23/03/2026
What is shadow work?
The term ‘shadow work’ was coined by Swiss psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, Carl Jung.
It’s based on the concept that our ‘shadow’ contains disowned and rejected parts of ourselves.
Our conscious mind produces our conscious thoughts, beliefs and behaviours, and our unconscious mind is where we store the parts of ourselves that we’ve rejected, repressed and hidden from the world. And it’s these hidden parts that form the shadow 🖤
Our shadow can contain things that we might call negative and primitive, such as selfishness, greed, envy, wanting control or power, rage and anger.
But our shadow can also contain some of our most positive traits and behaviours that we’ve also repressed, such as bravery, leadership and being directive, assertiveness, humour and the ability to be playful and spontaneous 🎉
The shadow is primarily formed in childhood when we’re learning about ourselves and about the world. A child won’t know what’s good or bad, right or wrong, unless we teach them. And some societies have different views on what’s good or bad, right or wrong, so each shadow is formed differently.
There isn’t actually anything in this world that’s ‘good’ or ‘bad’, these are just labels that we’ve put onto things to shape our children into the kind of adults we think they should be.
But what we’re creating is a loving acceptance of the traits we perceive to be good, and a rejection of the traits we perceive to be bad. Which means none of us are whole, integrated and balanced.
It’s only through acceptance and integration of all parts of us that we can truly be happy, healthy and complete. By ignoring certain aspects of ourselves, we see these aspects reflected back to us in other people – and that’s what causes our emotional triggers. We wouldn’t get triggered if we did shadow work! 💡
Doing shadow work can bring some real epiphanies and help you to understand yourself better. To begin your journey into the shadow, get your copy of the Shadow Work course 💫
⬇️⬇️⬇️
https://www.udemy.com/course/shadow_work/?referralCode=4AF664740A25CF9993AF