey. Join us as we navigate through various witchy topics and share what we have learned about the craft.
Understanding Shadow Work and Mental Health
00:00:16
Speaker
So get in witches as we explore shadow work.
00:00:32
Speaker
So what are we talking about today? We're talking about shadow work. We're talking about that icky subject that nobody wants to talk about.
Carl Jung and Shadow Work Explained
00:00:40
Speaker
But we should all be talking about. And this is like bringing out the nerd in both me and Tiffany because these are the type of episodes that we love to research and talk about and are passionate about because it links
00:00:54
Speaker
mental health and witchcraft. And it's perfect. But I will say, and I'm sure that like, I'm going to say this because I know there's other people out there like this. I love this topic for other people. I don't like these topics for myself. These are uncomfortable. Yeah, they are uncomfortable. That's true. You got to do it.
00:01:21
Speaker
Yes, all of our listeners should be doing this.
00:01:31
Speaker
We're talking about shadow work, which if you're like, oh, what is that? Well, the term shadow is often linked to negativity or has dark associations tied to it. This often makes people think that shadow work is a dark practice that has a center store pool to it, but that's simply just not the case. The shadow is dark because we have both light and dark aspects in us. And those dark aspects are usually those that we repress and the ones that we hide from other people.
00:01:59
Speaker
Yeah. And so shadow work is not something that is exclusively seen in witchcraft. You know, like I just said, regardless of how popular it has become in the witchcraft community. I mean, you can't get on social media without seeing somebody talk about shadow work. Like it's all over the place because it's kind of like the it thing to talk about. But the idea of shadow work has been around for a long time and was introduced to Western culture by Carl Jung, who was a Swiss psychologist, who we've talked about before on this podcast.
00:02:26
Speaker
Yeah, and we're gonna talk about probably a lot today. Yes. So when we talk about your shadow, we're talking about the part of your psyche that is dark and emotional, and it's filled with pieces of you that maybe you're not happy with. Carl Jung is who made the idea of the shadow self or an inner shadow popular. He coined it as part of a collective unconscious, and it's one of the eight Jungian archetypes.
00:02:53
Speaker
Jung not only defined the shadow archetype as dark and emotional, but he also considered it to be inferior or immoral.
Childhood's Influence on the Shadow Self
00:03:03
Speaker
Jung believed that as children we're born whole and complete, but at some point in our childhood our shadow self is born as a byproduct of certain interactions that we had with those that were closest to us and that's oftentimes our parents or our caretakers.
00:03:18
Speaker
Everyone's shadow self is going to be made up of different things, and it will be based on what you as an individual subconsciously reject about yourself. And while this is not always the case, these rejected pieces of ourselves usually stem from childhood experiences. Our shadow is the reason that we do certain things within our lives when we don't really understand why we're doing them. Yeah, and just to kind of pivot off of like,
00:03:44
Speaker
our shadow self and its links to our childhood, as children we're dependent on the family that we're born into. Because of this dependency and the perspective of the family we're born into, what is acceptable and unacceptable can vary. And this is why our shadow selves are so different from each other.
00:04:02
Speaker
but what is true for all when we are children this is usually the time when we stop doing something or maybe even repress parts of ourselves that we've been told are unacceptable or wrong because we're dependent and because what and because we want to do anything that we can to reject and deny any aspect of ourselves that would be disapproved of or rejected by our families
00:04:23
Speaker
who we depend upon survival, our shadow self is suppressed within our subconscious mind for our own survival needs. And so whenever we talk about our
00:04:34
Speaker
subconscious mind and our conscious mind just briefly to kind of understand the difference between the two. Our subconscious mind deals with long-term memory, emotions and feelings, habits, relationship patterns, addictions, developmental stages, spiritual connection, and intuition. And our conscious mind deals a lot with analysis, thinking and planning, and short-term memory.
00:04:57
Speaker
So to practice shadow work means that you're working with your unconscious mind in a way that will help you uncover repressed parts of yourself. Oftentimes this can be traumatic events or even just parts of your personality that you may deem undesirable subconsciously.
The Risks of Ignoring Shadow Work
00:05:14
Speaker
These pieces and memories are considered your shadow self and while they initially were repressed due to their negative ties, they are a natural part of who you are as a person.
00:05:25
Speaker
In terms of repressed traits, these may be ones that trigger or embarrass us, so we repress them as a way to hide them from others. Shadow work can help you come to terms with your shadow self and help you confront that darker side.
