How do I start my shadow work?

 If you are someone who knows about shadow work, and wants to find a place to start when it comes to diving into it, I would be honored to help you begin. The methods I use could be considered therapeutic but this is not therapy. at least not the traditional kind.

It will be powered by your will and desire to integrate shadow content with your light within, in order to bring you deeper understanding of your human condition. You do not need to tell anyone about this but you can if you wish to. This is for your healing process, not an ego driven checklist of spiritual tasks that you will use to craft an identity suited to please others. This is For You. 

One of the best ways to start is with compassion. You will need compassion for all of your shadow work and I intend to help you direct it toward yourself! Some might be great at this and have already practiced it. Others will have some trouble with it. I will try to write out the first exercise mindful of the many levels that varying folks are at. 

Start with a story from your past, and a version of yourself that you have trouble with. This will be a part of yourself and your journey you probably have never told anyone about but that still haunts you. I am speaking of painful times, ones where you felt loss, anger, betrayal, jealousy, embarrassment and shame or many other possible discomforts. It does not matter if you caused the problems or if trauma happened to you, in both cases you can apply what I suggest. 

Exercise 1:

Carve out at least 20 minutes for yourself, get comfortable and make sure you won't be bothered. 

Call to mind that version of you, it can be from the past or even the present. Get familiar with that version, what does he or she look like, feel like, and where is he or she? Find her or him as the inner light of guidance within yourself. Find her or him and sit with your version. Walk with him or her. Does he or she have anything to say to you? Since this is you, you will know how the version feels. Ask him or her what she or he wants from you.

In many cases you can create an energy blanket of love to drape around his or her body. Fill that blanket with love, compassion, and forgiveness. Tell this version you know they did the best they could at the time with the tools they had. Gently tell them they will get more tools to handle their challenges if they need them. Spend some time with this version. Listen to what they say and watch what they do, if anything. No matter what, share your compassionate energy with them. 

At this point, you can get specific about what happened to cause the pain or problems. Be totally honest, this is conversation between your self and another part of your psyche, so you cannot really hide. The integrating process can only happen when the honesty is complete and total in every way.

Example:

Present version: I know I could not have protected you/us when the trauma occurred but I am here now and I can help you with my own strength and compassion. As you heal, so will I. 

younger self: I want to trust that but I still feel unsafe. I still feel like I will be hurt again.

Present: I hear you and I hold you in a powerful space of love and grace. I have learned new tools to help keep both of us safe. 

younger: I am listening but still unsure. I want to believe you. 

Present: I will show you over time that we will get better and be ok. Someday we will even thrive. But for now, I will keep visiting you in my heart and thanking you for shielding me in a way you never should have had to do. 

End of Exercise 1.

The point to this is to not go too fast or do too much right away. I hope this makes sense to you and that you get something good out of it. 

If you want more content like this and healing practice information visit me at

www.imayasmodalities.com

More than Jesus?

 I have encountered Christians who are open minded but who still wonder why anyone would need more than Jesus on their spiritual walk?

Isn't Jesus enough? Didn't he do enough for us? Sure, he has been associated with many miraculous acts and with a highly impressive identity. However, I can only truly believe what happens in the private space of my prayers, not what has been written down by the hands of men, with agendas they do not usually make known. I have learned from the stories about him and some of the stories feel legitimate. The bible, the Torah, the Quran, comprise the three holy books of the Abrahamic Faiths. There are other Jewish Holy books but for now we will consider these three.

I know Jesus, not through scripture but through my own prayers. I know the space of unconditional love and healing he represents in my mind. I know the peace he represents in my heart. The actions taken by those who claim the identity of Christian do not make it into that heart space. They are outside, they are separate. They do not dictate what I do, think or believe. 

 This portrayal of Jesus as healer, in the bible, feels very real and quite important. It is the most important piece of information to me, that he was a healer. He worked with energy to heal people and he attributed these healings all to God. He spoke out for the most marginalized and hurting parts of the populations he was a part of. This is what I feel when I connect to him. Therefore, when I do energy healing work with people, when I use the drum and shamanic techniques, I know he is with me in those actions. 

I know that Jesus said people would do greater works than him, and it is because this is known that I do not fear any harm coming to me for doing healing work. I do not have to constantly name him in all that I do because my works speak for me and if Jesus is the healer the stories say he is, then he would bless the work I do. I know he does so anyway. 

Energy Shifts Now

 Before now, I have not posted about what I receive from spiritual guides or inner guidance. I have been cautious but open about my own thoughts. I feel called tonight to share a bit of what I have been picking up on when I get quiet enough to hear it. Since 2012 at least, but probably before that, our planet has been undergoing tremendous energy shifts. At some point in the future science will be verifying what intuitive folks already know.

The events of today are catalytic in the sense that they will lead to the next phase of changes. There are many ways this change can happen but all the ways involve the crumbling of the masks that people have been wearing. They do so to prop themselves up into positions of power and promote corruption, once in secret, now much more openly.

The masks are an important piece to this. Humanity has always had a shadow side. Abrahamic religions would say this shadow side falls under the "sin" category. But that misses some of the point. Shadow can be integrated and once it is, it can serve the purpose of more complete understanding of our human condition. Sin is supposed to be taken away or forgiven. But the masks hide shadow content, and all of that can be transformed. All of that can be integrated.

The question now is, what do we do when the masks fall? What do we do when the ugliness and violence that has always been there in some form, becomes blatant and in your face? To some parts of the population, this violence has been well known from the start.

Now, it seems, we are at a crossroads. A festering sore, left untended, will get worse and could become lethal. We ignore these signs of unrest and privileged violence at our peril. We must come up with solutions that include doing deeper work. It must not fall on the marginalized people to simply forgive the perpetrators, we must do better than that. That would be like asking people to jump from deeply wounded to healed without any medicine or treatment at all. That is not how this works!!

The energy changes on our planet support the cleansing of our bodies and minds from the kind of suffering that sickens and divides us. Nature holds most of our remedies and we are in great danger of making the planet uninhabitable. Once the masks fall, we are left with the real identities of humans that have ingested so much cruelty, led with so much disregard, hate and indifference they are energetically hardly recognizable as humans. Again, some intuitive folks already know this.

I am coming to you from a place of fierce compassion. All the love and light talk ends up usually sounding naïve, tone deaf and superficial. If we have reverence for the shadow and are finding ways to integrate our own personal shadow material, we can find our way to more lasting solutions. Many of us are wary of religion and suspicious of spiritual communities, and for good reasons. Lots of folks who have charismatic personas and catchy ways to make spiritual work sound good are wearing masks for sure. Charlatans are everywhere.

Back to the energy changes in our midst! I encourage you to explore, in all sincerity, your role in these changes. There is hard work ahead but if we foster patience and hope, we will move through this phase and the next few by transforming, uplifting, integrating, and truth telling. Join me, the loving guides, the loving Ancestors and other spiritual forces you want in your corner.

We were born with instructions and guidance within us. Now is our time more than ever before.