We are in the thick of scorpio season my baddies, which means it's the perfect time to do some deep diving work into the corners of your soul and being that you'd actually rather ignore. Scorpio season is all about unearthing secrets in order to burn away what is no longer serving you and align yourself with the person you are becoming. Are you ready?!

What is Shadow Work? 

Shadow work is about meeting, tending to, and healing your "disowned" self. We all have parts of ourselves that we don't "love." There are past experiences where we wished we had acted differently. There are ways we respond that irritate us. It's when you said that joke at that party and no one laughed and you thought to yourself "so stupid just shut up."

Your shadow side as it pertains to work and success is the part of you that is a bit of the "tyrant," demanding you around and reminding you that you are never doing enough. It's the part of yourself that you're potentially working very hard to hide away. From other people and from yourself. You think, "if I just work hard enough, no one will know that I'm actually so uncomfortable in this position and am constantly wondering if I'm getting it right." 

Shadow work is therefore the spiritual and loving practice of facing this "shadow" side of yourself.

It's an uncomfortable practice, but you have to be willing to get uncomfortable outside of your comfort to expand into the growth you desire. Personal development and tools like manifestation don't work when you only focus on "thinking positive." Of course, there are laws that I also teach, that state "you attract what you put out" so tending to your mindset and energy is incredible important. But think of it this way; If your car is stuck in the mud, it doesn't matter how hard or long you press down on the "positive thinking gas pedal" if your wheels are spinning out. 

In order to really clear the path so that you can attract, manifest and magnetise what you are working so hard towards with more ease, we first need to clear the "mud." In other words, clear the dark bits, the negative patterns, your shadow side. It's a fair point that no one really wants to get muddy and dirty, but that's part of the game if you want to play life full out and reap the incredible gifts. 

If your car is stuck in the mud, it doesn't matter how hard or long you press down on the "positive thinking gas pedal" if your wheels are spinning out.

Shadow Work for Releasing Blocks and Healing Patterns around Work and Success

Let's be honest... considering the fact that work takes up about 1/3 of our lives and one of the first questions we ask someone is "what do you do," there are A LOT of limiting patterns and beliefs that dictate our success and it's time for them to be released!

There is one dominant prescribed narrative for how you are meant to work if you want to be productive and successful. Now think about the way YOU work. How do you rate yourself in comparison to this "expected" way of working and standard of success? I'm not saying this comparison is "good" but most of us are playing that game in our heads, right? 

Here are some narratives around work and success: 

• Beliefs around HOW you need to work to get the outcome you want, where you end up creating conditions for your success - I need to work really hard to be successful and if I reach the goal with out "pushing" enough then the outcome wasn't earned. 
• Questioning yourself/Self-worth - Who am I to be in this position? To get that promotion? To receive the opportunity? To talk about this work? 
• I'm too blank - Insert yours: young, old, overweight... I speak with an accent. I have acne/pigmentation/braces. Whatever "your thing" is that somehow makes you believe you aren't worthy of having the thing you want.
• Fear of failure and fear of success - I don't trust myself to do the work to succeed OR I don't trust myself to be able to "hold" and "keep" the end result.
• Self-abuse talk - I didn't do enough, I just need to work harder, why can't I just get focused, I'm working so hard and yet not getting the outcomes I want so I guess I just need to do more and be better, I'm not good enough, I can't do it.
• Making situations mean something about you - If you didn't get the results you wanted, you make it mean that you are not smart enough, good enough, pretty enough, capable or talented enough.
• Downgrading your success & what you DO have based on what you don't have - For example, you are making good money or have a nice house but it's not the bigger house you'd like or you still don't have as much money or as many clients as you want ... so you downgrade what you do have and what you have achieved. It simply never feels like enough.

Did anything in the above list trigger or bother you? Did you want to click off of this post or walk away from your computer? Is there a part of you who doesn't like that other part of yourself, who procrastinates or who you beat up for not working hard enough? 

This first step into shadow work is all about identifying WHAT beliefs you have and what parts of yourself you have been shoving aside so that you can start bringing them into the light.

Next, we're going to be moving into the specifics of the shadow work that you can do around healing your feminine energy and rebalance your masculine energy. 