00:05:38
Speaker
Repressing these parts of you without ever addressing them through shadow work and or therapy can have negative consequences and can affect your emotional and mental health. For those that may have experienced trauma or have some areas that really affect their mental health, we encourage you to seek a professional licensed therapist to help you face your shadow self and address these areas in a safe and a healthy way.
00:06:02
Speaker
Yes. And it's so important for especially this topic, you know, we discuss constantly on this podcast to do your research, understand yourself. For some of our listeners, initial shadow work can be done by yourself. For others, it might make more sense to begin shadow work with a therapist. And we're not here to tell you which one is best for you. Only you can decide that for yourself. Yeah. According to licensed clinical psychologist Jennifer Sweeten, shadow work is the idea that we all have different parts to ourselves.
00:06:32
Speaker
The parts of ourselves that have been exiled tend to become the shadow parts. Our shadow contains everything we deny in ourselves. What we believe is inferior, evil, unacceptable. Every part of ourselves that we reject becomes part of our shadow. And exploring our shadow helps us to develop a deeper and complete version of ourselves. It's all about making a deeper connection with yourself and your soul.
00:06:58
Speaker
So before we get into more of the benefits of shadow work and why it's important, I think it's really, really important to discuss shadow work repression. So keeping your shadow hidden can have real life consequences. Often you're able to see that you have an underlying issue that you need to address and work through, but you're not allowing yourself to deal with it.
00:07:19
Speaker
When you repress your shadow, the following can manifest. So repressing your shadow can cause self-soothing with drugs or alcohol, can increase things like negative self-talk and stress, and it can cause you to live an inauthentic life, causing issues with self-identity, which can lead you to wrong relationships, careers, etc., without understanding why.
Shadow Work's Impact on Well-being and Relationships
00:07:43
Speaker
Yeah, and not doing shadow work can also cause poor self-esteem, self-deceit, anxiety, depression, self-sabotage, self-absorption, poor behavior towards others, and it can even affect your ability to have healthy relationships. It's really sad. It really is. So let's talk about why it's so important and some of the benefits of shadow work. Shadow work helps you feel whole by
00:08:12
Speaker
bringing together those life experiences that have made you feel confused or incomplete in the past.
00:08:19
Speaker
and improves your interactions with others by improving your own self-awareness. And so an example that I got online from an LCSW that I thought was just perfect. His name is Duan Short. He said, if you were told not to talk back as a child and you were never given the option to question things or express your feelings, you may have a hard time standing up for yourself as an adult and setting boundaries.
00:08:44
Speaker
but working through this with shadow work can help you to establish healthy boundaries and allow you to speak your truth. And that's something that I've been working on because obviously like had a really terrible childhood. And that was one of the things that I took on in my shadow self was people pleasing and not standing up for myself. And that's, it's hard to break as an adult, but it's worth it.
00:09:10
Speaker
So also it helps to heal from generational trauma. The term generational trauma is something that we hear a lot in today's society because we're becoming more aware of how generational trauma can impact our children and even grandchildren, even if we don't even have kids yet. There's so much research out there on generational trauma, A-scores, and epigenetics, and I'm not going to get on my soapbox about that here because this topic is something I'm so passionate about as a social worker, but what I will say in relation to shadow work,
00:09:39
Speaker
Shadow work can help you by opening your eyes to patterns of behaviors that you may have experienced as a child, that you are inadvertently bringing into your relationships as an adult, whether that's with a partner or with children. And it helps you to think, is this something that you wish to continue? Because often what we learn from our childhood is stuff that we
00:10:00
Speaker
get into the practice of doing as an adult.
Shadow Work in Witchcraft Practice
00:10:03
Speaker
And also shadow work helps you learn healthy ways to meet your needs. So going back to the licensed clinical psychologist Jennifer Sweeten, she says, when you're hiding nothing from yourself and you can see yourself fully, it's a lot easier to be in control of yourself.
00:10:19
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like the easiest way to explain shadow work is just like, it's you coming to terms with those parts of you that were formed in childhood and that you've carried on into adult life that affect you physically and mentally and emotionally. It's coming to terms with that and accepting yourself as who you are and working through those things.
00:10:44
Speaker
So like that quote is perfect. Yeah. I came across so much that it was just like, you just have to accept yourself. You need to learn through these things and accept yourself and accept your shadow and be nice to your shadow and don't judge it. Yes. So the idea of shadow work is to help you come to terms with what might give you the ick about yourself.
