In all my readings this week, I have been asked: How can I manifest positive change? It’s a beautifully September question, and it reminds me that sometimes the importance of shadow work is overlooked in manifestation practices.
To will something into being, we don’t have to tackle our shadows—our toxicity and trauma. Through affirmations, visualization, and white knuckles, we can summon nearly anything–marriages, money, even fame. But without self-reckoning, we project our shadows into whatever we manifest, ensuring we’ll encounter more problematic versions of them down the road.
I call this spiritual GPS. It is our American story.
Shadow work doesn’t preclude us from getting what we want. But it moves us from ego needs to divine flow, which shifts what we want altogether. In this way, the absence of light teaches us about sacred presence.
All to say, as we approach this very charged U.S. anniversary, that I love this poem by the great Mary Oliver. Also you, in your many expressions of light and dark.
In all my readings this week, I have been asked: How can I manifest positive change? It’s a beautifully September question, and it reminds me that sometimes the importance of shadow work is overlooked in manifestation practices.
