Fun Shadow Work

 

 

PROMPT: Describe 5 obsessions you had as a kid. Are you living up to the aesthetic, lessons, or experiences of them? How would child-you feel about the life you’re living now?

Let’s go back in time and look at those childhood obsessions. Those fixations. Those dreams you had, both waking and asleep. It may have been a certain amusement park. A movie. A book. A specific outfit or piece of clothing. A certain toy or game. A time of day, a tree in your yard, a family member or friend. For some reason, as kids, there are things that we fixate on and want to embody. We’ll play pretend games and build fantasy worlds – “Castles in the sky” as the March sisters call them in Little Women.

But somewhere along the way we lose them, forget them, or are told they’re silly and start internalizing that. It affects the way we feel aligned (or not) with fulfilling who we are as individuals. At the deepest level, it contributes to our self-worth, self-efficacy, and motivation towards our goals. And at the simplest, we simply are less happy without them.

Why does rediscovering these dreams matter?

Because those obsessions are a foundation of our worldview of what happiness looks like. What success means. In a lot of ways it’s our bar for the rest of our lives: the characters in that movie might have become our archetypes for good or evil, the feeling of sitting under that tree or reading that book might have become our understanding of what comfort really means. If we can identify these wants and needs of our inner child, and integrate them into our lives, we will be better off.

This is the fun side of shadow work. It’s the parts of our childhood that really made it – the part of that youthful perspective on happiness that makes us want to engage with our lives in bigger ways. The trust we had in a world we didn’t know yet… it’s in those dreams, desires, obsessions. And when we analyze them for their aesthetic, and we look at them for what they really meant to us, we can start to see where we need to put our time and energy now, in our adult lives.

When you have your list, start seeing where you can reincorporate these things into your adult life. You’ve got the power now! No waiting for parents to make your dreams happen, you can do it for yourself. This can be extremely empowering and creatively stimulating as well. Did you have an obsession with Beauty & the Beast? Build yourself a library to rival the beast’s! Did you love rolling down hills? Do it again! And look for other ways to fuel adrenaline, it might have been a while since you have and your inner child is asking you to. Loved Princess Bride? Cosplay at a Ren Faire! And look for the witticisms in your own life that mirror that tone.

Look for how these things are showing up in your life unexpectedly. Maybe you named your child after a beloved book or movie character. Perhaps the ad campaign you designed at work used a font you’d seen in a book you loved as a kid and you didn’t even realize why you’d chosen it. If your favorite jacket makes you feel like the main character in your favorite story, keep it up!

This exercise in remembering can help you understand your current self too, not just your inner child. And that is how you bridge the gap of your selves: by connecting the dots. Through this process, you might realize that maybe your inner child doesn’t have to be so internal, after all.

Have fun with this one, it’s all about the innocent loves and desires we had as a child. Don’t take this exercise too seriously, but don’t be surprised if you make serious connections, too!

 

*Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

 

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About the Author:

Elyse Welles is a Greek and American earth intuitive witch and author. She cohosts the Magick Kitchen Podcast and is a monthly columnist for The Wild Hunt, Witch Way Magazine, PaganPages.org and Full Moon Magazine. An initiate of the eclectic Faery Tradition, her practice is centered on connections to land spirits and sacred places (numina). Her debut novel, “What the Water Remembers,”a paranormal mystery that empowers witches in and out of the broom closet, releases autumn 2024. With ten years of experience, she teaches witchcraft online and am an intuitive tarot reader.  Learn more about upcoming workshops, or book a reading @seekingnumina on Instagram, and seekingnumina.com