The balance between shadow work and light work

Dear friends, I will be honest and say that these last couple of days have been a whirlwind due to my first-ever healing retreat! The good news is that we had an incredible time hosting the retreat at Teaism Tea Shop with our roster of speakers. I will post a longer recap down the road... For now, I wanted to share one thought from the retreat: we need to balance shadow work with light work.

If you are unfamiliar with these terms, you can think of shadow work as an umbrella term for unpacking past traumas, limiting beliefs and unhealthy mindsets. On the other hand, light work prioritizes spiritual and emotional growth and development through a positive and uplifting lens. Consider these two concepts one another's yin and yang.

Given that our social conditioning has a bias against talking about weakness, mental health and "woo woo" New Age-y healing, it is important for us to create dedicated spaces for shadow work. That said, as I watched my retreat attendees get to know one another and our speakers--especially during our mindfulness improv workshop with Tandra Turner and our outdoor somatic nature guide with Inja Lin--I couldn't help but marvel at the light work being facilitated.

There was a deeper focus on joy, inner child healing, creative expression and flow state activation. The open-hearted laughter and the spirit of curiosity in the room felt infectious.

This reminded me that we need to balance our shadow work with light work, whether we are doing this as individuals or in group settings.

If this note resonates, I want to invite you to take a moment to follow this short meditation and reflection exercise:

• Take four deep breaths in and out
• Ask yourself what is draining you and what sort of shadow work you may have to do related to this (e.g., "I keep self-sabotaging myself because of my fear of failure")
• Take another four deep breaths in and out and notice where there is tension in your body; observe the thoughts that may be surfacing
• Then, ask yourself what kind of light work may be a good supplement to the shadow work (e.g., "I will continue to do X hobby, which helps me feel confident about my capabilities")
• Visualize yourself doing the light work and focus on how your mind and body will feel during and after the light work
• Take another four deep breaths and notice how your body and spirit are feeling after this visualization exercise

To close out this short newsletter post, I want to reflect on energy work as a reiki practitioner. When I work with my clients, I try to not only send out negative, heavy and "shadow" energy... I also call in expansive, light-hearted energy to heal and support my clients after we have pushed out the undesired energy from their bodies and their "spirit bodies." My retreat reminded me that I need to apply this methodology of shadow vs. light work as an event organizer and facilitator so there is levity against the gravity of the work.

I look forward to sharing more detailed recaps from my retreat with you over the next couple of weeks. For now, I hope this note helped you think about where you are in your own journey of shadow and light work.

Warmly,

Phim

PS Friendly heads up that I will be out of pocket on a short hiatus following 1) my retreat and 2) contributing to a client's executive team retreat this week and next week. I look forward to reconnecting after my break. You can book time on my calendar for coaching, healing and consulting work after that period. I hope you are also treating yourself well as we wrap up this summer!