Shadow work for people who think shadow work is corny

Strip the mysticism and shadow work is one question: what do I do that I'd rather not look at? The jealousy of a friend's good news. The way you go cold instead of arguing. The joke you make when someone gets too close.

You don't need a ritual. You need a page and about twenty minutes where nobody can read over your shoulder.

Start with irritation, because it's honest and it's cheap to access. Write down the last three people who annoyed you disproportionately and what specifically they did. Then write what it would mean if you did the same thing occasionally. That's the whole engine.

The second pass is inheritance. Which of your reactions did you learn at home, and from whom? You're not assigning blame, you're checking whether the behavior is even yours.

Expect to feel worse for about a day and clearer for about a month. That's the normal shape of it. If what comes up is bigger than a page — trauma, dissociation, thoughts of hurting yourself — that's not a journaling problem, that's a call-someone problem.