Spiritual Healing with Inner Work Practices
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Inner Work is part of the spiritual journey and the foundation of going within. It represents our psychological, emotional, spiritual, and archetypal connection to our inner landscape. Inner Work allows us to work through the pain from the past and the fears that cause chaos and disruption in our lives.
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Inner Work
Shadow/Archetype Work
Inner Work
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Shadow/Archetype Work
Inner Work
Inner Child Work
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Shadow/Archetype Work
Shadow/Archetype Work
Shadow/Archetype Work
Shadow/Archetype Work
Charka Energy System
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Self-Love
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Affirmations
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Gratitude
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Affirmations
Inner Child Work
Inner child work is another extension of Inner Work Practices and aids in healing pain, trauma, and difficult experiences from our childhood. Working with our inner child is about making space within our inner landscape for our younger self to be seen and heard.
Practicing inner child work involves retrieving memories from our childhood, working through our feelings and emotions around these experiences, acknowledging and accepting our past, and addressing our behavior patterns, unmet needs and emotional wounds that resulted from our childhood.
Each one of us can benefit from inner child work. Our inner child emerges when our best friend does not answer our text message and when we do not see eye to eye with our partner or colleague at work. No matter how old we get, we always carry our younger selves with us each day.
The Inner Child Archetype is also one of the universal archetypes that we all share. This is the archetype that creates our perceptions surrounding life, safety, loyalty, nurturing, family, group bonds, and community. There are many aspects to this archetype that are more specific to our unique personalities, such as the wounded or orphan child, the nature child, dependent child, innocent child and Divine child.
We are designed to receive our Soul Life Lessons as early as childhood and how we respond to these situations will change our energetic makeup as we move forward throughout childhood into adulthood. When we fail to address these issues as we get older, our shadows grow and cause chaos in our adult lives.
The Path of Self-Discovery
The self-development journey begins in childhood. As young children we learn about family, safety, security and survival. As we become toddlers and preschoolers, we begin to learn about relationships outside of our family. As we navigate this new path with teachers, peers and friends we learn more about life and our emotions.
As we transition into our adolescent years, we become more independent as we discover our hearts and minds, our passions and what we believe in as individuals. As we move into our young adult lives, we discover our strengths, talents, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities and we begin to make choices aligned with our beliefs.
Although this process is ideally how we would mature into spiritually responsible adults, due to the complexities of life, this may not be the path we all traveled. This could result from a difficult childhood, traumatic childhood experiences, or past memories from childhood that we need to work through and process.
At times we may discover something that seems “normal” to us as adults, especially by society standards, has actually had a significant impact on our inner child. Many will speak about divorce like it’s no big deal. And while for many, perhaps it truly is not. But for some, deep within, this may have caused emotional pain and trauma for our inner child.
When do not honor our feelings and experiences as children, and ignore our inner child, as adults we will find it difficult if not impossible to create and sustain successful relationships or take responsibility for ourselves in the physical world. Leaving us with the wounded child and the shadow manifestations of never feeling loved, accepted or stable in the physical world.
Working with the energy of our inner child can open a new relationship to life. Our inner child represents our imagination, creativity, emotions, and our hopes and dreams. It gives us space to go inside of ourselves and explore our true feelings and the parts of our personality that were rejected and labeled as “too much” or “inappropriate” by family, teachers, classmates, friends, and society as a whole.
When we go deep within to explore our inner child we peel back the layer of our thoughts, beliefs, and our coping mechanisms. Do we tend to conform to what others believe so we are accepted, or do we stand firm in our views? Do we avoid challenges, or do we numb our feelings instead of working through them? When we get to the root cause of our struggles we can fully accept and embrace every part of ourselves.
Like inner work, inner child work is a long-term commitment to healing from within. Going deep to discover hidden and repressed memories and heal our wounds from the past, identifying fears, shadows, tribal beliefs and negative behaviors and dissolving the hold these patterns have over us. As we continue to do so we cultivate a deeper connection to our inner child, live through the wisdom of our Soul Life Lessons and find soul centered balance in our lives.
