Concepts: "Shadow hunting" 👣

You may hear me or some other Relateful Co facilitator reference "shadow hunting" or "trying to catch all of the Pokémon". These playful phrases point to a developmental blindspot of the stage in our own personal growth (often associated with "Teal") where we become obsessed with getting rid of our repressed, wounded, unowned projections and pain—all the psychological stuff that hides in our shadow. It’s not a statement about whether or not it’s possible to 'Clean Up' all of your shadow (I don’t think you can); it’s a way to point to the unacknowledged self-identity that generates the desire to hunt in the first place: some version of thinking we’re not-enough (to even exist).

I want to fix the pain of my perceived not-enoughness by hunting my shadows and shining light upon them. In other words, all my looking for wounds to heal tends to hide one of the biggest shadows—a completion project, to avoid being with the perfect imperfection of now! What to do? Rather than getting into an endless loop fretting about hunting the shadow-hunting-shadow :P, or using “love” as our weapon of choice for the hunt, the RelatefulAnywhere recommendation is to practice relatefulness with the not-enoughness: to get curious about the sensation, to allow it without judgment or praise, to be aware of the awareness that notices it all, and to relax—like Anna in Frozen II—into the next right thing. 

Keep letting me know what y'all like, what's exciting and meaningful, what you could see more of, etc, and keep sharing with anyone you think digs this kind of stuff.

With love, Jordan