14-Day Shadow Work Challenge
Day 1- Artistic Expression: How Do You See Yourself?
►Using an artistic medium of your choice, illustrate or create a visual representation of how you perceive yourself.
Don’t feel it necessary to base this solely on how you see yourself physically; let it be a collective interpretation of your feelings, qualities, flaws, and overall self-image. Be as abstract or literal as you like.
Day 2- Introspection: What Don’t You Like About Yourself?
►Identify things about yourself that you don’t like or that you feel insecure about.
Delve into the emotion that arises when considering these things. Ask yourself why you harbor these insecurities and where they stem from– are they based on societal standards, family conditioning, or religious compliance?
Day 3- Artistic Expression: How Do You See The World?
►Using an artistic medium of your choice, illustrate or create a visual representation of how you perceive the world around you.
How does the current state of the world feel to you? Tap into your feelings and let them take shape through this creative endeavor.
Day 4- Introspection: What Bothers You About Others?
►Identify things about others (or the world in general) that get under your skin.
External factors that trigger strong emotional reactions are great indicators of internal issues that need to be addressed. We tend to project onto others aspects of ourselves that are not readily acknowledged or accepted. Reflect on how your personal state of being affects the way you see/judge others.
Day 5- Artistic Expression: How Do You See Your Shadow?
►Using an artistic medium of your choice, illustrate or create a visual representation of how you perceive your Shadow.
What shape does your Shadow take? Meditate on it a few moments and see what comes to you. Bring attention to you subconscious and observe what it makes you feel.
Day 6- Introspection: What Do You Need to Work On?
►Identify what aspects of your self could be improved by discerning which areas of your life you find disconcerting.
Take note of any seemingly reoccurring circumstances, such repeated relationship issues or persistent financial struggles. Areas of your life that are disharmonious tend to reflect an inner aspect of the self that needs work.
Day 7- Critical Analysis: Dissect an Unhealthy Habit
►Analyze a habit that serves as a distraction from yourself and/or impedes your well-being. Ask yourself when you developed this habit, what caused you to develop it, and how it affects your life.
When you get an urge to partake in this habit, take a moment to note what feelings you are experiencing. You can trace those feelings back and try to understand what inevitably caused them, many times this stems from a childhood experience. Go ahead and indulge in this habit as you normally would. Then ask yourself how partaking in it alleviates you and why you feel you cannot be alleviated through other means.
Day 8: Emotional Awareness: Observe Your Unadulterated Emotions
►Let your emotions flow freely today; don’t muffle them. Try to observe and understand them without judgment. Don’t escape, express. Don’t deny, accept.
Be present with your emotions today. Try to abstain from any habits you may have that serve as a distraction from or suppressant of how you feel (including any addressed yesterday). Take note of the physical sensations that your emotions induce, like feeling as if the walls are closing in when you’re experiencing anxiety or feeling like your chest is being compressed when you’re experiencing sadness. Try to trace these emotions back as far as you can and recall the first experiences you had that evoked such emotions.
Day 9- Journaling: Write a Short Story
►Write a short [creative] story based on some sort of dilemma you are currently experiencing.
This can be a fictional rendition of anything you’re going through– from a minor frustration, like having to deal with rude customers at work, to a life-changing ordeal, like experiencing a death in your family. Write a short story that parallels your experience. Try to write from an objective perspective and have some fun with it; incorporate fantastical creatures, horrific monsters, and bizarre heroes if you please. This exercise alone is a great creative outlet, but it also serves as an effective analytical exercise if you evaluate your story. By contemplating why you portrayed certain aspects the way you did, you may shed some light on your perspectives of the real-life situation and use the story to guide how to respond.
Day 10- Artistic Expression: Illustrate Your Fears
►Using an artistic medium of your choice, illustrate your fears and how they make you feel.
Imagine yourself coming face to face with your most prominent fears. Depict the “face” of these fears as well as the emotions they conjure.
Day 11- Journaling: Map Out Your Dissatisfaction
►Write down any areas of dissatisfaction in your life. Try to map out what these discontenting circumstances stem from and what they branch out to.
Reflect on how to resolve your dissatisfaction based on the “roots” that trigger it. Jot down your primary complaint then try to map it back to a deeper issue and so on. Likewise, map out how the primary complaint branches out and affects other aspects of your life. You should be able to unearth at least one core belief that the issues stem from. (An example of a common core belief: “If I am not approved of, I will not be loved.”)
Day 12- Critical Analysis: Assess Your Core Beliefs
►Analyze your fundamental beliefs. Ask yourself if these beliefs are reasonable and worth keeping or if your life would improve if you were to eliminate them.
The previous exercise should have helped you come to know at least one of your core beliefs. Think about how these beliefs affect your life and what your life might be like if you were not to adhere to them. Ask yourself if you feel bound by them or if they influence you to do things that are out of alignment with your desires.
Day 13- Artistic Expression: Forge Your Shadow
►Create a poppet that represents your Shadow. While making it, project onto it all of the shadow aspects you have explored in the past twelve days, as well as any others.
This will serve as a physical representation of your Shadow that you can work with in the future. It can be a simple poppet made with paper or whatever materials you prefer to work with, though I would suggest something fairly durable. Keeping your poppet to make alterations to as you progress is a nice practice; it serves as a marker of sorts for your personal evolution. For example, I might have a particular button sewn to mine that represents fear of commitment, but once I work through that shadow aspect, I could remove it or alter it in some way to represent me conquering that fear.
Day 14- Meditation: Embrace Your Shadow
►Meditate with your shadow poppet. Visualize it being encompassed by white, healing light. Direct as much love and acceptance towards it as you can possibly muster.
This exercise is a preliminary step to accepting your Shadow. Having a physical representation can be helpful in doing shadow work that requires calling forth your Shadow for conscious interaction.
Tip: Leave your poppet out somewhere you will see it regularly; don’t hide it away in a closet or drawer. In addition to being a tool to work with, it is also an invitation for your Shadow to reveal itself.
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