00:11:02
Speaker
and to work past those traumatic experiences so that in the end, you're able to accept every piece of yourself and thrive in your day-to-day life. Putting in the work and being able to accept your shadow self can show you how your thoughts and emotions actually influence your behavior. By being aware of this, you have the ability to empower yourself to take control and live your life as your authentic self.
00:11:25
Speaker
Shadow work is necessary if you want to learn about yourself and improve your life, and you are the only one that can do that work, like no one else can do that for you. Shadow work can improve your overall health and wellness. That shadow self is often a root cause to many other things in your life. It can be linked to anxiety, depression, PTSD, and unhealthy or toxic relationships, like we said earlier. And these are all things that can affect your overall health by not addressing them.
00:11:53
Speaker
It can act as a trickling effect or when these things go untreated where they'll start to like compound over one another and then further affect your health.
00:12:02
Speaker
Doing shadow work can help improve your relationships. Being able to love and accept your own self will allow you to fully love and accept others, allowing you to build a strong bond with them. It can give you a confidence boost. So shadow work allows you to be your full self, and this in turn demolishes self-doubt and allows you to live confidently.
00:12:24
Speaker
It can improve your creativity because your shadow self is thought to also repress creativity. So doing shadow work and embracing your shadow self could help you be more creative. So doing your shadow work can help you tap into your own intuition too. Depending on what you've repressed and tucked away, there's a pretty good chance that doing the work can help you get in touch with your own deeper knowing or your own intuition. So if you were a child that was discouraged from trusting your gut,
00:12:53
Speaker
then you probably are now an adult that represses that inner compass and shames your own intuition. So by working through these repressed items, you'll then be able to start trusting your intuition in your day to day life. I think tying with that too is
00:13:10
Speaker
how important witchcraft is with shadow work because obviously you need to have a strong intuition to even practice witchcraft. So witchcraft and shadow work pair well because of the techniques of ritual. So according to Isaac Kotak of Hero Rise, witchcraft uses ritual as a metaphor and allegoric action.
00:13:33
Speaker
Because the subconscious mind where the shadow resides works with symbolism, the act of spell work can go hand in hand with shadow work. And so an example of this that he listed on his website was burning an old love letter is sending a message to the subconscious mind that it's time to let go. And so I love that. So you can use witchcraft as a way to provide that symbolic association to your subconscious mind.
00:14:01
Speaker
including shadow work and witchcraft helps us to understand our identity and live a more authentic life, which is something that we've said time and again.
Starting Shadow Work: Guidance and Resources
00:14:09
Speaker
But I came across this quote from Tina Caro. She's a witch and she has a whole article on shadow work and witchcraft. She says, our identity is just the stories we tell ourselves. Shadow work helps us to see the stories better. Witchcraft helps us to rewrite those stories.
00:14:26
Speaker
So if you're wanting to do shadow work, here's just like a few examples of how you can get started. Some things to remember first are to keep an open mind, to be compassionate and patient with yourself, allow yourself time dedicated solely to do your shadow work without distractions, and make sure that you reflect on the progress as you go. Something that's really important is to decide if you should seek therapy prior to starting your shadow work.
00:14:55
Speaker
Some things that you'll be addressing may be triggering for you and having a licensed professional therapist there to help you work through those triggering items can ensure that you're working through them safely and in a healthy way by having someone that can recognize any patterns that you might miss and then can also give you the tools to deal with those harder items. Doing shadow work
00:15:17
Speaker
with a therapist can also take a little bit of pressure off of you and need a little less preparation in that they can assign you prompts to work through versus you needing to either look something up on the internet or needing to purchase a shadow workbook or a journal with prompts already in it. It also allows your shadow work to be tailored directly towards your needs from somebody who is like unbiased on
00:15:41
Speaker
your feelings and your emotions or somebody that doesn't, you can't sit there and say, well, I'm not going to do this one because it makes me uncomfortable. When you have a therapist, they can tell you, okay, we're going to get uncomfortable. Here's that prompt.
00:15:56
Speaker
Make sure that you know your triggers too and learn how to spot your inner shadow. Somewhere to start with this would be to watch your own habits. So like, while not all habits are bad, notice which ones that you tend to repeat that have a negative effect on your day to day, or that you feel might be like holding you back. When it comes to your triggers, they can be linked to past trauma, as we've already said, and past trauma can be linked to your shadow self.
