In the last week of October 2018, we held a 6-day, 30-hour training titled, Stalking the Shadow at Vital in Denver, Colorado. Over 60 Bowspring teachers from all over the world – Japan, Barbados, Peru, Spain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and many from the US representing Florida, California, Texas, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Illinois gathered for our annual Summit.
In celebration of Halloween, we explored how to work with our shadow side to spiritually grow in our daily lives. Each year’s Summit brings together among the most dedicated and experienced of our global Bowspring practitioners. They are bonded by the challenges of practicing the Bowspring often far away from other Bowspring teachers in their country. Each have inspiring stories of their own personal journeys of discovering the Bowspring, and then being confronted with the truth they had been inadvertently limiting and hurting themselves through their old postural alignment. When this inconvenient and disturbing truth was revealed out of the shadows of their unconscious ego, each student faced the choices to deny or ignore the healing power of the new alignment, or courageously proceed with full accountability on a new path of healing using the Bowspring method.
All of our Bowspring teachers chose the latter, but the mainstream reaction to the new alignment paradigm is typically either a shadowy hyper-masculine aggressive denial of the truth or a shadowy hyper-feminine ignoring of the truth to avoid conflict. Most people don’t want to look at their shadow because it is just too uncomfortable or too scary.
In general, there are 2 main disharmonious mindsets which block us from honestly and fully working with our shadows. One is the rigid, linear, authoritarian mindset of tradition and the status quo (hyper-masculine), while the other is the postmodern ‘New Agey’ mindset in which ‘all is one’, and ‘all is good’ (hyper-feminine). These are polarized distortions, shadow mindsets that block us from opening to fully knowing the truth of the new paradigm of alignment. With extreme Yin or Yang dominance in our viewpoints – too open or too closed in the mind, avoidant or belligerent, then the truth is turned into a false myth or is denied as dangerous and must be suppressed. It is by the great work of marrying the highest development of both sides of our brain – our rational critical thinking with our heart’s intuitive knowing of harmony and beauty – we can truthfully see our shadows.
If the masculine left side of the brain thinks of itself as the superior and correct side compared to the feminine right side, then the linear, rational mind can cut itself off from one’s emotional, psychic nature. Confronted with radical, new ideas that can overturn the status quo model, the left hemisphere will fight and argue against the revelatory information in order to persevere the traditional belief system. The more the new ideas begin to spread into the public forum, the old guard becomes increasingly vehement in its opposition to the heretical methodology. The dogmatic teachings of the old system attack the new paradigm as flat-out wrong. As the attacks mount, then it isn’t just the new method angrily condemned, but the character and personal reputation of the proponents of the new ideas are also slandered.
On the other side, when the right hemisphere cuts itself off from its polar side, the mindset often aligns with a postmodern ‘New Age’ worldview in which the whole focus is on the good of the collective while ignoring the specific shadows and the negative aspects of our own mind-body. According to the New Agey idea of the ‘law of attraction’, if you pay attention to the negative, it will magnify. In this way of thinking, it is easier and safer to simply look the other direction away from the shadow and say with a shiny smile, “we are all one, so it’s all good.” Avoiding and ignoring the discomfort and ugliness within our lives, while putting on a happy face with positive group think, is a common cultural mindset today. When the right side of the brain is hyper dominant, then imaginary myths and blind beliefs create the relative truth that is religiously held by mainstream culture.
All of our global Bowspring teachers have experienced some level of push-back and faced negative backlash from both sides of the spectrum of other postural professionals. On one side are those aggressively defending the standard model of linear, static stretching, and on the other side are the postmodern yoga teachers who are defending the idea that all alignment is relative – everybody is different, so there is no universal template to align for a specific functional movement.
In postmodern society, all things are seen as relative and only known subjectively. Eternal and objective universals are not considered real. Consequently, in this philosophy everyone’s alignment is seen as equally good and so all postures are openly accepted. For the postmodern yoga world, there is no one particular effective way to align a pose for optimal performance or highest therapeutic benefit.
Paradoxically, in this view everything and everyone is accepted as they are, except those who are critical of the disharmonies and the shadows within others of the group. You are happily accepted into this mainstream culture as long as you don’t bring up any problems with the standard model! For today’s mainstream largely seeking comfort, convenience and fun, it is much easier and less painful to simply avoid the challenging and upsetting truths of the shadows rather than face the darkness honestly.
Yet, ignoring our shadows only makes them grow darker. Refusing to look deeply at our shadows because the process is uncomfortable or scary keeps us stuck in a state of unconscious blissful ignorance in which we spiritually regress. Without examining our shadows in a truthful way, then these negative patterns not only persist, but they often deepen their entrenchment in our psyche, which leads to more suffering and pain over the course of our lives. The shadow realm cannot be avoided on the path toward Self-awakening.
With courage and conviction, each of us chooses to go through the alchemical process of transmuting our shadows into higher expressions of our individual creativity, which ultimately can benefit the greater good. It is difficult and unpopular work to turn the light of our awareness onto our shadows, but knowing our inner psychological realm is the first step toward healing and attaining deeper levels of spiritual fulfillment. With this knowledge of our shadows and destructive habits, we can choose to make positive changes in our physical health, emotional maturity, and critical thinking processes. All of these positive developments of our mind-body ultimately are directed toward knowing our highest Self, our divine essence – Truth, Love, and Freedom.
The revelation of our shadows within the Bowspring method is certainly not an easy or popular process. Deeply held patterns of traumas, phobias, and self-destructive habits, which are exposed using the ‘somatically open’ curvy alignment of Bowspring method, are often experienced as painfully ugly. Yet, by fully feeling our aversions associated with our shadows, we can choose the high road to change ourselves for the better. In this regard, all of our global Bowspring teachers, out of their own personal integrity and accountability, have chosen a less travelled and nonconventional path to health and happiness. They have all chosen to leap out of their comfort zones and take an honest examination of themselves in both their light and dark aspects.
Our global Bowspring teachers endeavor to have their heads in the sky for the highest perspective and their feet rooting in the truth of the here and now, and their hearts open with self-respect and compassion. The shadow work entails accepting the truth of our patterning, and then taking action to transmute our ugliness into beauty, harmful addictions and habits into life-enhancing creative acts of freedom and truth.
