Face What’s Hidden, Find What’s Whole: A Call to Mind-Body Shadow Work

Samantha Leonard
May 22
7 min read

Updated: May 29

“The shadow is 90% pure gold.” —Carl Jung

There’s a reason this quote continues to ripple through circles of therapy, myth, and self-

*"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek". ~ Joseph Campbell*

discovery. Jung knew that the parts of ourselves we push away - our fears, cravings, rages, griefs, insecurities aren’t garbage to be discarded.

They’re treasure maps.

The Shadow, in Jungian terms, is the unconscious storehouse of all that we repress, deny, or can’t yet integrate into our sense of who we are. And the more we disown it, the more it owns us.

But why do we bury parts of ourselves in the first place?

Psychiatrist and trauma expert Gabor Maté offers this insight: “We abandon the self to be accepted by others.” In other words, many of our shadow traits were not born “bad” but were exiled because they were unsafe in the environments we grew up in. Sensitivity, anger, curiosity, wildness, even joy—if they were too much for our caregivers or communities, we learned to tuck them away to stay safe and loved. Over time, we forget they were ever part of us. They go underground, becoming the unconscious drivers of our anxiety, chronic pain, rigid roles, or stuck relationships.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” ~ Jung

Shadow work is the process of remembering what we had to forget—and meeting those parts now with the compassion, curiosity, and inner safety we once lacked.

How the Shadow Shows Up

The shadow doesn’t knock politely. It slips in sideways: through dreams, conflict, and even illness. The parts of us we try to exile don’t disappear. They find other ways to speak.

In Dreams:

Jung called dreams “the royal road to the unconscious.” Shadow often appears as figures that disturb or fascinate us: a thief, a monster, a neglected child, an ex-lover, a wild animal. These characters may represent repressed emotions, unmet needs, or instincts we’ve disowned.

Ask: What part of me might this dream character represent? What wants to be seen?

In Relationships:

We tend to project our shadow onto others, especially those closest to us. The traits we can't accept in ourselves (neediness, control, anger, vulnerability) are easier to judge in someone else. Repeating relational patterns often point to unresolved inner material.

Ask: What frustrates me most about this person? Could it reflect something I haven’t owned in myself?

In the Body:

As Gabor Maté writes, when we suppress emotions or parts of ourselves to stay safe or accepted, our bodies often bear the burden. Chronic pain, autoimmune issues, digestive trouble, anxiety, and fatigue may signal deeper psychological conflicts or unmet needs.

Ask: What might my symptoms be trying to communicate? What has been silenced in me?

The shadow isn't here to punish. It's here to be reclaimed—and when we listen, it can lead us back to wholeness.

You Are Not One Thing

The Greeks had gods for every aspect of being: wildness (Dionysus), reason (Apollo), war (Ares), wisdom (Athena), and the underworld (Hades). Hinduism holds countless deities to represent the many faces of consciousness—love, destruction, devotion, illusion, and justice.

These weren’t just mythic beings. They were reflections of the inner world.

Carl Jung taught that archetypes, universal characters like the Hero, the Orphan, the

Trickster, the Mother, and the Sage live within each of us and express themselves through dreams, behaviors, roles, and desires.

In Internal Family Systems (IFS), this becomes even more personal: each of us is made up of “parts", inner protectors, exiles, and managers. Each has its own voice, wounds, and good intentions. Some parts are stuck in the past. Some are trying to hold it all together. All of them are trying to help.

So you are not broken. You’re multidimensional. You’re mythic. The goal is not to fix yourself. The goal is to know yourself. And with curiosity and compassion, embrace every part.

Holding the Tension of Opposites

In Jungian psychology, holding the tension of opposites means making space for inner contradictions instead of rushing to choose one side over the other. It’s the courage to embody: Both of these things are true. I can be strong and vulnerable. Devoted and exhausted. Grateful and still grieving.

Jung believed these tensions are not problems to solve but energy sources for growth.

Opposites—like ego and shadow, introversion and extraversion, action and stillness

create a dynamic charge. When we resist collapsing into one extreme or the other, we give the psyche room to transform. This is where creativity, insight, and healing emerge.

Rather than forcing a premature resolution, we learn to sit in the unknown. This is key to the individuation process—becoming a whole, integrated self. It’s not easy.

Ambiguity is uncomfortable. But the reward is immense: more inner freedom, flexibility, and depth of understanding—not just of yourself, but of others too.

“The greater the contrast, the greater the potential. Great energy only comes from a correspondingly great tension of opposites.” ~ Jung

Why Grounding Comes First

Meeting our shadows, whether they carry rage, grief, terror, or unfulfilled desire, requires inner safety. Without it, the nervous system tightens, the body resists, and the shadow remains in hiding.

In my work as a Jungian-inspired yoga therapist, we begin with the body: breath, grounding, and nervous system regulation. When you build a stable foundation of presence, you can approach the shadow not as a threat, but as a long-lost friend.

Shadow work becomes less like wandering into darkness and more like building a fire in the woods, where exiled parts can return to share their stories.

The Descent and the Discipline of Inner Readiness

In myth, descent into the shadow is never easy. Ulysses, knowing the seductive power of the Sirens’ song, bound himself to the mast so he could hear their call without steering himself, or his crew, into ruin. Inanna, the Sumerian goddess, journeyed into the Underworld where, at each gate, she was stripped of her jewels, her garments, her titles—until she stood naked before her sister Ereshkigal, Queen of the Dead, the unflinching mirror of her own inner darkness.

These myths remind us: no one enters the underworld unprepared. To descend without losing ourselves, we must cultivate the inner structure—the strength, clarity, and resilience—to hold paradox, intensity, and truth without turning away.

The Preparation Is the Path:

Strength:

This is not about domination in battle with the shadow, but the capacity to stay embodied when your nervous system wants to run or numb out. Through consistent, grounded somatic practice, we build a body that does not flee itself.

Courage:

This is not brashness, but a quiet bravery of choosing to feel. Breath practices offer a way to stay close to sensation and emotion, rather than dissociating or intellectualizing.

Stamina:

This is not endurance for its own sake, but the ability to hold discomfort long enough to let insight emerge. This is the fruit of consistent practice.

Faith:

This is not about acquiring a sense of certainty of outcome, but a willingness to step forward in the dark, guided by something larger. Meditation and prayer—secular or sacred—anchor us in relationship to the unseen.

Community:

This isn't about mere company, but sacred witnessing. To be seen without fixing, judged, or rushed invites the shadow to soften and speak. Transformation is accelerated when it happens in community with like-minded others.

This work is not light, but it does bring light.

To face the shadow is to enter a sacred paradox: you are both the descent and the rope that holds steady. The storm and the mast. The stripped goddess and the one who rises reborn.

If you’re beginning this descent, you are answering one of the oldest, bravest calls of all.

"We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known ...we have only to follow the thread of the hero path.

And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a God. Where we had thought to slay another, shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outwards shall come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone shall be with all the world.” ~ Joseph Campbell