Are you feeding your shadows?

Are you reacting to the world in a way that feeds you shadows?

A tell-tale sign is when you get overcome with an emotion, like fear, hate, or shame.  

Last week, I walked into a fancy restaurant where everyone in there looked nothing like me. I felt this visceral hesitation, as part of me remembered previous instances when I experienced harassment in a place like this. Thoughts started erupting like…

Am I safe here?

Are these people judging me?

Are they going to sneer at me?

If I bring my family around, are we welcomed?

So many thoughts and feelings flush my being in a matter of nanoseconds.

The thing is, triggers are all around us.

Some can come from loved ones who might not have even realized what they said was triggering a sense of judgement within us.

Are you still in that horrible job?

Why aren’t you married yet?

Shouldn’t you lose some weight?

We may feel ourselves tightening up, wanting to disappear, or even wanting to start a counterattack. 

Most people respond to the world in a way that feeds their shadows of insecurity, or lack of safety and belonging. 

We are socially conditioned to see the ‘other’ (the person triggering us) as the enemy, we unconsciously see them as someone who is attacking our very happiness and existence. 

But actually, these are critical moments in our lives that give us the chance to be more.

Not a victim, not a worrier, not a reactionary, but a Creator.

Moments like these allow us to take that negative energy and create the change we want to see in the world. We are still committed to our values despite expecting to be set off.

Every moment where life triggers your shadow, ego, or your subconscious wounds, you are given a choice to make.

You can react to them and blame and judge the person who put up the Trump sign or who triggered you

We could allow our egos and wounds to convince us that this world is not safe, that the world isn’t good for us, or that we don’t belong.

This reaction distorts your reality to match those fears and, before you know it, you are energetically drinking in those negative emotions to feed your shadow. 

Your ego is meant to react and keep you in a safety bubble.

Satiating that hunger may have you feeling vindicated and justified in the moment, but you’ll end up feeling stuck and disempowered.

The end result is living in fear.

The other option is sitting in your Higher Self space and recognizing the burning inside of you for what it is: just emotion, just a reaction, just your personal narratives to the situation.

And then, you can choose power.

Whether you give a response or start a conversation, choosing power is choosing to create from courage.

It’s choosing the additional step that most don’t want to take.

That is, to be still for 30 seconds with your trigger, with your emotions and allow them to pass and still choose to see the humanity of the person or situation. 

Now, when I see those Trump signs I can say that I’m glad I live in a country where people can believe in whatever they want. People have a right to create their own reality. And I’m so grateful that I can do this for me too. 

When I look at those signs, it reinforces what I believe and I’m thankful for that reminder.

Sometimes I still fantasize about tearing them down and replacing them with rainbow flags, but if I did any of that, I would be releasing the same low vibrational energy those signs represent.

So, when you see life, are you drinking it in to satisfy your hungry shadow or are you choosing to be a creator?

Are you choosing to really commit to emitting the vibration that you want the world to be in?