The Wisdom in the Dark: Shadow Work for the Winter Season
In this episode of the Emberwing Collective Podcast, Kimberly and Vicki explore the ancient, psychological, and deeply personal practice of shadow work. As we approach the darkest days of the year, this is the perfect season to turn inward, recognize the parts of ourselves we’ve exiled, and begin the gentle, powerful work of integration.
We talk about the roots of shadow work across cultures, the different types of shadows (repressed, projected, golden, ancestral, collective), and how the Emberwing elemental paths help guide the process. We also introduce a Golden Shadow Reflection Practice that invites you to reclaim your brilliance in a safe, grounded way.
This episode is a warm, honest invitation to meet the parts of yourself you’ve hidden and welcome them back home.
Transcript
Welcome to the Emberwing podcast.
Speaker A:I'm Kimberly Beer.
Speaker B:And I'm Vicki Jerica.
Speaker A:Geez, I forgot to say collective in there.
Speaker A:We're more than one Ember wing.
Speaker A:We're an Ember wing collective.
Speaker A:I do so many podcasts these days, it's hard for me to remember what I'm supposed to say at the beginning.
Speaker A:And the first podcast I did was the Business Animal.
Speaker A:And so I'm always wanting to say, hey there, business animals, because that got drilled into my head.
Speaker A:But no, it's angry.
Speaker A:Hey there, Ember wings.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:So, yay.
Speaker A:Hi, Vicki.
Speaker A:How are you today?
Speaker A:Fine.
Speaker B:Happy Friday.
Speaker A:Yay.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Happy Friday.
Speaker A:Happy Friday.
Speaker A:And we're actually recording on the day that.
Speaker A:Not on the day that the podcast comes out, but this podcast comes out on Friday.
Speaker A:So happy Friday to everyone who's listening on the first day of the release for this.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:We're going to dive into an interesting subject today, which is shadows and shadow work.
Speaker A:And that is a big part, I think, of both of our progressions in.
Speaker A:Through whatever you want to call this life, the process.
Speaker A:I don't know how you want to label it, but I definitely have played with some shadow work, both formally and informally.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Oh, goodness.
Speaker A:So for those of you who are wondering kind of where we're going to take this conversation today, shadow work is the practice of recognizing, reclaiming, and integrating the parts of ourselves that we have exiled.
Speaker A:Child.
Speaker A:These parts are not bad parts.
Speaker A:Everybody has shadow parts.
Speaker A:Everybody has a shadow.
Speaker A:If you are standing in the light at all, it's going to cast a shadow.
Speaker A:As a photographer, I am very well aware of that.
Speaker A:And I can also tell you many times, the better part of the story is in the shadow.
Speaker A:When you're photographing something, it's always interesting to see where those shadows lie.
Speaker A:And what we're going to talk about today is the art of befriending what we've always been taught to hide.
Speaker B:Dan I think this season is perfect for that.
Speaker B:The winter, the inner winter season, if you will, where we kind of go inward.
Speaker B:We stay in our house.
Speaker B:The, you know, the crops go to ground, and it's just a time to go inward and really discover what we've kind of got buried.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker B:Within us.
Speaker B:So it's very cool.
Speaker A:And the.
Speaker A:And the days are getting short.
Speaker A:Like, we.
Speaker A:As we're recording this, we are approaching the shortest day of the year, and then we'll start gently progressing towards more and more and more light.
Speaker A:And I do know a lot of people get depressed this time of Year because of all of the darkness.
Speaker A:And I hope that this episode kind of serves to give you reason to find some positivity in those dark hours as you sit with the shadows and your shadows as well.
Speaker A:So the thought of shadow work is really ancient.
Speaker A:Like it comes from all varieties of cultures backward.
Speaker A:And I actually did some research about where shadows come up in culture and here are some of the things I found.
Speaker A:So the Greeks carved know thyself in into the temple of Apollo.
Speaker A:They didn't mean know your resume, they actually meant know the parts of you you'd rather not look at.
Speaker A:And the Greeks believed a person who ignored their inter contradictions, which sometimes we feel like shadows are there are contradictory part.
Speaker A:Culture kind of teaches us these, these things are not something that you want to bring out and show show out into the the world.