Clues that your Inner Child may need your attention
Although there are many indicators that our inner child is trying to connect with us, the list below is a starting point for your own self-discovery journey.
- Overvaluing independence, adopting the mindset that you don’t need anyone. This can manifest in never asking for help, to always going it alone, never wanting the support of others.
- Being highly reactive, including suddenly feeling irritated, frustrated or just wanting to detach from the situation. This can manifest when we get irritated in traffic or frustrated that our friend is not seeing our point of view.
- Experiencing poor mental and emotional health. Some examples include spending too much time alone, weight loss/gain, inability to sleep, increased anxiety, depression, feeling uninspired and unmotivated. This can manifest as shame, guilt, and feelings of inadequacy.
- Continually repeating the same patterns of behavior in relationships and life experiences. This results from attachment wounds created in childhood that we recreate in our lives and relationships as adults. This can manifest as an inability to let go of what no longer serves us.
- Harmful coping mechanisms such as addiction to substances, shopping, gambling, sex, food, or even chronic procrastination. These patterns are particularly destructive as they can manifest chaos in our lives from harm to our health to trouble with law enforcement.
How to Practice Inner Child Work
Inner child work can be challenging, uncovering hidden and repressed memories, and working through our painful feelings, but there is hope and healing from this path. Our inner child is the center of our emotional landscape, our wellspring of creativity, and the core for our hidden gifts and aptitudes.
The key to inner child work is to recognize that we are speaking and interacting with a child. In doing so, we can work through the energy of their language, which is emotionally and creatively based. Speaking to our inner child through rational thought and intellect is like an adult telling a child to stop eating cookies before dinner. The intention should be to create a safe emotional space that incorporates art or play.
When we begin to connect with our inner child, we can embrace the depths of our emotions, improving our relationships with others and ourselves. We can rediscover our hidden talents and gifts and create a life with joy and purpose.
Inner child work does not replace the need for therapy or programs that aid in healing childhood abuse, neglect and trauma. Inner child work is designed to work in conjunction with all healing paths, including metal health support. No matter what kind of childhood we experienced, inner child work can get tricky alone, please don’t hesitate to reach out to someone for support.
Examples of Inner Child Work
Meditation/Visualization
Connect with your inner child through meditation using a childhood photograph. Try to connect with yourself by visualizing your image, try to remember how you felt, what the atmosphere was like, noting any significant smells or tastes.
Even if the feelings that come up do not make sense, remember you are speaking to your child self, not your adult self. Embrace the emotions and senses that come up and honor how your inner child is feeling. Let them be seen and understood.
This exercise will foster a connection with our inner child so we can begin to understand our emotional patterns as children.
Write a Letter
Write a letter to your inner child. Let them know how much you love them and care for them, and they are safe and accepted. The purpose of this exercise is to acknowledge and honor the feelings of our inner child, letting them know all is good now, we are safe.
Write a letter from your inner child. This one can get tricky as it works best using your non dominant hand. This is to tap into the perspective of our inner child by bypassing the rational side of our brain. In this letter, your inner child will write to your adult self, asking for what your younger self needs to feel safe and loved. Such as nurturing, compassion, or empathy.
Affirmations
Inner child affirmations are a powerful tool to aid with inner child work. When used consistently, affirmations can reprogram our thought patterns in a positive and nourishing way. These can be used throughout your day to help stay grounded, or you can practice speaking affirmations to a photo of your inner child. The goal is to remain consistent with the practice.
Inner Child Affirmation Examples
- It is ok to be you.
- You are special just the way you are.
- You are loved and accepted.
- You are allowed to say no.
- I want to hear your thoughts and feelings.
- I believe in you.
- I am grateful you were born.
- I will protect you from all harm.