00:16:23
Speaker
So Kimberly Faso of medium.com states that triggers are reflections of the deep unresolved wounds. They come to open your eyes to things that are suppressed. Knowing your triggers and your habits allows you to step back from your emotional reaction and to observe it instead of living it.
00:16:43
Speaker
And one of the best things to do before you start practicing shadow work on a regular basis is something just as easy as understanding your own emotions. The best way to get started with this is to actually be able to name your emotions because one of the things that just
00:16:58
Speaker
I've seen with a lot of adults is we don't actually understand the emotions that we're feeling and we don't have a name to them. Being self-aware is so important when you get started with shadow work. So it helps you to quit treating your feelings as good or bad and allows you to not judge your emotions.
00:17:15
Speaker
judging your emotions keeps you from understanding what you're feeling. our emotions are the primary drivers of our behaviors so the more you understand this concept the better equipped you'll be. and something really easy that you can do to help you better understand your emotions and to be able to name your emotions is by using something like the mood meter app. this is a free app on
00:17:38
Speaker
I mean, you can get it in the Apple store, on Google Play, whatever store you have associated with your phone. And it helps you to understand and name how you're feeling. So you can track your emotions with Mood Meter. And this is a great starting step when you're doing shadow work because this allows you to track when you're feeling strong emotions and you can actually add notes. So where are you feeling this emotion? Are you feeling this at home, at work, at school?
00:18:03
Speaker
does this happen whenever you're with family or friends? It helps you to name the emotion and then it helps you to shift this emotion to something else if you're needing to shift that emotion. Tracking your emotions like this helps you to notice patterns and these patterns of behavior allow you to think about when you're experiencing a specific type of emotion you can reflect on these moments and understand what the emotion is and why you're
Embracing and Dialoguing with the Shadow Self
00:18:27
Speaker
feeling it.
00:18:27
Speaker
Something that's important to do is to explore your childhood. So as I stated earlier, many pieces of our shadow self stem from negative moments in our own childhood. So think about the emotions that you may not have been allowed to have. Those emotions become repressed and because of this we grow up to believe that having that emotion is bad and then like on top of it we're bad if we have them.
00:18:51
Speaker
And just a personal example that I can give of this would be from my own childhood when our, like, growing up, our parents would tell us all the time to suck it up, like, quote unquote, suck it up anytime my brothers or I were upset or if we were crying. And those were emotions that we were made to kind of be ashamed of as children.
00:19:12
Speaker
Crying still gives me and all of my brothers the ick. We don't do that. We don't cry. And if we do cry, we're like, ew, gross. What's wrong with you? Very few people have ever seen me cry. I know that's bad. I need to work on that.
00:19:28
Speaker
But it just goes to show that growing up, being told, suck it up anytime we were hurt or crying or upset about something, it literally affects all three of us. To this day, as adults, crying is disgusting. We don't hug. There's so many things that we don't do. And it wasn't until we started... Obviously, I knew what shadow work was, but again,
00:19:56
Speaker
I don't like to do that. Everyone should, but it makes me uncomfortable. And so doing the research on this and really just thinking about some of these things when I was doing it, I was like, oh my gosh, it really does stem from your childhood people.
00:20:11
Speaker
Let me tell you. So don't shame yourself too. That's another one. Don't be ashamed of yourself. Don't shame yourself. Work on embracing your shadow and allowing yourself some compassion. A good way to do this is to practice using loving words and words of affirmation towards your whole self to include your shadow self.
00:20:31
Speaker
So say things like, I believe in you. You are worthy of love. You are enough. You deserve to be happy. Things like that. Just like affirming that this is who you are as a person and you love your whole self and you're willing to live your life with intention and be confident in what you're doing and just keep reaffirming that to yourself to make that a normal thing. We should be saying positive things to ourself. We shouldn't be saying,
00:21:00
Speaker
a bunch of negative stuff and like cutting ourselves down. You can use meditation to your benefit here too. So when you pick up on your patterns or your triggers or your habits and you start to recognize them in the moments that they're happening, you can then use meditation to help you understand why these emotions are happening. And again, just remember to not be judgmental and allow yourself the time to have those emotions.
00:21:26
Speaker
You should also be keeping a shadow journal. Like shadow work, it's important to write these things out, right? It's like using a journal gives you a judgment-free zone where you can say what you need to say, you can process what you need to process, and you can start working on accepting your whole self, your shadow included. And this is a space that you can write what you're thinking uncensored, and it can be made into a daily practice too.