Speaker A:But those hidden motives, unclaimed desires were vulnerable to hubris.
Speaker A:And hubris to them was the downfall of.
Speaker A:Socrates taught that the real wisdom begins when we stop pretending we already understand ourselves.
Speaker A:And that is really where shadow work comes in.
Speaker A:It's easy to see the light.
Speaker A:In indigenous cultures all around the world.
Speaker A:Darkness isn't feared, it is very respected.
Speaker A:It is the place of gestation, the womb of the earth, the arena where truth finally has an opportunity to speak.
Speaker A:And shadow work isn't about shame in this worldview.
Speaker A:It is about returning to the dark soil.
Speaker A:And that is a wonderful metaphor for what's going on here on my farm right now in that we have planted winter wheat and the little baby wheat has come up just a little bit even in the fallow soil.
Speaker A:So you can see it has to have that darkness.
Speaker A:And also here's another interesting thing.
Speaker A:I planted all these flower bulbs and they're the same way.
Speaker A:They've got to have five months or something like that, five weeks, I don't know, I don't remember, I'm not an advanced gardener yet.
Speaker A:But the little flower bulbs, they have to stay in the soil for a very long period of time in order to build up the energy they need to sprout in the spring.
Speaker A:And I think that is a gorgeous metaphor for this.
Speaker A:Another ancient practice is alchemy.
Speaker A:And it understands the transformation is a three level process.
Speaker A:The blackening, the breakdown, and then the moment everything finally dissolves.
Speaker A:Would say the names of those things, but I will butcher the pronunciation of them to the point that people will probably throw tomatoes at me, right?
Speaker A:So just know, go, go searching for alchemy and the three stage process that's really important.
Speaker A:And then more attuned to who I am and where I come from ancestrally, in Celtic lore, the Morrigan isn't a battle, just a battle goddess.
Speaker A:She's a mirror.
Speaker A:She reflects back the energy of sovereignty, power and rage.
Speaker A:And those are often things that we are AF to claim.
Speaker A:Especially women are afraid to claim their own personal rage.
Speaker A:And when people met her in their stories, in her stories, they weren't encountering punishment with that, they were encountering understanding their own underestimated strength.
Speaker A:So in every ancient culture across the world, mythology, the shadow appears as place, as a being, as a force, something that's been hidden, forbidden, feared, forgotten.
Speaker A:Myth gives us a visible face to look upon that.
Speaker A:And some of the major mythic archetypes of shadow are the underworld, the trickster, the doppelganger and the dark feminine, which is where our guardian of thresholds, which is where the Morrigan comes in, and all of the other energetic goddess kind of thoughts that are very similar.
Speaker A:I've done a lot of deep diving on the Morrigan lately and it's interesting because that same sort of concep is cross cultural crosses.
Speaker A:A lot of different cultures, it's just called different things with slightly different aspects.
Speaker A:And I do believe it's made an appearance in our modern world as well.
Speaker B:Yeah, it really has.
Speaker B: Carl Jung in the early: Speaker B:And that blends beautifully kind of with gestalt that we do.
Speaker B:It's those disowned parts of self that we don't want to acknowledge, you know, that we have within us.
Speaker B:And Gestalt really says, you know, it's unfinished business from the past that we're bringing forward and let's sit with them and befriend them.
Speaker B:And in a way, Carl Jung said the same thing.
Speaker B:It's turning towards what has been exiled or what we don't want to acknowledge and shining light on it and befriending that part of ourselves.
Speaker B:And so, yeah, it's from way back to all the way to present day.
Speaker B:Shadow work is important and we see it everywhere.
Speaker A:Yes, we see it everywhere.
Speaker A:And what's interesting to me is that like in our parts work that we do both as hypnotherapists and as gestaltists, parts work is very important to both of those modalities and it's an interesting exploration.
Speaker A:And I know both Vicki and I, we have different ways that we've done it, but we have our parts of self very much outlined in a way that's very accessible to us to be able to use on a daily basis.
Speaker A:And it's like sitting at the council of yourself and trying to exclude your shadows from that Council will not make a complete council, so you have to sit with those shadows.
Speaker A:So there are some different commonalities of shadows, some different types of shadows that we want to talk about a little bit.
Speaker A:And we're just going to go back and forth on this.
