Most people know something or other about meditation and they do it for different reasons. Some will do it to have a stronger mind and body while others will do it for healing, development, or other reasons. No matter why you choose to meditate, this is something that can help you to learn more about who you are and what you need. Sometimes, you can use meditation to figure out your shadow self.
The shadow self is the part of you that is dark and something that most people hide. Your conscious mind knows who you are, but your subconscious mind knows that there are hidden things inside of you that you need to embrace.
The decisions and feelings that you have often have hidden motives and most people refuse or don’t know how to go deeper to figure these things out. Don’t you want to know what controls your thoughts and feelings?
One great thing about meditating is that it can help you to figure out what challenges you and what holds you back.
Finding Your Shadow Self
Meditation can help you to notice things about yourself that you might not have realized were in you. Once you become more aware of your life, you can see that most people have things that they have repressed because of the hard times that they faced in their life or even as a child.
This can include things such as:
• Emotions.
• Trauma.
• Desires that are out of control.
• Complexes.
• Negative thinking.
• Patterns.
• Feeling ashamed or regretful.
• Having guilt or being overly aggressive.
• Being angry or fearful.
When you face these things, you might become anxious and not get the mind rest that you need. Meditation is something that is there to not make you stressed but to help you to have a clear mind and to be able to see things without being distracted.
This can make you have a calm mind and will help you to be more sensitive to who you are and what you see yourself as being. The energies that you have trapped inside of you can come out to the surface and you can figure out how to heal and how to make yourself strong.
Understanding the Shadow Self
The shadow self is the parts of you that are dark and hidden. These are things that people hide from others or represses. Some people don’t even realize that they have a shadow, but these are the elements that cause you to have feelings and attitudes about things.
Everyone in the world has a shadow self while some will face it, others hide it. The shadow is part of the Carl Jung theory, and many people will face their shadow and let it come out while others keep it as a secret.
How to Release the Shadow with Meditation
Releasing your shadow can be hard and you need to look at meditation to help you. This will help you to develop and help you to do things without added stress. You can use meditation to help you deal with anxiety and depression and as you work through your shadow self, you will see that you can feel safer and stronger.
Things to Avoid in Meditation
If you want to develop your meditation, there are things that you need to try and to avoid along the way:
Meditating Too Much
You need to avoid doing meditation for too long in a day or it can cause you to become burnt out on it. Practice doing it for a few minutes and build on that.
The Same Way
Don’t meditate the same way each time. Find different ways that you can learn to meditate and find out which ones are best for you. Try different practices and you can even try guided meditation online.
Try to do meditation such as:
• Mantra meditation.
• Tratak.
• Chakra meditation.
• Yoga.
• Samatha.
Don’t Stay Alone
Don’t be alone and learn to talk to someone that can help you. You can talk to a mental health professional or a counselor to help you through these things.
Working Through the Hard Parts
There are things that you need to work through when doing shadow work and they can be very emotional and hard. Here are some things you can do to make it through these things easier:
Pranayama Breathing
This is a type of breathing exercise that can help you to become stable and to relax. This helps to keep your nervous system working correctly. There are many different exercises that you can do such as:
- Deep brehate in for three seconds.
- Hold your breath for three seconds.
- Breathe out slowly for three seconds.
- Keep your breath out for three seconds.
Try and do this around 10 times each time you want to do this kind of breathing. When you take a deep breath, make sure that you breathe as deep as you can. This can detox your body and will help you to feel better. If you get emotional during this, take a break, and try it again later.
Attitude Witnessing
This is something that you can do to develop who you are. This can allow you to see your emotions and to allow them to come through. As you accept yourself, you will see that there are things that creep up that might seem hurtful to yourself. You might call yourself ugly or useless. These things will come but you don’t need to concentrate on them, just let them come and accept them.
There are good and bad things that we all think of ourselves and when you let your emotions come out, you will see that you are not reacting to them as much as if you were hiding them away.
Final Thoughts
Meditation can be something that is hard and takes time to learn. As you see your shadow self, you will see that meditating can help you to relieve the stress that is associated with it.
As you allow these things to come into your life, you can practice accepting yourself and loving even the dark parts about you. As your repressed emotions come to the surface, set goals to meditate through them and to practice loving every part of who you are. If you need help, talk to a life coach.
