In the last few posts I've introduced the concept of the Global Meta Crisis which is the convergence of all the global crises we face, environmental, political, social and economic. I also introduced the concept that what we are experiencing globally is a reflection of the collective consciousness of all of humanity and we are all victims of some sort of trauma.
Trauma can be from the birth process, and does not have
to be physical or sexual abuse but can also be bullying, emotional neglect or even a single adverse experience that you remember for the rest of your life. The question then arises, how does one begin to deal with past trauma?
It all has to do with shadow work. What is shadow work, you may ask? Let's introduce the concept of the shadow. This is a term first introduced by the famous psychologist Karl Jung and refers to all the deepest, darkest parts of our psyche, such as our negative
thoughts and suppressed emotions that we internalize and do not process that resurface when we are faced with stress and challenges in our lives.
We all have a shadow and even our popular culture reflects this. Every Marvel superhero has a dark side, a classic example being Wolverine who struggles with his anger. Sometimes the shadow becomes embodied into the individual's character such as the Hulk, who only becomes this when he is overtaken by rage. The point is that the shadow is
such a prevalent concept in our modern society yet few people know about it and how to deal with it.
So what is the solution? The first step is to acknowledge your shadow. You discover this through identifying a pattern of negative thoughts or suppressed emotions that are a recurrent pattern in your life. Once you have identified your shadow, then you can take steps to healing it as follows:
1) Share the load with someone who you know and trust. Tell them what you are feeling
and they don't have to 'fix you.' Just sharing your issues is very cathartic and healing.
2) Journal about your thoughts and feelings, which is a great way to unburden your conscious mind of worry, stress and heavy emotions.
3) Question everything about yourself. As penetrating questions such as, who am I?, why do I believe this?, why am I here?, what is this experience trying to teach me?, where am I going? Questioning everything can help you go deep within and learn more about
yourself, who you are and what makes you tick than any other process.
We all struggle with our shadow and it is usually the result of past trauma which often becomes externalized in the world to create the chaos that we see out there. Our shadow, however, can be healed and integrated into our consciousness and can fuel growth and evolution in our life's journey.
Dr. Nauman Naeem