Examples of Inner Child Work Continued
Historical Life View
With this exercise you will review the timeline of your life and go back to the beginning. If doing this as one long path seems challenging, it may be easier to break this out into sections such as Infant 0–1-year, Toddler 1-3 years, Preschool 3-6 years and school age 6-12.
As children, many of us experience enormous difficulty during our childhood years and traveling the road back to the beginning may prove extremely challenging. It is important to reach out for therapeutic support to ensure emotional and mental stability and overall well-being, as inner child work is a crucial step in the self-discovery journey to healing.
On the other side, there are many of us that experience difficulty during childhood but as adults we dismiss the experiences they seem “status quo”, or “normal”. Looking through the lens of our inner child can open us to realize that many of these childhood experiences were hurtful and painful.
Something that seems so mundane like finding out Santa Claus does not exist could prove to be a traumatic experience to us as children. Being children, when we hear such news our first instinct is to go to an adult for support.
What if in that exact moment you went home to tell your Mom all about this terrible thing you heard at school and for the first time, she gave you the “oh, it will be ok honey” because for the first time, right in that moment, she was too busy to hug you, leaving you feeling rejected and abandoned. We may dismiss experiences such as this as adults, but as children they can be quite damaging.
During my journey, one experience that stood out to me was my view on divorce. When my parents divorced, I didn’t think much of it as this was something that was normal in society as I was growing up. During my journey, I discovered that the act of divorce was not the core issue, it was how some things transpired that hurt my inner child.
Digging deeper into this experience allowed me to connect with my inner child in a more profound way by looking at the experience through the lens of a child. This allowed me to feel empathy and to truly feel all those emotions again and then release the hold they had over me. I was able to let go of the past and find a path to healing.
That is the purpose of this exercise, to help you recall your feelings, thoughts and emotions and what life was like as a child and if you felt safe, loved, accepted and supported. Many times, you will find that your younger self felt abandoned, rejected or unloved. By embracing the feelings of our inner child, we can honor how we felt as children and release the pain from the experience and let go of the hold the past has over our lives.
Inner Work: Shadow and Archetype Work
Shadow and Archetype work is another extension of Inner Work Practices and aids in discovering the hidden parts of ourselves that we repressed, allowing us to work through fears, doubts, guilt, shame, emotional pain, and traumas from our past. Shadow work is about making space within our inner landscape for our shadow sides to be seen, heard, accepted, and understood.
Practicing shadow work involves retrieving memories from our history, working through and honoring our feelings and emotions, acknowledging and accepting our past, and addressing our behavior patterns, unmet needs and emotional injuries that resulted from childhood and our past experiences.
We all can benefit from shadow work because we all have shadow sides. When we are born, we enter the world free from constraints, we can be exactly who we are without fear of judgement, rejection or abandonment. As we navigate from adolescence into adulthood, we have experiences along the way that cause us to judge ourselves.
We learn as children from our family, teachers, classmates, friends, and society as a whole, what is “proper” and “acceptable” behavior. These messages encode into our internal systems causing us to ignore and repress these parts of ourselves. Forcing what society deems unacceptable into the shadows.
As we continue to reject these fragments of ourselves, we suffer. Our shadow sides start our small but as we continue to experience pain and trauma in our lives and do not address it, our shadows will grow. What was once a small shadow, that came through as a slight annoyance or tinge of worry has now morphed into a medium shadow and is now causing disruption in relationships and daily life.
If we continue to leave our pains, traumas and shadows unseen, unheard, and unresolved, they continue to grow into larger shadows patterns. What started out as frustration or disappointment has now morphed into rage, anger or full-blown depression, causing chaos and destruction in our lives. Our shadows do not pause, or take a beat, they just continue to get worse the more we ignore them.
With shadow work, we go on a journey of self-discovery, a journey through the past to our present day. Through self-examination we discover our repressed thoughts, feelings, fears and negative behavior patterns that resulted from leaving our shadows in the dark. As we shine a light on our shadows, we begin to uncover the hidden wisdom within, our true nature.
