Imagine you are in a movie theater, totally engaged in the experience. The characters, the action and the plot all have you captivated. Turn on the lights, and it literally disappears. Gone. The same is true for our shadow. Much like a film is projected onto a screen, our shadow is projected onto our experience and we’re walking around starring in our own film. By shining the light on our movie is similar to turning the lights on in a movie theater. Shining light on our story can clear the illusion, widening our awareness to see more of the Truth of who we are.
By shining the light on inner shadow aspects, we can turn our upsets into insights. Whether the discord seems inner or outer, this experiential pre-workshop will focus on shadow practice to free your mind and emotions, we will then translate that expansion into an opportunity for sustainable change. Whether you are an experienced shadow practitioner, or you are new to the topic, you will have the opportunity to engage practical and relevant material from your life (conflicts, challenges, and upsets) and learn simple ways to identify shadow, along with basic steps to liberate and integrate that which you previously pushed away. You will have the opportunity to translate this expanded state into a trait, using simple methods to support you in anchoring it in your life. We will work with practical tools you can take away and use to support yourself in engaging an ongoing shadow practice and a means for sustainable growth.
Workshop title – Shining the Light on Shadow: Leveraging your upsets for personal growth and insight
1. Introduction to shadow practice:
- Group experiential: shadow ice breaker
- What is shadow?
- What is shadow practice? (experiential)
- How do you know it’s shadow? (simple three-step assessment)
- Why do shadow practice?
2. Ease and grace: Setting intentions/Intentions and the subconscious (experiential)
3. Shining the Light on Shadow:
- Experiential process
- Large group sharing, integration
- Anchoring your experience for sustainable change
4. Next steps (setting up an ongoing practice, additional tools)
5. Integration/Close
Presenter
Dr. Cindy Lou Golin, life coach and workshop facilitator, has over 15 years experience in the field of personal growth. She utilizes a playful, light-hearted, yet powerful and practical approach. With a PhD in Clinical Psychology and an MA in Spiritual Psychology, she served as faculty at Integral-Institute, JFK University (Integral Life Practice and Shadow) and is on faculty at Ten Directions (Integral Facilitator Program). She collaborated on development of I-I’s seminar series and ILP Kit.
Serving the Moment
By: Cindy Lou Golin
I participate regularly in the Integral Facilitator® program calls. On our most recent community call, Diane Musho Hamilton (Integral Facilitator® lead teacher) reflected back our aspirations to be of service. This triggered my thoughts; we want to serve the planet, make the world a better place, make a difference. Help our clients. Write that book. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Etc. etc.
What she said next struck me as the REAL opportunity, and a more relevant invitation.
“How can you serve the present moment?”
Not serving the need for something bigger or more, but serving this moment, now.
Like a stickpin hitting a balloon, “serve the present moment” popped my awareness.
It reminded me how easy it can be to hang out in the future with an inspiring vision or goal and be taken away from what’s arising now.
I thought of all the things that can pull me out of the moment when I facilitate: my preference for structure (following the agenda), my attachment to the client experiencing results, my fear of the unknown, my frustration about a problematic room set up, etc. To sum it up, what gets most in the way of my being present is my desire to control, particularly when things aren’t going as planned (as I planned).
The other thing that expanded my awareness in Diane’s invitation is to “serve the Moment.” Not the person, not the process, not the collective intention or purpose, not the desired outcome, but the Moment.
As I glimpse the potential wisdom of the moment, I am aware there is something much bigger than me, bigger than us, bigger than it going on here. My preferences are personal and ego-based. There is so much more available, there is so much more going on Now. It’s way bigger than me.
So my ego waves the white flag. In the awareness of the vastness of the Moment, there’s no contest. And not much else to do. I give up.
Oddly, I hadn’t even realized I’d been fighting.
It’s obvious when I am in conflict with another person. I contract, then energetically push. Then they (usually) contract and push back. And we continue butting heads, back and forth. I have found the most effective way to resolve such a conflict is to relax, expand and move towards the other.
When I am fighting with the moment, the same solution is available. I relax, expand and move towards the moment and all that is present Now.
“How can I serve this moment?” is a simple and powerful invitation. If this resonates, I encourage you to play with it. Notice when you contract and push against what’s present, then ask yourself “How can I serve this moment?”