awakening

Spirituality isn't just rainbows and positive quotes. As we have good and evil within the world. Spirituality is looking at Truth and the Truth is that both exist around us. We can be oblivious and just look at the positive. Although that is not the full Truth.

Becoming One isn't just about aspect of what makes us great. But the also our Shadow Self aspect. The whole Psyche. There is no wrong way or right way to go about Spirituality. It is define by the person who is practising it. For me spirituality are base on basic human rights, love, light, shadow and a continuous spiral knowing oneself.

My Awakening

My personal experience with my Spiritual Awakening wasn't a warm, bright, halo light forming around me nor was it a peaceful stage. I felt like I had two options, which were feel the pain or kill myself.

I remember clutching my chest and chanting the mantra "Don't do anything permanent as this state is temporary" over and over.

Being 'woke' isn't about being happy or being the best or better than others. It's stripping away the things we don't associate with and is not a reflection of our Soul/authentic self. It unlearning habits, beliefs and behaviours that we have adopted due to society, family upbringings and social group dynamics that were once relatable and helpful for our survival.

Spiritual Awakening and enlightenment, in general, isn't just the light. You CAN just focus on the light although that's not the whole picture. It defeats the real purpose of enlightenment. Enlightenment comes with the inner knowing that all is well and that life comes with the ups and downs. That we have the free will to maneuver our perception. We can focus on our losses or lessons. There are times where we are not going to see the lessons clearly, because of how our emotions were triggered by that loss.

Triggers are alarm clocks that come from our subconscious that something needs to be attended within. Nobody can remove or let go of our triggers, but ourselves. That's just the truth and reality. Nobody else is within us but ourselves. Nobody is in our mind, body or soul but ourselves. - An old friend began irritating me with a habit that we both have indulged in before. Only coming to the realisation that irritation was an alarm that the habit 'gossiping' was not a reflection of who I wanted to be and a habit that was rooted from self-hatred. A root that I've decided not to feed anymore.

We can put the blame and dump our issues on others, although that doesn't solve or remove the trigger within us. These triggers are still there and will rise up and fester when ignored.

the Shadow

What is the Shadow Self?

The term shadow self is made of certain personality traits that we've repressed and rejected. They are not always negative some of these personality traits are positive although, due to society, friends or family dynamics we had to push them away to our unconscious psyche. Shadow self can come through as projections or reactions. The term was coined by Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Sigmund Freud (founder of psychoanalysis) and Jung who both shared the same interest in our consciousness. -

Jung believed that the Shadow is in our subconscious. A part of our mind we have very little access too. - This goes in hand in hand with having to find the spark within first before beginning shadow work. We have to get to the surface level part of our mind before getting into our Shadow, as it's in our subconscious.

Everyone should go at their own pace. Nobody is ahead or lagging behind. The only person you need to compare yourself to, is yourself. Evolve and growth as you please. Although forgive and be kind, to ALL the versions of yourself. We are not born evil or bad. Nobody is, it's the way some have been programmed and have been blindly following it.

Being self-aware comes with being aware of ALL aspect of ourselves. We can't praise the light when we're hiding parts of ourselves. Enlightenment isn't about being happy it's about embracing whatever is to come and listen to the inner knowing it'll be alright, sometimes better than expected.

Shadow Work/Healing:

The purpose of Shadow work brings the found spark/light within to our Shadow. Embracing them and showing compassion for our Shadow. Shame and hate created those aspects of ourselves in the first place. More shaming and hate are not going to help. Forgiveness, Empathy, Compassion and Kindness will. Give it ourselves. We deserve it.

Journalling is a great way to do shadow work. - I use a notebook and a pen. I personally prefer journaling by hand. I get my thoughts much clearer. Although the point of journaling isn't to be the next Shakespeare. It's to put your thoughts somewhere visible. When doing Shadow Work, we can get lost in the past and can bring up unpleasant feelings or memories. This is the importance of finding the spark/light within. The light/spark is the tool that we found within, maybe something we didn't even see coming. - Initially, when bringing the light/spark to our Shadow, that part of ourselves is beginning to be seen and accepted.

Integrating Shadow:

Part of Shadow Work is integrating our Shadow with yourself. Meaning accepting those parts of you. One of the empowering part of this is that your Shadow Self is able to identify themselves in others. Our Shadow Self mostly operated/dominated during our karmic cycles/self.

When integrating our Shadow we gain a new source of energy and power from within. Something that we cultivated for ourselves from our selves. WE are the source of this new energy and we just integrated and transmuted the Shadow Self energy into a more helpful source of energy for us.

We can transmute this energy through art, psychical activity, meditating, journalling, etc.

These are some of Instagram accounts that has helped me along my journey and have resonated with me:

Finding the roots and showing compassion for the parts of ourselves that we have shamed, can be terrifying. Although that's what all our Shadow want, which are attention and light. When we have an integrated Shadow we see the clear reflection of it on others. This comes with being self-aware not only towards yourself but everything and everyone around you.

This all takes time and patience. Being self-aware and working to evolve within will take time to catch up/manifest into our reality. -

Be Kinder. Less Critical.