00:21:52
Speaker
This process may feel a little uncomfortable at first, but it will get easier as the process goes on. Just don't overthink it. Something else that you can do that is very active in terms of shadow work is to have an inner dialogue with your shadow to learn from it. So the idea is just to take time to clear your mind, get all those thoughts out, and then ask your shadow some questions and wait for those answers to come to the surface. And the key here, again, is to listen without judgment.
00:22:22
Speaker
So here are just some examples of some shadow work prompts. These were taken from an article on betterup.com and the article was by Maggie Wool. Her article includes 27 prompts in total that are meant to help you get started on your shadow work journey. Um, this article is going to be listed in our references for anyone that's interested in the others, but here's just a few of them. So one prompt could be how do you define failure? How does failing make you feel?
00:22:52
Speaker
you afraid of failure and if so why? And what you would do is just take and answer these questions like this is why I said having a shadow work journal is important because you're going to write out this question and then you're going to answer it and really think about these things and remember to like uncensor and just process it and write it all out without like judgment. Another would be
00:23:15
Speaker
What makes you feel the most valued? What tends to make you judgmental towards others? What memories are you ashamed of? Who do you envy and why? And then I saw this one and I really liked it. Write a letter to a person that's hurt you the most in your life and tell them everything that you'd like to say. Because how often do you get to do that?
00:23:38
Speaker
Like how often do we go to someone who has actually like really hurt us in our lives and tell them exactly how we feel and get it off your chest and write it out or like say it uncensored. Like we just we don't do that. So I liked that one. I thought that one was a good one to include.
00:23:58
Speaker
Keep in mind that you can find copious amounts of shadow work prompts online But if you're somebody that's like you want to purchase a book that's going to guide you You can also purchase them. There's a bunch
00:24:10
Speaker
I like I looked on Amazon because I was like I wonder like how many like if it's something that's common and there's tons of them out there. There's so many shadow work journals or like guidebooks but there's also a lot of them free online to where you could get an entire like PDF download that someone put together of shadow work. So like purchasing if you want to you can but just know that this is something that you can definitely do for free if you don't want to buy something.
00:24:39
Speaker
some additional shadow work exercises that we found online. Obviously, like Tiffany said, these are all gonna be listed in our resources if you want to take a deeper dive into them, screenshot it or whatever from our resources, it doesn't matter. But one of the ones that I loved was depletes versus elevates. So with this, all you need is a piece of paper and you could use whatever, I mean, you could use like a,
00:25:05
Speaker
a post-it note, you could use a whiteboard, a notebook, like a piece of copy paper, it doesn't matter, just any piece of paper and something to write with. And all you'll need to do is make two columns.
00:25:16
Speaker
column A, which stands for depletes me, and column B, which stands for elevates me. And then what you'll do with these two columns is the interactions that hold you back, list them in column A in the section of depleting me, and the interactions that fulfill you, list those in column B, and those are the interactions that elevate you.
00:25:39
Speaker
This exercise helps you understand how your daily activities impact you. So if you're someone who is struggling day to day or say you're feeling lost or you're feeling just overly stressed, this would be a good exercise to do to understand kind of what interactions you're going through throughout the day and whether they benefit you or whether they hold you back.
Exploring Ancestry and Rituals for Shadow Work
00:26:06
Speaker
I like that. I do too.
00:26:09
Speaker
One that I found, this was in an article by Sarah Reagan on mindbodygreen.com and she describes how examining your family tree can actually help you start your own shadow work. So the idea is that you make a family tree starting with your two sets of grandparents and then you work your way down to you and through this practice allow yourself to be honest about certain like quote-unquote family traits.
00:26:34
Speaker
So what she says to do is to say out loud, I love my family but with each person in your family tree. And then you would say what you felt about that person, like what trait that they give you. And the example she gives is, I love my family but this uncle drinks too much. And as you move through each member of your family, really look at all of those qualities that you're listing that exist there and ask yourself if you see any of those qualities within yourself.
00:27:03
Speaker
and then being able to confront those qualities and start to like understand where they come from allows you to start to process your shadow self and it's like she says it's just a great starting point i've never heard this but knowing that
00:27:18
Speaker
much of your shadow stems from these like negative experiences in your childhood or like past traumatic experiences. I feel like this one really lets you look at like the root of those problems before you even start processing them. Yeah, I love this activity because it really helps you to change the narrative of your life and and
00:27:42
Speaker
even just think about the generational trauma that you might be bringing into your present. I love it. So another one that I found, it's called invoking the demon within ritual. And this is nothing to do with demons or anything like that. So please don't come at us saying, oh my God, they're Satan worshipers.
