A Lantern in the Woods
IFS-informed Shadow Work Coaching and intuitive guidance to support you in your journey through the forest to find clarity and healing to live fully, passionately, and intentionally.
ILLUMINATE YOUR PATH
Jennifer Hinckley Baglia, ACC, and founder
“Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost…”
Opening lines to the Divine Comedy, The Inferno, Dante Alighieri
Midway upon our journeys, we might realize the straightforward pathway never existed, and we find ourselves lost or meandering in the dark forest. Maybe our roles as parents are coming to a sharp fork in the road, with our children leaving home; maybe we find the job or career we are in no longer fulfills us, or maybe it never did. We start facing the startling reality that life moves quickly, and wonder if we are living fully and intentionally. Have we put aside our own dreams to care for others? Have we failed to believe in the possibility we can create the life we truly want? Have we realized we have made our choices out of fear instead of courage? Are we living according to our values, and do we even know what our values are? Are we contributing our own gifts to the world, or are we playing it safe? Are we discovering our spiritual journey, but aren’t sure what that even means, or what direction we want to go next?
Life in this day and age doesn’t give us a lot of time or energy for self-reflection or self-healing, but at some point we all need to, or the parts of ourselves we relegate to the shadows will make themselves known in other ways–pain, illness, self-sabotage, or repeating the same patterns.
Life is not easy, but so many of us fall prey to stories of limitation, fear, and lack, so we play small or give up without even trying.
A lot of what people call coaching can be like trail markers or an outdated map, focusing on external “hacks” instead of uncovering the underlying roots that keep tripping you up before you can even reach the next trail marker. None of this will “stick” until you start illuminating what has been hiding in the shadows.
Fear, self-doubt, and other deeply rooted beliefs and behaviors often keep us from living up to our fully and intentionally. There are parts of ourselves in direct conflict with other parts; some pulling towards “safety” and others pulling towards expansion and growth, making it very difficult to move forward. When we have a divided will, we’re not tapping into our full power and ability to create the life we truly want.
I use a combination of Internal Family Systems (IFS)-informed parts work and other modalities to find the roots of limiting beliefs sown by childhood wounds, religious, societal, and family conditioning, and other sources that keep us from changing and creating our lives in the ways we dream of.
These are tools for introspection, radical self-acceptance, self-compassion, and self-love—a powerful combination that results in lasting change.
When we try to get rid of unwanted aspects of our personality (our shadow), we actually strengthen them, causing them to work even harder and keep us even more “stuck.” Instead, when we learn how to embrace all aspects of ourselves, we can work with them to ultimately accept and release the stories and wounds that they carry, reassure them, and find new ways of being.
This is for you if:
You know you’re not living your truth or your full potential and are ready to figure out what is holding you back.
You feel like you’re stuck in place and can’t figure out what your next steps are.
You feel like your decisions have been ruled by fear and anxiety, yet you feel there’s another way.
You feel like something’s missing in your life, but you can’t figure out what that is.
You know there are choices, but you don’t know what they are or how to make them.
You’re looking for support in seeing things more clearly and developing trust within yourself.
You want to learn how to connect to and trust your intuition and inner knowing.
This is not for you if:
You aren’t open to imaginal, creative methods of working with yourself and the parts of your personality.
You don’t want to be honest with, or take responsibility for yourself.
You don’t want to do the work outside of the coaching session.
You’re looking for a magic fix.
You don’t like cats. ;-) Just kidding, I’ll still work with you.
“I am out with lanterns looking for myself.”
Is it time to find that lantern to illuminate your path through the woods and those parts that hide in the shadows, so you’re moving in the direction you really want to?
Do you feel like you’ve been wandering in a dark wood and have somehow lost the path?
Or maybe you’re on one that seems to keep looping around in circles, continually crossing over itself and running into the same fallen trees blocking it, over and over again?
Or are you ready to get off the one that’s worn and dusty from overuse?
What are limiting beliefs?
Limiting beliefs are the thoughts we have about ourselves, our abilities, and what is possible in our lives. They can stop us from growing, succeeding, or being our true selves. These beliefs can make us feel inadequate or pressure us to fit a certain mold, keeping us aligned with the stories we were told growing up about the “right” and “wrong” path to follow. These beliefs can leave us feeling ashamed, stuck, unhappy, and unfulfilled when our lives don’t look like that; or, even when they do, we still know we’re missing something vital and feel stuck in a life we think we can't change.
This is our shadow, the parts of ourselves we think are unacceptable, unlovable. By facing and embracing our shadow, we can integrate it into the whole of our being, confront the beliefs that have been running our lives, and begin living intentionally and making conscious choices as the evolved adults we are. We keep getting to truly know ourselves. It’s a lifelong process of revealing layers, expanding our concept of who we are and what we are capable of.
Amelia Leonards