In this article, I’ll be going over shadow work for fear and cowardice, where I’ll be tackling issues with fear and cowardice from three different angles:

1. Journal Prompts for Fear and cowardice
2. Being Triggered By Fear and cowardice
3. Unconscious Beliefs & Self-Acceptance

Before we get into it, let’s cover a few essential topics.

What is the shadow, and what is shadow work?

The shadow is the side of yourself that’s disconnected and unfelt. It’s the part of yourself that’s been rejected since childhood, and you have no awareness of.

Shadow Work is integrating the entire spectrum of your being. It’s the intentional process of admitting the parts of yourself you’ve ignored and repressed.

Shadow Work Prompts for Fear and cowardice.

The purpose of these journal prompts is to stir your unconscious mind until you feel sensations in your body.

For example, I get a nice feeling in my arms and legs when I do shadow work. Sometimes I’ll even get a feeling of ‘centeredness’ in the pit of my stomach.

These bodily sensations typically mean that you’ve appeased the unconscious.

However, it’s not all smiles and good feelings.

People new to shadow work can get emotional since they haven’t come to terms with their other half.

If you get emotional or have any sensations, be sure to feel them through.

Go deeper by speaking aloud for your unconscious mind to hear, then pay attention for a ‘response.’

Or start writing to your shadow. Then after a moment, write a response you think your shadow would give.

Keep in mind that your unconscious shadow can only reach you indirectly, so you have to trust yourself that you can tap into it.

For an overview of shadow work and integration, you can read our guide here.

That being said—

Try to reach the deepest truths about yourself, even if it goes against what you’d typically expect.

Here are prompts specifically designed to get you in touch with your shadow:

1 – Do you expect amazing things, or do you always expect the worst? Why do you deserve the remarkable things over the worst?

2 – Do you have nightmares? Why do they scare you? How can you confront this fear in your waking life?

3 – What is something you wish someone else would tell you? How can you tell yourself that more often?

Are You Triggered By Fear and cowardice?

If you are triggered or made upset by people who are expressing Fear and cowardice—

Chances are, you need to integrate your own caution.

What do I mean when I say “triggered by fear and cowardice”?

A trigger is a quality you see in another person that emotionally affects you more than it should. The exaggerated affect is what makes it a trigger.

When you disown a part of yourself, it goes into your shadow. Your shadow holds all aspects of your personality that you’ve rejected and have chosen not to identify with.

The ego uses projection to keep us internally disconnected from qualities we don’t identify with.

So if we see somebody who carries a quality of ourselves that we’ve rejected, we automatically demonize it by getting triggered.

You are antagonizing a quality that is actually a part of who you are.

But since you’ve rejected this part of yourself, your mind has to see this quality in a negative light.

To stop getting triggered by a specific quality, you must integrate that quality into your own personality.

Integration means becoming aware of your personal trigger, then slowly adopting that quality into your personality.

Know that quality is actually already within you. But now you’re deliberately bringing it into your awareness.

Now you’re probably wondering,

“If I’m triggered by fear and cowardice, does that mean I need to start becoming more fear and cowardice?”

Yes and no.

Remember that the triggering quality looks worse than it actually is.

What everyone else sees as caution will appear to you as Fear and cowardice.

This is why you must take your time and slowly adopt the quality that triggers you.

Over time you will get a more accurate sense of reality and realize that what you thought was Fear and cowardice turned out to be caution.

If you are triggered by fear and cowardice, you must integrate your caution.

Unconscious Beliefs that cause your Fear and cowardice

Family and culture make you embrace some parts of your Self while altogether abandoning others.

This happens when a child idealizes her parents and follows arbitrary rules for survival.

These rules implicitly embed the child with the unconscious idea that she is “bad,”—which is a typical childhood experience.

Then the rules and unconscious beliefs you learned as a child evolve and are carried into adulthood.

Here is a list of some unconscious beliefs:

• Nobody can be trusted
• I’m blameless & you’ll always forgive me
• I’m always wrong
• I am pure
• I am helpless
• The world wants to dominate me
• I’ve always been a loser
• Everyone is ungrateful

By performing in-depth shadow work for Fear and cowardice, you can self-reflect and determine which of these unconscious beliefs you are living out.

With the proper guidance, you can mend these underlying beliefs and take back control of your life.

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

Carl Jung

Here are some resources I recommend:

Shadow Work for Beginners is based on my in-depth research and personal experiences with shadow work, projection, sadomasochism, inner child healing, triggers, and all things shadow. This resource gets updated at no additional cost.

A Light Among Shadows is a guide on self-love and being. This series goes over consciousness, spirituality, philosophy, and makes sense of why people are the way they are. Recommended for anyone dealing with resentment and self-hate. Learn more here.

Shadow Work for Relationships teaches you everything you need to know about attachment theory, practical inner work, and your dysfunctional behavior. By the end of this, you will have developed your earned secure attachment style so you can put an end to your cycle of bad relationships.

Shadow Work Journal: 240 Daily Shadow Work Prompts contains inner work exercises related to relationships, anger, anxiety, self-love, healing trauma, abandonment issues, depression, forgiveness, etc.

Self-Love Subliminal for self-hypnotism that will help you change your behavior and gain self-love, self-awareness, better relationships, greater health, and improve your creativity.

Shadow Play (or “DsR”) is a sister website that goes over “sensual” shadow work through BDSM experiences. If you are 18+ and are interested, go here.

Mindful & Mending is a small website that’s about self-hypnosis, affirmations, auto-suggestion, and more techniques & tools to help you shift your unconscious mind. Check it out here.

Inner Shadow Work on TikTok and Instagram.