... Episode 9 of What's Arising

This podcast focuses on shadow-work and why shadow integration is essential if we are going to effectively navigate and survive the difficult times arising in our world. The dangerous times ahead of us also represent an opportunity for a great leap in human consciousness. There is the potential to wake up and begin co-creating a world without war; a world with lasting peace. But there is catch if we are to realize this possibility. It will require deep inner work. There are choices for each of us to make. We are at a crossroad.

Shadow-integration⁠ is a return to self-love and self-trust:  https://www.wisdomways.net/shadowintegration/

Transcript

Welcome to What’s Arising?

This podcast focuses on shadow work and why shadow integration is essential if we are going to navigate the difficult times arising in our world.

The times ahead of us may be challenging, but they also represent an opportunity for a great leap in the human condition. Within all the human insanity that seems to be arising, I feel there is tremendous potential to let go of what no longer serves us and step into a new world that works for all.

Life is inviting us to move toward co-creating lasting peace on Earth.

But there is work to do.

There are choices to make.

Each of us is at a crossroads. Do we intensify suffering by falling into a collective dark night of the soul, or do we ignite the brilliant light that lies within each of us and allow that light to touch the world?

We each have the opportunity to turn up our light.

What is the crossroads you find yourself at?

What direction is your soul calling you to take?

At the core of this great shift humanity is going through is a shift in our relationship with shadow.

You may think of shadow as the dark side, or as our darker nature. I prefer to define shadow as a blocking of our light, and as the mind’s separation from self.

Hidden within our shadows are some of our greatest gifts, especially when we turn the light of truth, awareness, and wholeness toward them.

Shadow work is the alchemy of transforming perceived lead into authentic gold. It is the transformation of hate and fear into unconditional love.

When we forgive and surrender the wars within us, we begin to change our relationship to the outer conflicts and wars around us.

All conflicts and wars in our world can be seen, at some level, as reflections of unconscious conflict within the human psyche. They are reflections of the war we wage with our own shadow.

Just as we cannot catch or permanently remove the shadow cast by our physical body, we cannot truly destroy our inner shadows. They do not exist as independent enemies. They exist as illusions created through blocked light, perception, and separation in the mind.

Waging war with shadow is therefore futile.

As a war, there is no winning.

If outer conflict and war are fueled by an inner war with shadow, then outer wars become part of the same futile drama. Even when an outer war appears to be won, another conflict eventually arises from the unresolved shadow unless that shadow is brought into the light.

To find lasting peace, we must go into the depths of the shadow to correct misunderstandings in the mind. We must heal at the core.

Shadow is at the core of every experience we hate, reject, or cannot stand in the world. It is at the core of what triggers us emotionally. It is the energy behind many of the dramas we create.

Shadow can lurk at the core of conflict, war, racism, corruption, greed, dishonesty, judgment, censorship, cancel culture, blame, shame, fear, anxiety, and depression.

It is also at the core of what keeps us stuck, lost, alone, or unseen.

Shadow can even show up in our inability to embrace our own brilliance and inherent goodness — the places where we block the light of our own soul.

Shifting shadow can shift your life.

Shifting shadow can also help shift our world.

Learning how to dance with the shadow, rather than going to war against it or avoiding it, may be the secret to dancing the greatest dance of your life.

Let’s look at the phenomenon of inner shadow using physical shadow as a metaphor.

A physical shadow only exists when there is light shining and that light is blocked by a material object. The shadow is connected to the object and to the light. It cannot exist without both.

Only in complete darkness, or in full unobstructed light, is no shadow cast.

The polarity of dark and light, on and off, positive and negative, is foundational to this reality. Without both sides, the world as we know it would disappear.

Our senses receive these signals — light and dark, on and off, contrast and difference. Like a digital computer made of zeros and ones, we create our outer world by receiving and interpreting signals through the conditioned mind.

The brain and mind filter, interpret, and organize these signals. They make meaning and form a response.

Shadow is perceived by the mind as real, but it has no independent reality apart from light, object, and perceiver. In a sense, the object, shadow, and background space are all projections on the screen of the mind.

Similar to physical shadow, psychological shadow depends on the light of awareness and consciousness. In this case, the mind creates psychological shadow by blocking or filtering the full light of consciousness.

