Pt 2 ~ You Can Never Outrun Your Shadows  

In Part 1 Your Shadow Knows Your Hidden You, I shared a broad overview of what your shadows are in your psyche. Because they are these repressed and hidden aspects of yourself, they live in the subconscious part of you. In other words, they’re pretty much running the show of your internal world because you are not aware of them. Continuing to ignore and deny them is a direct road to burnout. 

This whole planetary movement towards waking up, becoming more conscious is exactly what this is about. We slowly let the door of our inner dungeon open up and see what parts we’re ready to meet. As we begin to talk to them, have them show up in the light of our awareness, we can drop our fears of them, stop fighting against them, and see how they were really part of the grand plan of our life.

We have shadows for all aspects of our lives; health, wealth, relationships, career, and spiritual life.

Power Shadows in Your Business or Career

Today I want to talk about ways these might be showing up in your life in particular around power and your business or career.

Whether you’re in business for yourself or you work in a company structure, the women I work with talk about feeling driven, and being exhausted from it.

Maybe you can relate to this inner need to prove yourself over and over, and how often you come up short? You’re so dang tired of over functioning, pushing and striving and not getting to “the top” whatever that means to you. Working harder and longer is your only option.

If you’re in a corporate job you’re fed up with the war zone mentality, being passed over for promotion while someone you think is less qualified gets the position you wanted.

You realize how much you compete with everything and everybody. It’s not just about your job. And while there’s a positive side to wanting to be “the best,” it’s also taking a toll on your relationships and your health.

There’s a restlessness in you, a calling and a longing to change direction, to try something new.

So you take classes and workshops in the evenings and weekends. Art or energy healing or women’s circles and women’s leaderships training. An awareness of fresh possibilities dawns on you. But you still feel split in two.

This “real you” is only allowed out on your off time. At the job, you still need to maintain a whole different persona. It’s important no one at work knows this other side of you. This takes a tremendous amount of energy to keep the two worlds separate.

And if you’re in business for yourself, you’re still torn between letting this “real you” be known to your clients and colleagues and wanting to stay in hiding. So your messaging is not clear, or you have no real plan for marketing, you’re overwhelmed and overworked.

You thought that pushing and proving yourself was inherent in the corporate world. Figuring you’d be done with all that once you set up your own business. Yay! No more Boss. Only you discovered your inner boss was an even more demanding driver – never letting up for a minute. Filling you with self-doubt, endless criticism of what you’re doing wrong and how far you have to go.

Underneath these scenarios there are several possible shadows lurking

Shadows around feeling not good enough, being strange or too far out, being thought stupid, or a loser. Shadows around both failure and success. Being irresponsible, lazy, selfish, visible, weak, controlled, helpless, a victim.

These words might feel very familiar to you. But it’s one thing to acknowledge them with your mind and quite another to feel them in your whole body and know the truth of how much energy they drain from your being. And ultimately to welcome back their energy, their stories, into the fullness of who you are.

Until we begin to be aware of how much these hidden parts of ourselves are actually running our life, we feel flawed, broken or in need of improving and fixing. We try so hard to only allow certain “positive” parts of us to have a voice. 

If you’re looking for long term relief from the demands your shadows are costing you in your business, your job, your relationships, and your bank balance, you have to open your heart to them. A spa day is just not going to cut it.

Next time we’ll talk about what you get out of integrating your power shadows. Rather than turning into those things you fear most, you actually expand into far more “you” than you imagine you are.

Here’s the link again to the first article in case you haven’t seen it yet.

Photo by mauro paillex on Unsplash

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What does this bring up for you?
Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Helping women understand how your masculine energies are set up to be your inner partner and support team for your feminine power, creativity and leadership is my own calling. When you’re ready to stop the internal battle between your male and female selves—that you probably don’t even know you’re waging—click to know more about my Make Peace With Power ~ Leadership Playground coaching program.

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Be sure to download your free guide below: Meet Your Sacred Masculine- Your Partner in Women’s Creativity, Power & Leadership.

Women on a Mission: Meet Your Inner Partner in  Creativity, Power, & Leadership