Speaker A:I'm going to start with the repressed shadow.
Speaker A:So you would recognize this as traits that you learned were unacceptable in childhood.
Speaker A:So things like anger, ambition, you wouldn't think that that would be a trait you were learned as unacceptable, but it is, it is.
Speaker B:I was just saying as women, I'm as women as.
Speaker A:Yeah, we were having a discussion pre hitting the record button that I think hit that one right on top of the head.
Speaker B:It did.
Speaker A:Sensitivity.
Speaker A:I know for me, sensitivity was a shadow because I grew up in a family that could be pretty damn cruel at times.
Speaker A:And I was incredibly sensitive.
Speaker A:Like I'm an off the charts F on the Kirsty Bates.
Speaker A:Yeah, that, that always was a problem for me.
Speaker A:The shadow side being too sensitive, being wanting to cry.
Speaker A:Other ones that come up are sexual creativity and the anger one in particular, which I've already mentioned.
Speaker A:I know in my gestalt work, I do see people who come here that need to let their anger free.
Speaker A:And carrying it around can cause a lot of physical problems and making friends with it and then also letting it become a partner to you in.
Speaker A:We have this thing called the Cube that we allow people to befriend their anger as a tool for that to do that safely.
Speaker A:I know for me, the Cube was a scary thing the first time I got got in touch with that shadow of myself.
Speaker A:But it ended up being a very good thing.
Speaker A:Yes, very good thing.
Speaker B:I love Cube work.
Speaker A:I know you do.
Speaker A:You're an expert at it.
Speaker B:I love, love it.
Speaker B:I think one of the things I'll just jump in right here real quick is we're talking about the projected shadow.
Speaker B:And those are qualities that we refuse to see in ourselves.
Speaker B:So we cast them onto others.
Speaker B:And that when we were talking about this episode, we were like, oh, those are the isms.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:So racism, sexism, ableism.
Speaker B:It's, it's, it's all those things that we like, wow, look at that and then not wanting to acknowledge the ways in which we ourselves are racist or sexist.
Speaker B:We are recording this in America.
Speaker B:And I will acknowledge that America has racial issues.
Speaker A:It has sex issues, too.
Speaker A:It has discrimination, gender, sexual discrimination issues.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Projecting those and seeing those in other people, but not acknowledging the way that we ourselves are perpetuating some of those shadows.
Speaker B:So that is called a projected shadow.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker A:And I do think that that particular shadow is.
Speaker A:We're seeing it in the mirror.
Speaker A:A lot of people are looking in the mirror and recognizing it through this particular time in history.
Speaker A:And that's going to be interesting, whether we decide to throw a.
Speaker A:Throw.
Speaker A:Throw a blanket over the mirror.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:And not continue to look, or whether we go.
Speaker A:We're going to fix our face.
Speaker A:So, yeah, I think it'll be interesting to watch.
Speaker A:It's interesting to live through.
Speaker A:Let me put it that way.
Speaker A:Historically, it's interesting to live through.
Speaker A:Maybe somewhere 100 years from now, somebody's listening to this podcast because it came up in some AI search somewhere.
Speaker A:And just know that as we sit here today, this is a very interesting timeline we're in.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Never thought I'd be living through history in quite this way.
Speaker A:The next shadow I want to bring up is the golden shadow.
Speaker A:And this one was a shocker to me the first time I got introduced to it, because it feels a little weird.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:How can you have a golden shadow?
Speaker A:So these are your gifts you've exiled.
Speaker A:They're your power, your visibility, your voice, your courage, your brilliance.
Speaker A:And they're often hidden out of fear of outshining others.
Speaker A:So this is another place, I think women in particular, our culture sort of pins us into the golden shadow.
Speaker A:And I know a lot of people that I've worked with, they have experienced this, and I have experienced it.
Speaker A:I was constantly told I was too loud or I can remember one specific instance where I was went through a training course as a temporary.
Speaker A:I was just a consultant temporary at a corporation.
Speaker A:And they put me through a training course along with a bunch of the employees that were in permanent positions.
Speaker A:And I sat in the front of the class like I always do, and I did really well.
Speaker A:And then along came that.
Speaker A:With the second day, they asked me to move to the back of the class.
Speaker A:They put me in the very last row.
