Shadow Work

What exactly is shadow work? In simple terms, shadow work is the acceptance of your shadow self through internal healing. Your shadow self symbolizes the ugliest and darkest parts of yourself that you most likely wish to hide from the world. However, you cannot truly love yourself if you reject certain aspects of your identity that impact your lived experience.

Shadow work requires the unpacking of inner child trauma by deprogramming socialized indoctrination. From our inception into this world, into early childhood, we are programmed to participate in oppressive systems such as anti-Blackness, sexism, ableism, homophobia, fatphobia, etc. Irregardless of whether we benefit or are impacted by these systems, we are all culpable of perpetuating them either systematically, interpersonally or both. For example, just because I am Black, does not mean I am exempt from inflicting anti-Blackness onto others interpersonally, or onto myself due to internalized anti-Blackness.

To engage in shadow work, you should be intentional about extending grace and empathy to your shadow self. You must be honest about how your inner child trauma turned into insecurities and bias when confronting your isms and phobias. A simple journaling prompt to utilize for your inner work is considering how your positionality (race, class, gender, sex, religion, etc.) alters your perception of other people’s lived experience. Continually interrogating why you think the way you do is an important aspect of your awakening to self.

Your awakened self is a gift to the collective because they will work to dismantle these systems of oppression while inspiring others to do the same. This is ultimately how internal self work will transform into collective healing. The same trauma our inner children are actively healing will be a thing of the past for future generations!