Journaling: Shadow Work

I bet people would’ve come across it as shadow work prompts on TikTok.

What is this shadow work?

It is a journaling process that is delicate but strengthens me from within. Unlike its name, it has nothing to do with the dark shadows and sinister approach. It provides the deep set of questions that help you to remorse, let go and heal from the moments that have been suppressed within you.

Since this pandemic, there are people who have tried to work within themselves. To become a better person, to have a clearer vision towards life, to have clarity and growth in their life. Shadow work is a journaling practice that is used to face your inner fears and face them. Many people are enlightened to work on themselves and have chosen to face their inner fears. I decided to give it a try and here is my experience.

Journaling is something that I wanted to try over this pandemic. I wasn't clearly aware of anything regarding journaling. I started with a gratitude journal with some affirmations. However, I came across this ' shadow work prompt' while searching for prompts. I decided to search for it. The shadow work journaling has been a delicate process. I would search up some prompts for it and answer them. I answered with all sincerity. I did my research as to what are the dos and don'ts. The dos included answering with honesty and writing whatever you felt and remember from your memory. The don’ts included that we shouldn’t do shadow work during a trigger or even when you are feeling low. 

As I said, shadow work is a delicate process and every time you answer the question it's like you are facing the incident all over again. It's like pressing a replay button and feeling all the emotions all over again. It not only triggers the memory of the traumatic events but also might show physical attributes such as heart palpitation, chills, or pain in some parts of the body. It is a very delicate and slow process but does it work?

Yes! It does. It works more on the emotional level. Once the emotional changes take place, it shows up in the change of mindset. Since a lot of change takes place in the subconscious mind, we tend to re-direct our paths to positivity. It brings in more awareness of the actions that we have and also redirects our reactions to things to triggers.

It is a slow process and if you do daily check-in you might notice the difference that it brings to the person and its actions