Speaker A:And then the very next day, my supervisor came along and said, we're gonna pull you out of this class, and you can just go on back to your desk.
Speaker A:And it still had another three or four days to go.
Speaker A:And I'm like, What did I do wrong?
Speaker A:You're making everyone else feel bad.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:And that brought up a lot of shame.
Speaker A:I was young then.
Speaker A:I was in my late teens, and I'm like, I guess I'm not supposed to do that.
Speaker A:And it kind of brought up a lot of childhood trauma for me from, like, grade school and high school where similar things had happened.
Speaker A:And so, you know, shining, speaking up in class, you know, being.
Speaker A:That ended up being a problem.
Speaker A:I ended up sitting on my hands a lot, and sometimes I still do.
Speaker A:And that's an example of a golden shadow.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That's brilliance coming forward and you being punished for the brilliance.
Speaker A:And we wouldn't think that happens, but it happens all the time.
Speaker B:All the time.
Speaker B:All the time, for sure.
Speaker B:What about ancestral shadows?
Speaker B:You think we have those?
Speaker A:I do.
Speaker B:Sorry.
Speaker B:I think we're going out of line there.
Speaker A:It's okay.
Speaker A:It's okay.
Speaker A:So, ancestral shadows.
Speaker A:I know we have.
Speaker A:Because I've worked through my ancestral shadows, especially around my hysterectomy earlier this year, I spent a lot of time sitting with my grandmothers and looking at their shadows and.
Speaker A:Because we have to remember.
Speaker A:And I know I've probably said this before on this podcast, and if I haven't said it before, you're going to hear it now, and you'll probably hear it again and again if you listened.
Speaker A:You know, you.
Speaker A:When you are a little baby inside your mama, as a girl, you have all of your future children with you.
Speaker A:Like, you have all of the material, the eggs that are going to make the future babies that you would have in.
Speaker A:And so technically, we've all been carried by our grandmother.
Speaker A:So we've all had that energy.
Speaker A:And from a purely scientific viewpoint, that energy that creates our DNA, that makes the stuff of us, it had to live through our grandmother's lived experience, and then she lived through her grandmother's lived experience, and so on and so forth all of the way back.
Speaker A:And so in shadow work, we have to understand that some of that residue gets attached all of the way down the line.
Speaker A:And looking at where you are in your lineage and being able to accept some of that ancestral shadow work on for the generations that went before you, to me, is intergenerational healing.
Speaker A:That is probably some of the most important work I've personally done and the most important work I do with clients, I'll give an example of that.
Speaker A:So you have to remember I have a weird biological situation.
Speaker A:I was adopted by my grandparents.
Speaker A:So we always have to keep that in mind.
Speaker A:When I'm saying things and I, I try to always qualify biologically who these people are and then also who they are to me, actually.
Speaker A:So it would have been my great grandmother adopted and great great grandmother.
Speaker A:Biologically, her name was Edith.
Speaker A:And Edith was.
Speaker A:She got pregnant as in her late teens, I think she was probably 17 when she got pregnant.
Speaker A:She was not married and she had a baby out of wedlock.
Speaker A:And illegitimacy is a shadow in our family.
Speaker A:And what was interesting is I figured that out, right?
Speaker A:I figured that out.
Speaker A:I'm illegitimate, technically.
Speaker A:I learned later on that I wasn't so illegitimate.
Speaker A:But it's, it's, you know, illegitimate children.
Speaker A:And what's interesting is it's a theme that carries through.
Speaker A:It's a shadow.
Speaker A:That shadow of illegitimacy comes down through the line.
Speaker A:And what happens is that it's like, it's like a magnet for all of the little parts and pieces of shame that gets stuck to that because it's a.
Speaker A:It's a shameful thing, right, to be illegitimate.
Speaker A:And so it gets stuck to it and it, it comes down through how we treat each other.
Speaker A:And so here's this very subtle thing that my family was very good at hiding, by the way.
Speaker A:Like, no one ever talks about this stuff, but the residue from that was kind of stuck there.
Speaker A:And interestingly enough, like I said, you're befriending these parts of yourself.
Speaker A:Befriending illegitimacy gets really strange at times, but it's also super important for people who are adopted or it's.