Shadow and archetype work essentially goes hand in hand. We all contain a collection of psychological archetypes that make up our unique personality and characteristics. Some traditions believe we have eight, while others believe we have twelve. Each of our archetypes represents positive and negative qualities within us. Our shadows are negative manifestations of these qualities.
Within our collection of archetypes, there are four survival archetypes that we all share, Inner Child, Victim, Prostitute, and Saboteur. There are variations within each pattern that speaks to us as individuals, but the foundation is the same, we all share this collection of four.
It is up to us as individuals to discover our own unique archetypes and the inner workings of each. Our archetypes create our pains and struggles through their shadow patterns and through their wisdom, show us our strengths and gifts.
As we work with our shadows and archetypes, we begin to cultivate a deeper understanding of ourselves and our behaviors. As we do so we can embrace their power, and their light. Our shadows and archetypes contain hidden wisdom and serve to teach us our Soul Life Lessons.
The Path of Self-Discovery
The self-development journey starts at the beginning. Many of our pains and traumas will be discovered in our childhood as well as throughout our adult lives, but there will be some that we will struggle to identify. The shadow and archetype path can take us back to the beginning of time, to past lives.
This is important as many of us are left with chronic illnesses or pains we are not able to work through and release. This could be a result of a Soul Life Lesson, that we are destined to live our lives with a chronic illness to learn how to ask for help or embody nonjudgement of others who are different, for example.
On the other side, it could be that our pains and struggles are from a past life, a lesson we needed to learn along the path of our soul journey but have failed to learn this lesson. Shadow and Archetype work can guide us to retrieve memories from past lives and aid in healing old wounds so we can learn our Soul Life Lesson and find a path to healing.
As adults, when we do not honor our feelings and experiences, and ignore our inner self and our inner child, we will find it difficult if not impossible to create and sustain successful relationships or take responsibility for ourselves in the physical world. Leaving us as a wounded victim and the shadow manifestations of never feeling accepted or stable in the physical world.
Shadow work gives us the space to go inside of ourselves and explore our true feelings and the parts of our personality that were rejected and labeled as “too much” or “inappropriate” by family, teachers, classmates, friends, and society. Allowing us to accept and honor who we really are.
Working with the energy of our shadows and archetypes can open a new pathway to life. Our twelve archetypes represent our strengths, creativity, emotions, as well as our weaknesses and challenges. They serve to guide us on our path to embody our true nature.
When we go deep within to explore our shadows and archetypes we peel back the layer of our thoughts, beliefs, and our coping mechanisms. Do we tend to conform to what others believe so we are accepted, or do we stand firm in our views? Do we avoid challenges, or do we numb our feelings instead of working through them? When we get to the root cause of our struggles we can fully accept and embrace every part of ourselves.
Like inner work, shadow/archetype work is a long-term commitment to healing from within. Going deep to discover hidden and repressed memories and heal our wounds from the past, identifying fears, shadows, tribal beliefs and negative behaviors and dissolving the hold these patterns have over us. As we continue to do so we cultivate a deeper connection to our archetypes and shadows and find soul centered balance in our lives.
Clues that your Shadows rule your life
There are many indicators that our shadows have taken over our lives. The list below is just a starting point as there are a variety of clues that come into our awareness that we are on the wrong path and need to course correct.
- Uncontrollable burst of rage or anger
- Extreme bouts of depression that can result in suicidal tendencies
- Extreme anxiety or panic attacks
- Obsessive and compulsive thoughts and behaviors
- Emotional manipulation and mental abuse towards oneself and others
- Secrets, lies, and deceit towards oneself and others
- Addictions, hoarding and greed
- Narcissist, egotistical, self-absorption
- Self-loathing, self-sabotage, unrealistic expectations
- Judgement of others, such as homophobia, racism, religious and cultural bias
- Chaotic and toxic relationships with others
- Inability to hold a job or maintain responsibilities in daily life
- Chronic illness with no medical cause
How to Practice Shadow Work
Shadow work can be challenging. When we embark on this journey, we uncover hidden and repressed memories that were buried deep within, we are forced to face our own beliefs, attitudes and behaviors, as well as the onslaught of feelings and emotions that come to the surface as a result. The journey may get dark, but there is light, hope and healing on this path.
