Need to Dig Through the Dusty Corners Causing Your Dark Night of the Soul? Meet A Shadow Guide

One recent morning it came to me with clarity as if I had always known (because I have, it’s a part of me) – I am a shadow guide.

I had been struggling to grasp what I should call myself when describing my work to others.  The work I do tackles the darkness in each of us head on.  It doesn’t dance around it like the “jarabe tapatio” (Mexican Hat Dance).  Just like the hat in the hat dance, there is a lot more to the significance of our shadow than we give credit.  

​My work doesn’t shame away the shadow, like it is as simple as the guilt we feel for kicking the cat out of the way by gently scooping it and tossing it with our foot. 

Image courtesy of nenetus at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of MrWildLife at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

No, the work I do with myself and others, it faces the darkness head on, deer in headlights style.  It creates a moment where there’s no time to veer left or right.  We close our eyes, make good with our inner knowing, and prepare to be skyrocketed to the next phase of existence.
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Like anything with energy, there is no getting rid of our shadow selves.  Energy cannot be destroyed, only transformed. 

I cannot positively think away my trauma, the events that make me lie awake at night with guilt… the inner complaints that threaten to make me a whiner.  No.  I can only make the decision to put it to work for or against my well-being.  I decide the narrative it creates in my life.  It’s still there in all its glory, but I am the one in charge of the story.

So, when I sit down on my yoga mat, write/journal, bring out my oracle cards, conduct a ritual, or assess my chakras, I’m guiding myself through those dark spaces that if left unconscious will direct my life with their own agenda every damn day.  Utter chaos.

No amount of affirmation, positive meme scrolling, gratitude, or loving your neighbor will process the energy of these places. 

It’s hard to love the neighbor who sexually abused you, the school mates who relentlessly called you names, or yourself after acting in unconscious and hurtful ways, and to be grateful for the lesson when it keeps interrupting your ability to focus on life now.  When it reaches out to you through expressions like night terrors, PTSD, anxiety, social phobias, and more, you can try to forgive and forget all you want.  Those dark places will keep surprising you by coming back up.  

​These events literally wired your brain.  It is through loving and accepting all of yourself that you can choose the gift that your darkness brings.  

Sometimes, darkness is so scary or alien an idea that we’re confused as to how to go there without getting lost in the despair.  That’s when we may need a guide.  Someone who has been there before with themselves and others. 

They aren’t a therapist, or a psychiatrist.  They are a peer, and can share tools to help light the way and dig through the rock to the coal seam.  That’s the work I do with clients.  The realest of real.

If you’ve ever been totally put off by the “happy hippie” aesthetic, the under explained law of positivity, or even counting your blessings, it could be time to face your shadow.

If you don’t want to go alone, find someone who’s gone before to guide you there.  Can you trust anyone who has never gone on the shaded path, but instead chose to “change their mindset” when the shit hits the fan?  How will they react to heavy emotion and events?  Where did their dark side go?

All this time, I had been avoiding my comfort in the shadows because I didn’t want to be constantly explaining myself to the #blessed crowd.  

I made myself palatable as often as I could, and reigned myself in when I wanted to take a conversation into the realm of what is seen as negative talk only because it makes people feel uncomfortable with me and their selves.  I didn’t want to be the person people avoid because she’s always talking about the bits that they want to push back into the dusty corners. 

Yet, part of facing my own truth is to accept that life has wired me for this work, people need a hand to hold, and I am rather content to offer mine.  It doesn’t look like rainbows, pumpkin spice lattes, and tropical paradise, but it is damn beautiful all the same.

Meet Kelli Hansel – The Shadow Guide.