Speaker A:It's part of, of bringing yourself back home to yourself.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Interestingly enough.
Speaker A:And I know you, you connect with that in, in ways as well.
Speaker B:Yeah, I do.
Speaker B:And you know what you're talking about that really kind of develops the OR plays into the collective shadow as well.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Because culture said illegitimacy was bad.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And so ancestrally, then your family does what they do to keep that on the down low, where.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So, you know, it's.
Speaker B:The collective has.
Speaker B:I guess we've all agreed to a point to participate in the collective beliefs.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Somewhere along the line.
Speaker A:I don't remember signing the contract.
Speaker A:I do think we did.
Speaker A:I. I think maybe the glamour was part of it, you know, like how men in black they.
Speaker A:That you witness something and then they shoot you with the little gun that makes you forget all of that.
Speaker A:I think that kind of.
Speaker A:I think we agreed to it and then somebody went at the little gun at our face, and I don't remember it I don't remember what the name of that gun is.
Speaker A:I don't.
Speaker A:Somebody listening to this podcast right now is yelling at their radio the name of the gun.
Speaker A:But we don't know.
Speaker B:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker B:But I mean, the collective shadows that we've, you know, kind of agreed to, there's so many of them.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And the good thing, I think, too, is that some of us, that little memory gun potion thing, whatever, it's wearing off, right?
Speaker A:It is, it is.
Speaker B:And that's.
Speaker B:And we're starting to.
Speaker B:At least part of our population is really starting to look at those collective agreements and saying, no, that's not a shadow, or befriending it in different ways.
Speaker B:And one of them, I think, that is really big kind of in my mind, I guess, is during this time of the season when nature is getting quiet and resting, our culture is saying, no, it's busy time.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:We have parties to go to.
Speaker B:We have to cook these huge meals, which means extra shopping trips, and there's all this activity and interactions, and part of you is wanting to just rest.
Speaker B:But collectively, we've said rest is bad.
Speaker B:It.
Speaker B:If you are resting, if you are slowing down, if you are softening into, you know, the darker nights, that.
Speaker B:That makes you lazy.
Speaker B:You're not up and going and knocking stuff off of your to do list, or you're unmotivated, if you don't want to go to all the Christmas parties and stuff like that.
Speaker B:So collectively, the.
Speaker B:The shadow is rest is bad, Stillness is bad.
Speaker B:And yet many of us are, like, coming to the realization where we're challenging that shadow and maybe meeting it in a way that is saying, I'm going to be friend rest.
Speaker B:Because I see the benefits of slowing down and connecting in a deeper way, a darker way.
Speaker B:So it's kind of an interesting.
Speaker B:Again, like you said, we are in an interesting place in timelines as far as acknowledging what are collective shadows as well, because a lot of them are coming out into the open.
Speaker A:Well, and I think some of them, like you said, they're not necessarily things that really reflect us.
Speaker A:Like the word lazy.
Speaker A:This is a word that.
Speaker A:Or it's not.
Speaker A:It doesn't mean what we think it means.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Lazy is a label that somebody else gives you.
Speaker A:If you're doing it within yourself, there's probably some other reason for it that you need to take a look at, but it's.
Speaker A:It's something that we get labeled with.
Speaker A:And so then we turn what is really actually a golden shadow into a very dark shadow, because we take that Label internally and like process it against the thing that is really good and golden, which is rest and flowing with the natural cycles of life.
Speaker A:That's one of the things that I think our culture has gotten so far away from and I see so many people trying to get back to, but they have, they've lost the plot, they've lost the map.
Speaker A:There, there's.
Speaker A:The map has, you know, got, I don't know, run through the washing machine and they, they can't read all of it.
Speaker A:And I know when they show up here on the farm, it's like this frenzy to get back into that.
Speaker A:But the reality is that that is a day to day process.
Speaker A:It doesn't happen in five minutes.
Speaker A:It takes a daily practice to get back into that rhythm.
Speaker A:So yeah, it's, it's, it's interesting.
Speaker A:So we've gone over the different types of shadows.
Speaker A:What's fascinating to me is how they fit into our framework at Emberwing Collective.
Speaker A:So we are, are based upon like five principles, five paths, which are roots, river, wings, flame, and aether, which make up the five elements of how we move through this particular planet.
