Shadow work is one of my favourite forms of self development. It’s an introspective practice where you make the unconscious (shadow self) known to your conscious and I detail some key techniques to get you started.

Firstly, the WHY technique: whether in a journal or in an internal dialogue, you can continually ask yourself ‘WHY’ to discover and explain why something is bothering you, what’s on your mind, etc. This can help you build a chain of levels, each going a bit deeper, to create a better explanation of the causes of your triggers. It can make you realise when you’re using surface level reasons to explain your feelings and can bring issues to the surface. For example, the impact of childhood on your subconscious beliefs around money, love, friendship can arise and shadow work can help you understand yourself.

The benefits include greater self awareness, greater perception, more maturity and ultimately, being prepared can give you the insight and optimism to do better - feel better, understand yourself better, act better.

You can also use prompts, such as “It’s okay to _____” or “I feel bothered by _____”, as templates to guide your shadow work and leave it open ended so you can dive into why that topic has come to mind and what you could express about it.

From thinking about focus and discipline, I’m reminded of something I call ‘reinforced laziness’ whereby getting away with the bare minimum conditions yourself to lower the standards for yourself and this can build a resistance to deep focus and hard work and so shadow work is a tool to overcome these behaviours and attitudes you may have adopted unconsciously.

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