Our shadows simply want to be seen, heard, understood, explored and integrated into our consciousness. Once we begin to understand and accept our shadow sides we can begin to work with their energy in a positive way, allowing them to live in their light. Our shadows and archetypes contain a wellspring of knowledge and wisdom to empower us and guide us on our journey.
The key to shadow work is to recognize that we are working with repressed portions of ourselves. The parts where we were told were unworthy, unlovable, abnormal, or improper. With shadow work, we go on a journey of self-discovery, and through self-examination we can work through our repressed memories, feelings, fears and negative behavior patterns that resulted from leaving our shadows in the dark.
Shadow work changes us at our very core, at soul level as it targets the root cause of our issues, helping us develop a deeper understanding of ourselves and our attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. Allowing us to enhance our mental clarity, embrace the depths of our emotions, improve our relationships with others and ourselves, rediscover our hidden gifts and talents and cultivate a peaceful, balanced life.
Shadow work, like inner child work, does not replace the need for therapy or programs that aid in healing childhood abuse, neglect and trauma. Shadow work is designed to work in conjunction with all healing paths, including metal health support. No matter what kind of past or childhood we experienced, shadow work can get tricky alone, please don’t hesitate to reach out to someone for support.
Examples of Shadow Work
Become an Open Observer
As you navigate through your day, pay attention to your emotional reactions, whether it is anger, joy, love, shock, or adverse. Determining our triggers is a powerful tool that can guide us to the root cause of our feelings. Perhaps we get angry sitting in traffic because at the root, it makes us feel powerless and that things are out of our control.
Shadow work is about bringing the repressed and hidden parts of ourselves into our awareness and discovering the experiences that led us to repression. As we do so we will notice patterns and themes that repeatedly show up in our lives. The more willing we are to be the open observer of our mind, the more we can witness how our shadows influence us.
This exercise can go deep as it takes us back through our history where we can uncover experiences that left us with the feelings of abandonment, rejection, guilt, shame, or even anger. This gives us the ability to release the pain from the experience and honor the parts of ourselves that we cast aside. Even an emotion averse to most like anger, can be used for good.
Practice Self-Love
An important part of shadow work is showing ourselves compassion, nonjudgement and forgiveness. As we discover fears, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that caused our shadows to manifest we can become critical of ourselves. It is easy to become harsh and put ourselves down, especially when we discover the people we have hurt along the way.
Having a healthy self-esteem and self-worth is critical with shadow work and having a regular self-love practice is highly recommended to ensure that we can navigate the dark emotions that come up during the journey. With a healthy self-esteem we recognize that these are just feelings and emotions that need to be seen, felt and understood, they do not define us.
Meditation
Starting a shadow work meditation practice can be extremely beneficial. This is a great tool to learn how to be still in the present moment and observe your mind while practicing nonjudgement. Going deep into our inner landscape can provide a wealth of wisdom to guide us on our path to healing.
Shadow Journaling
Journaling is a wonderful inner work practice as it allows us to get our all of our thoughts, feelings and emotions on paper and release the hold they have over us. This can create space within allowing for deeper reflection and the ability to uncover more hidden truths within our inner landscape.
Creating a shadow journal can be extremely helpful as it allows us to embrace every aspect of our shadow selves. We can feel every emotion, understand our fears, and our dark desires without repercussion. This exercise can be liberating as it helps us accept the deepest parts of ourselves and see our shadows in the power of their light.
