The Shadow Within Our Spirit

My experience with my spiritual awakening was that spirituality was far from being just love and light. The beginning stages of a spiritual awakening it was dark, sorrow and I thought I was losing my mind; that I was going 'crazy'. I learnt that spirituality had its shadows and we also had a shadow.

At the time I was unpacking my toxic behaviours, my narcissism, my co-dependency and the lack of love for myself. I was healing the part of myself that resonated with all the trauma responses that manifested themselves as my 'personality traits'. This was when I stumbled upon the famous psychoanalyst and psychologist Carl Jung. He was one of the grandfathers of psychology and his work incorporated spirituality into it, which is why I resonate with his work so much.

He theorised the term Shadow Self was an aspect of us that was located in our subconscious and was formed due to the experiences of pain, rejection and trauma. For me this makes sense, we tend to suppress the unpleasant memories we have which are attached with heavy emotions. Where we were conditioned to be a certain way from our family and social dynamics, or else we will not be accepted, loved or succeed in life.

Our shadow is not evil or bad, sometimes we hide gifts, talents and unique personality traits because we experienced rejection, which creates this internalisation of shame and guilt. Our shadow is something not to fear, as it's the fragment of our-self that desires and craves love and acceptance.

Personally, shadow healing has been one of the most profound and empowering types of healing I've done. This was where I learnt to be honest, take accountability, ground myself in my authenticity and self-worth. Realising that our worth and sense of love is something we can cultivate from within. It's not something we can buy online or look for in other people, as they don't define it for us.

With our shadow also comes light. When doing shadow healing it's important to bring the light towards those aspects of our self. To embrace our shadow, we have to learn to give our self-compassion, kindness, acceptance and forgiveness. That the wounds, traumas and rejections we experienced do not define our future or where we are heading.

Spirituality for me has given me closure for my childhood abuse, it's brought me healing knowing that all the pain I went through wasn't for nothing. That now I have cultivated this sense of love, empowerment and wholeness which was by transmuting my pain and traumas.

Having healed aspects of myself, which put me in a position to share and spread the wisdom and healing I have found. Knowing that I am an example to those who might feel as they are lost and their pain defines them because, in reality, it doesn't. This wasn't done just with love and light. This was done by embracing my shadow; the most wounded, darkest and deepest part of myself.

Trusting our process of healing and our spirituality is key. The thing is with spirituality, no two spirits are the same. We might resonate with the person across us, although might not resonate with the person next to us. It doesn't make anyone less spiritual, we are all on our journey; a journey to find what is fulfilling for us, seeking our purpose and reasons we get up in the morning and continue with our lives.

Realising that we all have beauty, light and peace that lives within us and we are simultaneously flawed, imperfect and shadow beings. The gem about the human consciousness is that we were given free will; the free will to choose what we give our attention and energy towards and what we let go of.

The foundation of spirituality is freedom and while our past wounds and traumas still linger around us that sense of freedom isn't there. That is why healing and spirituality go hand in hand. Having to face our darkest and painful experiences and memories have so much power and light within them. The light of compassion, resilience, strength, bravery and courage; those light lives within our darkness and the wisdom we hold from our experiences are the treasures we will not find anywhere else.

When we are put on a path to look within and heal, don't turn away from it, don't drink it away, escape or run from it. Look at it in the eyes, just like the other times you looked at your challenges and hurdles. The times you thought you couldn't overcome them, although you did. Life cannot be rainbows and sunshine at all times. Life has polarities all around us, which includes our experiences. This is why our hard times are there as those are the time we practice our free will, to continue and cultivate more resilience, courage and strength.

Overcoming our challenges and hurdles is always worth it, in the present moment it might not seem like it, although when we get to the rewards of it all, we are grateful we continued and persevered.

By: Merichel Sanchez

Embracing our spirit includes the shadow, don't turn this aspect of our self away as we'll go on cyles to only go back and reclaim it.

Trusting that we all go through cycles and experiences not to break us but to build us to who we truly are meant to be. Inner work is challenging, tiring and at times sh*tty, although the rewards of finding the love within and our authentic self is something we can not buy or will ever find outside of our-self.

To embrace the spirit, we much heal what broke our spirit in the first place. Spirituality has always had shadows and it is not the time to ignore them, it's the time to embrace them and show them the light.

Be Kinder, Less Critical

Ascending From the conscious to the Unconscious to Collective Consciously

Our psyche is divided into three parts which are the Conscious (C), Subconscious (SC) and the Collective Unconscious (CUC). 

