The deepest work you can do is befriend the parts of you that you were once too afraid & ashamed to even acknowledge.

I spent most of my life hiding. I lived in secret. I lied all the time. I wanted people to love me so much that I just pretended to be who I thought they wanted me to be & hid all of my darkness in the shadows.shame grows in shadows. pain grows in shadows. hate grows in shadows. addiction grows in shadows.I experienced all of that and more for a majority of my life. I was vert much consumed by darkness.The ironic thing about darkness is that it diminishes once it’s brought into the light but most of us are too scared to even examine it for fear it will be seen by someone else. most of us are afraid we will be deemed unlovable by someone else so we shove those parts of us down into the shadows thinking if we shove them down deep enough, they’ll diminish. They won’t, they’ll grow.I’ve confronted so many parts of myself through inner work that I now don’t even view them as bad or shameful even though I once thought they were literally so terrible & unlovable.Of course, fear arises still. I forget my worthiness sometimes. New shadows appear. But now, I have tools.most (all) of my habits that were toxic formed out of a need to be loved & feel worthy. the same goes for you. once I recognized that I could forgive myself for developing those toxic habits because they were part of my emotional survival at one point.shadow work isn’t pretty but it is so expansive and truly helps us step into our light even more.we can’t have light without darkness. this human experience is all about both. the paradoxical nature of being human terrifying at times.but damn, it’s also f*cking beautiful.