Past Life Regression Therapy
Working with our past lives can have a profound impact on our shadow work journey. For many, past lives and karma play a huge role in healing, especially when practicing shadow work. At times we may get to a point in the journey where we are no longer able to discover what is hidden within. At this juncture it is possible that there is a deeper meaning, a past life or karma connection.
Artistic Creation
Another way to work with our shadows is through artistic creation. We do not need to be artists to benefit from this practice. The goal is to create on the canvass a depiction of our dark emotions. Art therapy can be a profound tool for healing as it allows us to explore ourselves in an even deeper way.
Seek Professional Support
Shadow work can get tricky alone and getting the help and support of someone who understands the journey can be extremely helpful. As we navigate the depths of our beings, we uncover all sorts of darkness that we would prefer to stay buried. Having a guiding hand on the path is always a good choice.
Exercises and Shadow Work Prompts
Whether you decide to journal, write, create art, or choose self-reflection/self-examination, or another practice you read elsewhere, the exercises and prompts below can help get you started on your shadow work journey.
Think about someone who triggers you
Ask yourself why this person triggers you, your reaction, and how it makes you feel. Take a moment to reflect on what you observed in this person that could be a reflection of a deeper part of you. Ask yourself if you find that you criticize yourself for the same behavior or if this person reminds you of someone who hurt you in the past. The answers to these questions can cultivate a deeper connection with our shadow selves.
Label your emotional experiences
In this exercise you will put a label on your feelings and then ask reflective questions as to why you feel this way. For example, if you are feeling sad, ask yourself what kind of sadness this represents. Do I feel lonely, isolated, depleted, exhausted or hopeless? Labeling our emotions can create a deeper awareness and can help us cultivate a healthier emotional landscape.
Dig Deep with Reflective Questions
This exercise can have profound effects on understanding, embracing and accepting our shadow sides. With this exercise, journaling your questions and answers can provide a powerful path to healing as it opens up our inner landscape.
Ask yourself the following:
- What messages have you received about your shadow traits and emotions?
- When you were a child, were you allowed to feel your emotions, or were you judged, shamed or even punished for these feelings?
- During the course of your life did you learn to ignore your shadow emotions early on? What was the reason?
- When sharing your feelings in a significant relationship have you ever been met with overwhelm or anger?
- Do you judge others harshly? If so, why?
- Are your thoughts critical of yourself, of a relationship, of others, of a specific situation or interaction?
Spiritual Healing with Inner Work Practices
Inner Work and the Spiritual Journey Continued
Through the Inner Work journey, we dig deep into our inner landscape. We discover the quality of our thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. At times we may not like what we discover, but this is all part of the spiritual journey to heal the wounds from the past.
At the core of our emotional disturbances, mental blockages and unsavory behaviors are fears that need to be processed and released. We are not meant to hold on to the pain from our experiences, only the wisdom from the lesson.
As we deepen our Inner Work practices and our spiritual foundation, we discover that every person and experience are put on our path to serve as a teacher on our journey. Each situation we experience in our lives holds the truth and wisdom, our Soul Life Lesson.
There are many Inner Work Practices available for the inner world journey. In the beginning, it is most beneficial to start out with practices that develop self-esteem, confidence and self-assurance. Practices such as Self-Love, Affirmations, and Gratitude can help develop the inner strength necessary to endure the journey.
As we progress and deepen our Inner Work practices, we naturally evolve into Inner Child, Shadow/Archetype and Soul Work. At the core of our past traumas and fears are often experiences from childhood and our youth that we need to work through, process and release.
It is important to balance out the deep digging work with a solid spiritual foundation. This could be through traditional religion or through an individual prayer or grace practice. The goal is to develop a connection and relationship with something greater than ourselves. Whether that is God, Allah, the Universe, or the Source.
There are several Inner Work Practices listed above to help you start your journey. Always remember to be gentle and compassionate with yourself – we can’t change the past, but we can change how we approach the future. This work is tough, but it is also liberating. Slaying the beast size fears and releasing their possession allows healing of mind, body and soul.
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