This is done through beliefs.

Beliefs create filters on our perception of both inner and outer reality. Beliefs often organize the world into categories like good and bad, right and wrong, lovable and unlovable.

If there were no belief, there would be no psychological shadow and no conflict. There would be no good or bad, only pure experience.

In the unfiltered light of consciousness, or in the dark void of nothingness, no shadow can exist. In the void, duality and reality as we know them would also cease.

So here is a reflection question:

Who would you be if, rather than trying to change limiting beliefs, you surrendered or let go of all beliefs and opened your heart and mind to receiving life in its freshness?

What would life be like in the embrace of innocence, leaping and dancing into the infinitely creative unknown?

The good news is that beliefs and emotions can shift. We can learn to dissolve or surrender them. This is part of the process of shadow integration work.

To continue, the human experience is one of experiencing on and off, light and dark, this and that. You cannot have one side of a coin without the other. You cannot experience on without off. We know light through the experience of dark.

The same is true of hot and cold, up and down, black and white, and even life and death. These polarities are united. Take one away, and the other cannot exist.

In this human experience, could we know love without hate or fear?

Could we know trust without betrayal?

Could we have “we” without “me”?

Could we cherish life in the absence of death?

Our experience of one thing exists in relationship to another. Life depends on these polarities. Everything exists in relationship. This relationship of on and off is a unified field that allows us to experience ourselves in form.

It gives us our aliveness.

So what is psychological shadow?

Shadow arises when the mind attempts to reject, get rid of, or suppress one side of a polarity. It classifies one side as good and the other as bad. One side as lovable and the other as unlovable.

This is like trying to get rid of one side of a coin without destroying the other side. It cannot be done. It is a futile war.

In fact, the greater the emotional charge against one side of a polarity, the stronger that rejected side can become. As I discussed in a previous podcast about stilling the wave, you cannot have one side of a wave without the other. The higher the peak, the deeper the trough. The peak and trough remain in balance.

The dark and light remain in balance. The yin and yang remain in balance.

The harder we fight to get rid of shadows such as corruption, dishonesty, falseness, victimhood, or judgment, the more energy we often add to them.

We cannot get rid of shadow by ignoring it either.

That is the nature of shadow.

The shadow’s existence and strength depend on the belief and emotional energy we project into it. It is through forgiveness and surrender that the wave can still and the shadow can begin to dissolve.

Shadow is dissolved by surrendering the belief and emotional charge. Integration happens when we move toward the rejected part with acceptance and love, rather than trying to escape from it.

Humanity is experiencing a gigantic and dangerous storm.

The storm contains drug abuse, crime, corruption, war, anxiety, depression, polarization, censorship, authoritarianism, social unrest, fake news, and many other growing problems. But these are outward symptoms of an underlying condition.

Our collective shadow is one of the energies driving this storm, and the resulting waves are becoming strong enough to bring us to our knees.

Perhaps that is the point.

This is one of the critical crossroads we are approaching. If we do not go to our knees and surrender the war with shadow, suffering may continue to intensify. The waves may become more dangerous.

By choosing to surrender, accept, and integrate our shadows rather than waging war against them, we open the possibility of a great leap into a new humanity and a new Earth.

Only in surrender can the battle with evil truly end.

In surrender, the ocean becomes still as glass.

A lasting calm after the storm.

We find our bliss.

I hope this gives you some insight into the shadow realm and why shadow work is so essential to awakening. Because this is so important, these podcasts will continue to focus on shadow integration work.

Shadow is a huge part of the human experience, and it can be difficult to see. It is hidden in plain sight.

We need to recognize the shadows if we want to stop feeding the storm.

In future podcasts, I intend to point out some of the common shadows I see arising in the collective narrative. My hope is that this may give you clues into the shadows you are feeding, so that you can still your own wave and rest in the joy of love and life.

If you are ready and motivated to discover and integrate the shadows making waves in your life, please reach out to me for a free discovery session or sign up for one of my shadow workshops.

I would love to assist you in calming the storms arising in your life.

In calming your own waves, you will be better able to navigate the collective storm and support humanity in making this great leap into the calm beyond the storm.