Shadow Work for Healing and Reclaiming the Inner Feminine Energy

The feminine energy wants you to create balance, get grounded and create space. When you work together with the feminine energy, you listen to your intuition, you claim your desires, and you honour your needs. This means slowing down, remembering that your life's work is meant to happen in seasons rather than in one single go, and really taking time to rest, play, and enjoy.

Of course, all of those beautiful expansive feminine energy approaches are really fucking hard to do when you've got the old narratives around work and success that we talked about above literally yelling in your ear!

The shadow work around your inner feminine energy is so vital when it comes to releasing blocks around work and rest because the lack of feminine energy is the reason you are still in a cycle of not having enough time or energy, overworking, and potentially also burning out. 

Until you can look at the shadow side that is keeping you pushing & forcing because you have a belief for example that you are not doing enough, then of course you are also going to want to reject your inner feminine side. Especially in the realm of work, you have been taught that the feminine energy has no place. She is not productive or an effective way to get ahead and achieve success. First of all, this is simply not true, and second, she then BECOMES your shadow side.

If you have a hard time resting, doing things just for the sake of fun, and are constantly thinking about work and how you can do more or get ahead... then it is time to look at your feminine energy and the ways in which you are rejecting her.

For most of us, our inner feminine energy IS our shadow side. This is the side that we don't want to look at. So now is your call to LOOK AT HER. Be with her, give her attention, reclaim these parts that you have rejected or have come to believe are not valuable or worthy.

In the realm of work, your feminine energy often becomes your shadow side. 

P.s. If you want support in doing this, download my free eBook Unleash Your Superpower which is basically your bible for understanding, activating & reclaiming the feminine energy within you. If you already have the eBook and what the next level of support, go take a look at my signature feminine embodiment 6-week course, Rest for Success.

Shadow Work for Healing and Balancing the Sacred Masculine Energy

If you have been in this community for a while, either on Instagram, in the monthly Feminine First Workshop Community, or have worked with me in one of our courses or in private coaching, then you know that I always say: the feminine comes first.

Most of the narratives around work and success that I shared about are actually the physical manifestation of unbalanced and unhealthy masculine energy. In order to address the shadow sides of yourself who feels you need to work harder, who's constantly telling you you are not doing enough, who feels ashamed about something from your past or your appearance, or who keeps you questioning your own ability and deservingness to achieve the thing you want... you first need to create SPACE to let yourself get quiet.

This practice of creating space means tapping into your inner feminine energy. The unbalanced masculine energy wants to keep going and pushing forward. The healed and divine masculine wants to create space to honour the feminine. Once you do the feminine energy shadow work, meaning you are getting comfortable with being uncomfortable in doing less so that you can make space to be quiet and listen and play. 

Only then, can you begin to do the shadow work releasing the unhealthy masculine energy of how you have been conditioned to work and succeed. 

Most narratives we have been taught around work and success about are actually the physical manifestation of our unbalanced and unhealthy masculine energy.

How to do Shadow Work to Release Blocks around Work & Success

In short, shadow work is the process of seeing yourself WHOLLY. Not just the parts that work and support the societal narrative or belief systems you've been taught. But ALL OF YOU. The whole authentic version of YOU and who you came here to be. 

Once you see yourself WHOLLY - the light and the shadow parts - and you use the feminine flow frameworks that I teach here to LOVE ALL of you & OWN all of you, you ultimately align yourself with your inner truth. You have the blueprint inside of you for who you truly are, but as long as you are playing by the rules of the external patriarchal world culture, you are going to keep needing to suppress parts of who you truly are in order to fit in. However, once you address your shadow side and reintegrate your WHOLE SELF, you are able to identify your aligned way of working that supports your unique energetics code (your custom the masculine/feminine balance).

Doing this shadow work around work and success is the way to get out of the perpetual cycle of burnout, working and feeling constantly drained, and BEGIN living a life and having a work-style that works FOR YOU, rather than you for it.

Shadow work is the process of seeing yourself as your WHOLE self & reintegrating ALL parts of who you are because that is when you are in alignment with your purpose & your life.

Have you ever done shadow work before? What is one thing you are committed to looking at or releasing this scorpio season?