Belong the Shadow

a 2 Hour Breathritual devoted to belonging our shadow…

Our shadow can be seen as our container for anything inside we’ve disowned or rejected. That of the dark… such as anger, shame, empathy, grief, vulnerability, and unresolved wounding.

The shadow self refers to parts of ourselves—whether personality traits, emotions, sensations, feelings, parts of our body or thoughts—that are difficult to accept. We often don’t want to acknowledge, identify, or embrace, let alone love these parts.

Jung, who named this, helped us see how the shadow holds repressed thoughts and feelings —not all of which are necessarily “bad” … positive traits can be held in the shadow if those parts of ourselves were invalidated or minimized by others, leading us to repression.

Whether from parents, relatives, teachers, or society as a whole, we receive messages about what’s acceptable and what’s not, those unacceptable things about ourselves are pushed into the shadow.

From a somatics perspective, these parts of ourselves deeply contort the natural shape in our bodies. For instance, many fems have received the message that it is not safe to give and receive love. Over thousands of years. This is a deep lineage and cultural shape in the collective feminine body.

The fear can lead to anxiety and a “moving away from” intimacy in our lives.

Many women have wide open hearts and a shape of expansive love in their bodies… and when this anxiety is triggered, they “move away” from the depth of the shape of love in their bodies – a contortion that creates a shadow shape of giving and receiving love in our bodies.