Polly Pollock sits down with us to discuss her upcoming first book Shadow Work for the Soul Searcher, and how shadow work can be a part of our holistic healing journey.
Grace Cummins: Can you introduce yourself and your work, which has now culminated into your first book, Shadow Work for the Soul Searcher? Polly Pollock: My name’s Polly Pollock, and as well as being an author, I’m a business and authenticity mentor for soul-led entrepreneurs. It feels pretty surreal knowing that I’ve actually published my first book, as I didn’t expect this to be a reality for at least a few more years. My professional journey started quite a few years ago when I became a tarot reader and reiki therapist. Then I moved on to becoming a spiritual and shadow work mentor, and I’ve naturally progressed into helping soul-led and mission-led entrepreneurs learn how to grow, market and share their work with authenticity and expression. My personal journey with shadow work itself, however, goes further beyond this. GC: What was it that drew you to this pathway of healing? PP: I got into my original work for a few reasons, honestly. The first and most important reason was because, from a very young age, I saw a lot of hurt and pain in the world. I experienced a rough start to life myself, always being told to hide who I was. I feel like when people think about the path of healing, the idea of love, light and fairytales comes to mind. But really, most healers are actually wounded healers. When I had done my own shadow work and healing to get past what I had been through, I knew that I was here to help others do the same. I saw so much wasted potential in myself when I was younger because I wasn’t able to take the space to be myself, take control of my life and thrive, and I just wasn’t prepared to not be a part of the solution to that problem. I also hated working for other people, honestly! Even when I was in my first ever job, I knew there was no way I was spending the rest of my life working for someone else when I had no passion for the work. GC: For someone new to shadow work, can you explain what it means and involves? PP: I think where shadow work has become increasingly popular over the last few years, the meaning of it has absolutely adapted. I actually think that it’s a good thing, because everyone has such individual relationships with it. By the original Jungian definition, shadow work is about going into the parts of ourselves that we often hide out of the fear of being judged or outcast and integrating them into our outward personality, rather than trying to hide them. But really, shadow work is also about going into the things that have created these parts of you. Some parts may just be inherent parts of your personality, some may be to do with inherited traits or generational events/trauma, and some may be to do with things you’ve experienced in your life. For example, I knew that my past inability to be authentic had a lot to do with the fact that I was severely bullied, and I had to retrieve those wonderful authentic traits that I had repressed to reintegrate them into my personality. It’s almost like gathering the lost parts of yourself and putting them back together after creating safety around underlying or past situations. When we do shadow work, we allow ourselves to heal, and accept rather than ignore and repress. We create a more honest, authentic and free world, piece by piece. GC: What can someone expect from a shadow work journey? PP: It means a lot of ups and downs. Like I say in the book, shadow work isn’t for everyone, depending on where you’re currently at in life. For example, if you’re currently going through a hugely turbulent and traumatic situation, I wouldn’t recommend doing shadow work. It can bring up a lot, and whilst it doesn’t have to be inherently “scary” or “dark” as it sounds, it can be intense. Shadow work could be a potential next step for you if you're striving for growth in life, but you feel yourself being blocked by something you can’t quite put your finger on, or you feel like you’re in a stable place, but you constantly revert back to old patterns again and again. Shadow work has its highs and lows, but if you make a promise to yourself to stick it out, and most importantly, have your own back through the process, the payoff is priceless. GC: What can shadow work help us with in our lives? PP: Just about everything! I integrate shadow work into all of my mentorship for business because it’s absolutely crucial. When we look at things like marketing and becoming visible with your work, there’s rarely ever a time that shadow work isn’t needed. It feels unnatural to most of us to put ourselves out there, because somewhere along the way, we’ve been told it’s not safe to. And that’s what our most basic instincts remember. Putting yourself out there authentically in any sense is uncomfortable, so it really can help us in all parts of life: relationships and finding partners, overall confidence, career changes, finding good friends and social circles, and most importantly, figuring out what you really want to do in life rather than accepting things as they are. Authenticity isn’t just about how we appear to the rest of the world, it’s about our relationship with self. GC: Shadow work can bring up challenging and uncomfortable emotions. What is your advice working with these difficult feelings? PP: As I mentioned before, making sure you’re in the right place to take on those uncomfortable emotions is crucial. If you’re going through a lot right now, it may not be the time to do shadow work. That being said, have a therapist on hand if you feel like you need to have a safe space to go beyond the shadow work. Most shadow work is self-led, but there’s absolutely no harm in having the safety of a licensed professional if you do feel that you need extra support. GC: Working with your inner child is something that has been gaining popularity over the last few years. What is the difference between this and our shadow self? Do they tell us different things? PP: I think our inner child and our shadow self are separate, but they communicate. The way I like to think of it is that our inner child experienced things that created our shadow self. Inner child healing has absolutely gained popularity over the years, but I think it’s slightly redundant if we just focus on things like giving our inner child freedom (going and having fun, giving our inner child what we lacked growing up) without doing the shadow work to actually understand the ‘why’ behind our inner child feeling neglected. GC: What would you say to anyone considering working with their shadow self? PP: If you feel ready, just do it. You’ll thank yourself later. I really mean it when I say that I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for shadow work. I used to have very little (pretty much non-existent) self-worth and self-belief, and I was stuck in life because of it. I didn’t believe I was capable of doing anything other than the bare minimum. Doing your shadow work will be the single greatest gift you’ll ever give yourself, and it will absolutely create a ripple effect into all areas of your life. Be patient to yourself, be kind to yourself – you’ve got this! If you enjoyed this article, then why not have a read of: Evolving the Feminine Consciousness: Archetypal Wisdom for Love, Leadership and Transformation by Mara Branscombe.
