GRAVITAS–HARVEST THE WISDOM
IN YOUR SHADOW
Fall is here. Our shadows are getting longer, as we head into the season of greater darkness.
Holidays can be stressful, especially when we imagine everyone else has a storybook happy life, while we may be feeling grief. When our loved ones have passed, or we’re estranged, or live too far away to get together, we can sink into emotional pain and anxiety. The more we push it away, the stronger it gets. It builds silently, until we feel depressed or we burst out with anger or tears around people who don’t have time for us to feel the feels.
Feeling the feels is the road to harvesting the gifts. Loss and painful emotions have wisdom within them.
Gravitas means “wisdom from darkness.” We carry emotions that we’ve banished in the shadow, and without support to process them, we carry unhealed wounds. Our wounds get triggered under pressure. Many times, we hide our pain and try to carry it alone.
To do shadow work, we need a support. Our shadow can wreak havoc in our lives when unhealed wounds scream to be heard. Unhealed emotional pain can highjack us in ways that keep us stuck. This can look like an overreaction, as if the hurt child in you is trying to handle an adult situation.
We need support to bring love and acceptance to fear, anger and grief. Our shadow can also include our gifts, our joy and playfulness–any parts our ourselves that have been suppressed.
When I first heard of The Shadow, it sounded ominous. I thought it was something that ‘other people’ had. Even though as a young adult, I lived with constant fear and anxiety, and was frequently depressed, I thought my emotions were caused by people and events outside of me.
Later, I studied the shadow with James Hollis at the Jung Center of Houston. When I began the 12-week course, it seemed to be all about the shadow in an abusive caregiver from my childhood—it was outside of me. I applied what I heard in class to this person, not imagining that I had my own shadow. I was thinking like the innocent child that also lives within me.
Halfway through the course, I sat in contemplation one night in my garden, reflecting on what I’d heard in class that night. My belly felt queasy and tight as I thought about this abusive adult, who should have protected me.
Then I felt something burst in my belly. An emotional earthquake shook me to the root, as waves of darkness flooded me. I sat stunned, as it slowly dawned on me that this was my shadow rising up.
In the moment, I felt terror, the terror of the child. It was only later that I could see the beauty.
When I began to own my shadow, I took a big leap forward in my personal healing. I worked hard to grapple with my inner darkness.
I gained wisdom as I met my own pain. I went on to study emotional connection, sensate focusing, energy healing and the latest research in neuroscience, to learn the most effective, somatic or body-based techniques to heal trauma. As a survivor myself, I innately have empathy and compassion for others who”re healing from trauma. Through years of study, practice and intrepid dedication to my own healing from C-PTSD, I’ve become a master healing guide for people carrying unhealed emotional pain.
I’m here to tell you: YOU CAN HEAL.
Only by making my own shadow conscious, being transparent about it, and doing the work that’s mine to do, can I truly help others. I continue to do my inner work, even as I guide my clients through their challenges, transitions and opportunities with grace, empathy and compassion–and quite a bit of humor. I am a playful person by nature. And healing can be very funny at times, especially when we have a perspective shift that moves us 180 degrees from where we started. New beliefs bring relief. Not just in the mental—by accessing the subconscious and making change at the somatic level, new beliefs are anchored into the body, where they operate effortlessly to support a happier, more fulfilling life.
I support you to:
- step into your power, so you can live from your authentic self
- drop facades that drain you and don’t satisfy
- look around you, assess your needs and your unique gifts
- formulate new choices and take action
Healing is not an overnight thing. It takes time to grow into your power, embody your soul’s wisdom and learn to live resourced in steady ground, even in the face of uncertainty.
New to my work?
Contact me to schedule a free discovery session to see how my work can support you living Guided by Soul.