Speaker A:And so in the root category, shadow work initiates grounding because when you come back to yourself and you bring all of your parts back with you, even the parts that you have been really adamant about exiling, it grounds you, it brings you back into wholeness and into yourself.
Speaker A:And then the river, which water represents emotion and flow, Shadow work gets us into flow versus resistance.
Speaker A:Because once you befriend your shadow parts, it's much easier to flow as you move forward because they're beside you, not in front of you, pushing back.
Speaker A:And wings is air, which is thought.
Speaker A:And we can think in a liberated fashion and integrate those thoughts into be something more complete.
Speaker A:In flame, we partner with the ability of fire to transmute things into something more positive, which our next episode is all about.
Speaker A:And then ether, which is becoming coherent with wholeness and your soul and inside of that etherical practice.
Speaker A:So all of those things are really key in, in being able to do your shadow work and understanding how those five elements come into it.
Speaker B:And yeah, I mean this, this episode is landing so beautifully with the seasons, right where I mean the season seasonal with everything slowing down and turning inward or going underground.
Speaker B:That's a perfect time for us to, to really acknowledge our own inner work.
Speaker B:And it's, it's nature's invitation, right?
Speaker B:To slow down and to conserve our energy to tap into our inner thoughts.
Speaker B:And I mean, when, when it's darker at night and the nights are longer.
Speaker B:That's such an invitation to connect with the people around you and, and talk and share story.
Speaker B:And historically that's, you know, what they did around the campfire or cooking fire is did storytelling and inner reflection and the sharing of values.
Speaker B:And so it was doing this episode right now where we're really, we're getting it ready for the winter solstice.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's such a wonderful time and an invitation for, for looking inwardly and seeing what parts of ourselves we've kind of exiled and really want to bring into the wholeness of ourselves and befriend.
Speaker A:Absolutely absolute.
Speaker A:I do think it is timing wise.
Speaker A:It is in the perfect spot.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:And it may have to become a tradition that we talk about this, this time of year, every year, because that is, you know, befriending rather than allowing the shadows to consume you is a much more pleasant experience.
Speaker A:As the Eminem song, I Believe says, I'm friends with the monsters under my bed.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Yeah, it is with the monster under my bed.
Speaker A:And I get along with the voices in my head.
Speaker A:That's always been a goal for me there.
Speaker B:Shadow in.
Speaker A:Yeah, there is shadow work right there.
Speaker A:So that's the way it shows up.
Speaker A:If you want to try a practice.
Speaker A:One of the things that we have agreed to kind of do on this podcast is we're gonna gonna divide this up into more of an educational and then experiences and then also provide you with a practice that is totally optional.
Speaker A:Please do not feel like you have to do this.
Speaker A:But if you would like to explore this, I have made a PDF for a golden shadow reflection practice.
Speaker A:And I wanna tell you, when we were talking about this, Vicki brought up something very interesting about mirrors sometimes are a little too intense.
Speaker A:So we look at the goal of this is for you to look at yourself in a reflection.
Speaker A:And if a mirror is too much for you, there are other reflective surfaces that you can use.
Speaker A:Water is.
Speaker A:Will reflect you in a glass, a phone, you can look at your phone.
Speaker A:You're reflected in your phone whether you have the camera on or off.
Speaker A:And then also crystal ball or if all of those things feel a little too intense because shadow work can be very uncomfortable when you're not used to it.
Speaker A:I, I will qualify that.
Speaker A:And I don't want anybody to get themselves into a space that is uncomfortable.
Speaker A:So if you don't want to look at reflection of you literally just close your eyes and look at your reflection in your mind's eye.
Speaker A:But this practice is pretty simple.
Speaker A:I did make a PDF if you want to print it out.
Speaker A:And because I know some people like all of the step by step stuff to go with it.
Speaker A:But basically what you're going to do is just choose a reflective object, find a nice quiet place to get squared and cent and then look at your reflection.
Speaker A:But this time when you look at your reflection, here's what we've been taught to do.
Speaker A:We've been taught to find everything that's wrong with us.
Speaker A:So we start scanning for flaws for and we squint and we look really hard for the things that we don't like.
Speaker A:Don't do that.
Speaker A:Just simply be present with your reflection.