We know that the Subconscious is the part of our psyche that we have no control over and very limited access. The CUC is the part where we realise we are all connected and that we all one. Just a giant ball of energy and within that giant ball each individuals having their own experience on Earth. To be able to access the CUC we have to be able to unpack and get through our SC. In our SC lays our deepest wounds and circumstance, events or experiences we have suppressed. Those circumstances, events and experiences have their own attachments of emotions, which is why many of us decide not to unpack our SC. 

Once we unpack and reconstruct our SC we are able to tap into the CUC. This is why people choose to do so as this is the part where we have our awakening to oneself of our experiences. 

The structure of the concept of the human psyche is much deeper than the Conscious, Subconscious and the Collective Unconscious. Carl Jung, a famous and well-known psychoanalyst and psychiatrist have studied and theories the concept of the human psyche. His theories and studies to this day are used to understand our human psyche. By educating ourself about the human psyche and it’s a way of working on understanding our own.

Our psyche is an amazing system within our body. Not only can it tap into the material world it can also tap into the spiritual world. Where many believe does not exist. There are many theories we can come up with in regards to where our Consciousness goes, after our death. Although there is no hardcore evidence on this. We were given a free will for a reason, we were put in certain family dynamics and bodies for a reason. There are lessons we need to overcome in regards to the uncontrollable positioning we are in. As those lessons help us evolve and grow our consciousness which brings in the puzzle pieces missing within our picture. Which is funny enough, a smaller part of the Big Picture or the Cosmo. - 

This is why I preach healing and why I believe it is part of ascension. We have all gone through certain circumstances that have wounded us in some way. Those circumstances we had no control over. It’s put us in a position to heal ourself or repress it. It’s not about reliving those moments, it’s understanding that certain things in the world we have no control over. That whatever the past circumstances were something we aren’t meant to carry the burden off for the rest of our lives. It’s teaching us to let go and before we can let go we have to be able to acknowledge that it is there. 

We can go our entire lives ignoring and denying parts of ourselves. Although by doing this we are not living to the fullest capacity we came here to do. Underneath the wounds, hurt or pain is a light. A light that will help us shine through the deepest and darkest parts of ourself. From personal experience, underneath my traumas was the light of resilient, courage, strength, bravery and beauty. 

It’s having to acknowledge all those hurt, wounds and pain before we can see those ball of light. Acknowledging also come with its own light which is compassion, understanding, empathy and forgiveness. Everything has its own light and SO DO WE!

We have to embrace the light beforehand. We have to see our own beauty and learn that we are more than our physical bodies. That this lifetime might have not been our first. Having an open mind and letting go of our Ego.

Letting our Higher Self live in a time where we are being baited out to live under fear, illusions and destruction. 

The term ‘human experience’ includes our emotions, our experiences, our past, present and future. Included the bad, good, the ugly and the beauty. It’s about embracing them all and learning that we are multidimensional beings that decided to evolve our consciousness and soul/spirit. Being open to the idea that there is more to life than the physical and the material world lets go of the concept of endings. That we are not meant to stay in a certain form forever. That we are constantly changing, evolving and growing whether we are consciously aware of this or not. 

Spirituality is about embracing this concept and connecting to our Higher Self. It’s not about dressing, eating or behaving a certain way. As everyone’s spirit is very different and uniquely made. Just because we are all connected from the same ball of energy does not mean we are all the same. We might have similarities although never the same. It’s embracing the uniqueness and difference we have. It’s about experiencing the human realm in the full scope of it all. We can not experience the full scope of the human experience if we are living under illusions.

The term ‘woke’ and the idea of spirituality has become mainstream. Everyone sees a level of corruption, distractions, illusions and egotistical mindsets within the people in power. Those things are something we can not hide. They exist and as more people awaken to these illusions we begin to see the lies we all live in. 

The real question is not ‘are you woke?’. The REAL question is ‘are you awaken and aware of your OWN illusions, you live out?’

That’s why healing is a must during ascension. We can not ascend to a higher level of consciousness if we are living out illusions within our inner world. We can lie and denial to ourself although we are only creating illusions. Which blocks us from our own blessings and greatness, making us our own worst enemy.  Again, we have a free will a reason. We can choose to be ignorant or choose to turn the light on. - With our chooses comes with actions and those actions have consequences and outcomes. 

Remind ourself that we have no control over others. That others prefer the company of misery as that energy is much more comfortable and familiar to them. - Do not drain or deplete our own energy when trying to change others. As those are not something we can control or should want to. - We are given free will for a reason. We have a choice between ignorance or the truth.

From the movie The Matrix

BE KINDER, LESS CRITICAL