"The Universe conspires in your favour."
Imagine that every problem, every difficulty is but a gift from It. It's not to beat you or bring you down. It's for you to develop. If everything was simple, we wouldn't be here. However, we chose the Earth experiment. A planet of duality, a planet of possibilities!
Just like in games, there are many traps awaiting us in this game. Even the "spiritual" New Age world, people who talk about New Earth and spiritual development - they too fall into the same traps. After all, we are just (and actually NOT just!) people. Complicated technology without a detailed user manual. It's much easier for us to see the faults of others than our own. But that doesn't mean you should give up - on the contrary!
The first step to understanding our own Shadows is self-observation. Learning to look at your reactions, emotions and thoughts from the perspective of an observer (remember The Power of Now?). Without it, we identify with them and cannot look at them objectively. It's not as difficult as it may seem, but it requires a bit of patience and, above all, self-discipline. A special kind of discipline - not the kind we know from school, or the kind that ascetics pride themselves on! A good starting point is a conscious pause. The goal is to notice our flaws and patterns, which we repeat again and again, although they do not serve us at all - without the comment of the inner critic, but with maximum honesty.
In the world of spiritual development, we often avoid this topic because we want to focus on "positive thinking" – the problem is our subconscious is not governed by same laws as conscious mind is. In short, we have no control over it, but we train it over the years to make the same mistakes, which usually comes down to one simple thing – the fear.
Working with Shadows is working with the subconscious – that is, the programs that rule us in every crisis, in situations when we lose the illusory control over emotions or mind. And that happens very often. The more we try to escape the Shadows by thinking positively without working on the programs, the more damage we can do to ourselves. Your subconscious will not believe in any idea. Your subconscious mind learns from emotionally powerful experiences, many of them from your childhood and teenage years. Sometimes these are things that if you heard them in your head, you'd think it was illogical nonsense. The subconscious is not logical. It's supposed to simply work - in any situation, especially those that are not logical.
It's in these difficult situations that it is worth looking at your reactions. They give the most valuable information - without the awareness of your Shadows, you will not solve the greatest mysteries of your life. No matter how much Ayahuasca you drink, how many books you read, how many shamans lift your curses, or how many types of crystals you acquire, until you look into this dark closet, nothing will change. It's inconvenient, but that's how it's supposed to be.
But it doesn't have to be difficult or complicated at all. And the Universe gives you everything you need to figure it out. Always exactly what you need and what you can handle, no more and no less. All It wants in return is your willingness to understand and be patient with yourself. Which is also related to the concept of self-love. If you love yourself, you want the best for yourself. You want to alchemize your Shadows into Gold - no one will do it for you. The Shadows are part of you and you are not to fight them at all. They are signposts and lessons to discover what an amazing unique creature you are, how much goodness you have within you, and how much power you have, of a special kind. That's exactly what Gene Keys, Bach flowers and many other systems of self-knowledge teach – in each of your Shadows lives a Gift that you are able to offer to the world. You won't find it until you look inside.
It's quite a magical experience. It often turns out that the scariest monsters in this closet are poor scared kittens. Your task is to befriend them and let them know that they are safe.
Back to the starting point - the Universe is always conspiring in our favour. Ever since I trust that this is the case and I use the brilliant lessons It brings me, my life changes for the better. And I wish that for you too. 💙