Speaker A:And that's where using something that is not a mirror can be super handy because mirrors are really crystal clear.
Speaker A:I did this this morning with my crystal ball, which is glass.
Speaker A:It's not a crystal, it's a GL ball, but it's very beautiful.
Speaker A:And I had to really seek to find my reflection in the crystal ball because of all of the different ways the light was hitting it in my room this morning.
Speaker A:So sometimes you're going to have to look around and there's no way I could have identified a flaw because I was super tiny and I'm half blind.
Speaker A:So that worked for me.
Speaker A:A window is another great place to do this.
Speaker A:Oftentimes our reflection in windows are softened.
Speaker A:So once you catch your reflection and you're able to connect with it, ask a simple question.
Speaker A:What brilliant brilliance in me have I been afraid to own?
Speaker A:And whatever, however you want to phrase that.
Speaker A:And then you're going to look for sensations in your body or thoughts as they come through your head or flickers of memory that you may be pulling up a word, a phrase, whatever kind of comes to you as it comes.
Speaker A:Just note it.
Speaker A:And not on a piece of paper.
Speaker A:Just recognize it.
Speaker A:And then name what you see.
Speaker A:And you can say this to your reflection.
Speaker A:I see the part of me that is powerful.
Speaker A:I see the part of me that is gifted.
Speaker A:And remember, you're reclaiming that brilliance that frequently got shut down in some capacity.
Speaker A:So you're not trying to believe this.
Speaker A:This is not going to be some magic wand that bopped you on the head and suddenly you're totally okay with all of it.
Speaker A:But it is the first step in that process of getting okay with it.
Speaker A:So you're not trying to believe it.
Speaker A:You are simply letting that hidden brilliance, that part of you that you've exile its own name again.
Speaker A:And then ask, when did I learn to hide this?
Speaker A:When did I Learn to hide you.
Speaker A:And you may sense in a moment that a person or a cultural expectation or a place, something may come up for you, and it may not be what you expect.
Speaker A:As a hypnotherapist, this is.
Speaker A:This is like a basic self hypnosis, by the way, as a hypnotherapist, I can tell you the things that people bring in a moment like this often are shocking and surprising to them.
Speaker A:They're not where they would have logically pinpointed this, but what we've asked is, we've asked for that conscious mind that loves to chatter in our ear constantly, to kind of step aside and let our inner self come forward and gaze into that reflection.
Speaker A:So just that process has helped.
Speaker A:So if you set recognize something that you're like, oh, my goodness, I didn't expect that, know that that is totally okay.
Speaker A:And then that golden shadow back home, and you can say that with your light is safe with me now.
Speaker A:I will not exile you again and just make that agreement and you can repeat this.
Speaker A:If that worked for you and you were able to bring something back, repeat it, you are totally okay to do it more than once.
Speaker A:But that's a reflection practice that you can get yourself into.
Speaker A:And many times we've exiled more than one golden shadow.
Speaker A:So I would agree it's okay to collect them all and welcome them back home.
Speaker A:You are a brilliant shining star.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Any closing thoughts on that, Vicki?
Speaker B:I think that one of the beautiful things about welcoming your golden shadows, right, or the parts that have been exiled is that once you befriend them and first acknowledge them.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And then befriend them and develop a relationship with them, there are strengths within those exiled parts that can support you going forward.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:The anger that you've not let loose, that power, that flame, that fire directed in an appropriate way.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Can really give you the fuel to get serious shit done.
Speaker B:Like that is the beautiful thing about a shadow work is so many times the parts that whether it's culture, ancestral or family of origin, however, they were exiled, bringing them back in and bringing them back home allows the fullness, the wholeness of you to step forward to the next moment.
Speaker B:And you're doing it with skills and resources and talents and gifts, gifts that you haven't recognized yet.
Speaker B:And there's so much power in there.
Speaker B:If you just start the process of acknowledging the parts that you've put away.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Thank you all so much for joining us today for the Emberwing Collective podcast.
Speaker A: in on the end of the year of: Speaker A: launch sometime in quarter of: Speaker A: f you're listening to this in: Speaker A:You can reach out to me@kimorebusiness.com and I will be happy to get you set up, and if not, just keep listening and we hope that you'll join us in the.