00:28:04
Speaker
They're telling us to invoke a demon. The demon in this ritual is literally just used to describe the shadow self. That's it. So please don't think this is something that it's not. This is not demonic.
00:28:18
Speaker
It's just the name of the ritual, Jesus. I mean, you could change it to invoking the shadow self within ritual if you want to, but whatever. So for this, what you'll need to do is create a safe space, whether this be casting a circle, cleansing your space, whatever a safe space means to you, do that first.
00:28:36
Speaker
Once you're in a safe and grounded space, allow yourself to explore your emotional body. Let the feeling manifest in your body and intensify the sensations. Personify your shadow or your quote-unquote demon. Imagine what color it would be inside of you.
00:28:51
Speaker
What texture would it have? What shape would it have? What color would it have? Let the shadow manifest and feel the feelings that come up with your shadow. Converse with the shadow. Ask it, what do you want? What do you need right now? When you get it, how will it make you feel? Those are just some questions that you could ask, but you could ask it any questions. With these questions, the purpose is to try to go deeper and allow your shadow self to speak to you.
00:29:17
Speaker
and depending on what it asks for or what it's telling you, you can give your shadow self what it needs. But if that's not an option, like say if your shadow self is like, I want to kick someone's ass and you don't want to go to jail right now, give you the love and compassion that it deserves by not fulfilling that task, but like allow yourself, like give yourself your
00:29:39
Speaker
your shadow self, love and compassion and understanding. And when you're done, ask your shadow to leave you in peace and visualize it dissipating back into your mind.
00:29:50
Speaker
And then when you're done with that, obviously integrate back, you know, reground yourself and then you can write about this experience in your shadow work journal. But this is a great way to actually, especially if you are someone who likes to visualize things or a lot of with witchcraft, it's a lot about visualization and intention. This is a great way to incorporate shadow work with your witchcraft practice by
00:30:14
Speaker
having that personification of your shadow self. Yeah, I like that one too. We found some good ones guys. Yes, and there's a lot more like on our resources under the resource for witchcraft and shadow work, a complete ritual guide from HeroRise. Isaac Kotek has a ton of other exercises that you can do and shadow work prompts. And that was just one that I pulled off of there. There's so many more.
00:30:43
Speaker
So if you are interested in this, go check out our resources for more information. And if you practice shadow work regularly and you have a practice or an exercise or a prompt that you use that we haven't mentioned on this episode, let us know because, I mean, we would love to pass it along to our listeners and it might be something that we want to practice ourselves.
Significance of Shadow Work in Life and Witchcraft
00:31:08
Speaker
Yeah, and I joke a lot about being like, shadow work, but it is so important. And this, you know, it's not something like we said at the beginning, that's specifically tied to witchcraft, like shadow work is practiced in therapy. And as I worked in mental health and
00:31:28
Speaker
in substance abuse before and these are things that I would make sure that my clients that I worked with were working on these types of things. If they were struggling with something, we would come up with a prompt and I had all of my clients keeping journals and they would come in and reflect on how they answered these questions and how it made them feel and why they feel that they felt that way to begin with. It is something that is so important to really process
00:31:57
Speaker
any of these problematic areas in your life, any traumatic experiences that you've had, and it's a way to just really move past those issues and be as mentally healthy as you can be and be confident and love yourself and have great relationships. So as much as I do joke about you, Shadow Work, it is so important for
Conclusion and Future Topics
00:32:21
Speaker
you to do. It's important for everyone to do. Everyone should be doing this and processing these things.
00:32:26
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Absolutely. All right.
00:32:36
Speaker
That's it for this episode of Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. You can find our source material for this episode linked in the show notes. If you love this episode, we'd be forever thankful if you leave us a five-star review on wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you really love the show and want more Get In Loser content, check out our Supercast link provided in the show notes or search the Supercast website for Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft.
00:32:59
Speaker
There you can purchase a membership to our podcast and obtain exclusives like hitting episodes early, shoutouts on the show, access to our Ask Me Anything forum, our monthly newsletter, a promo code for merchandise, and more. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at GiddinWitches or email us at we'redoingwitchcraft at gmail.com. Check us out next week where we'll talk about some of our favorite witchcraft resources and books. Until then, blessed be witches.