Other Methods of Healing
Written by Jennifer Aldoretta, founder of Groove
For many, Shadow Work is an incredible tool for self-discovery, deepening self-awareness, and personal growth. But for others, deep Shadow Work can feel overwhelming. Shadow Work isn’t for everyone, and that is perfectly okay.
There are other ways to dive deeply into our “Shadow self” and move beyond it without actually sitting and making a written list of all of our perceived flaws.
Shadow Work Isn’t the Only Way
One way to get the same healing without so much Shadow Work, for example, is to explore something called “somatic experiencing” as it relates to our Shadow qualities. Somatic experiencing support us in fully releasing any trauma energy associated with our Shadow self.
I won’t go into detail here about somatic experiencing. However, a basic definition of somatic experiencing is tapping into the sensations inside your body to gain deeper self-awareness. If you’re interested in exploring somatic experiencing, you can do so in our Trauma Healing course and our Healing Yoga course.
A previous Shadow quality of mine was the need to control. If we use “the need to control” as an example, exploring somatic experiencing might include asking questions like:
Where do I feel it in my body when I become triggered by a perceived lack of control in my life?
What physical sensations are arising?
Does my chest feel tight? Does my jaw feel clenched? Does it trigger back pain? Do I end up getting a headache? Do I get a lump in my throat?
Then, we pay close attention to our body. We follow the sensations to figure out exactly where in the body our Shadow quality energy resides.
Let’s say when I feel the need to control, somatic experiencing shows me that I get a lump in my throat. So, then I can ask myself:
What emotion or feeling goes along with this lump in my throat?
Then, I realize that the lump in my throat is sadness and makes me feel like I want to cry.
However, when trauma is especially deep-seated, even things like crying can feel extremely difficult. I know, because that used to be the case for me.
You can also skip Shadow Work completely
Honestly, we don’t even necessarily NEED to do all the Shadow Work prompts in order to heal and integrate our Shadow self. However some people find it very worthwhile to create this type of awareness, as I already mentioned.
Skipping Shadow Work isn’t an excuse to be a jerk or to continue looping in your Shadow qualities over and over. The Shadow, sadly, absolutely must be overcome in order for you to find true healing and wholeness. But there are lots of ways to do it.
In my own journey, I started with Shadow Work and eventually realized that somatic experiencing and release of trauma energy through trauma release exercises and breathwork was just as effective in my own integration process.
Oftentimes, somatic experiencing, along with other healing modalities like trauma release exercises, can take the place of Shadow Work altogether — that’s right, you don’t necessarily have to do the type of Shadow Work described in these articles in order to heal and integrate your Shadow self or your painful life experiences.
If you’d like support working through this process, check out the offerings in our Course Library.