Don’t Skip Shadow Day 🕯️
“Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light.” — Groucho Marx
I used to think healing was supposed to feel... beautiful.
Soft energy. Peaceful meditations. Positive mantras and open hearts.
And sometimes, it is those things.
But the parts that changed me…
The real growth…
That happened in silence.
In shame.
In nights where I couldn’t look in the mirror without flinching.
"Spiritual growth isn’t ‘love and light.’
It’s courageously welcoming your darkness."
It happened when I faced the part of myself I’d spent years exiling:
The jealous one.
The avoidant one.
The one who could manipulate, resent, punish.
That part didn’t need to be "loved and lighted."
It needed to be witnessed.
It needed to be understood.
It needed me to stop pretending I was further along than I really was.
Spirituality without responsibility becomes performance.
But when it’s real, it pulls you into the underworld.
Not to shame you.
To teach you.
Because your shadow isn’t a mistake.
It’s the part of you that holds the truth you weren’t safe enough to express.
Until now.
These small notes arrive quietly,
like morning light through a cracked window.
No noise. Just truth.
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Your inner work.
Today, ask yourself:
“What part of me do I only face in private—if at all?”
The part you correct in public but feed in secret.
The part you shame with spiritual bypassing.
The part you exile through performance.
Then write:
“This part of me isn’t bad. It’s hurt. And it’s time I stop pretending it’s not there.”
That’s real work. That’s spiritual growth.
All in all.
There is no light without shadow.
There is no freedom without truth.
You don’t need to fear your darkness.
You just need to stop pretending it makes you unworthy.
Because spiritual growth isn’t about appearing healed.
It’s about being honest enough to walk into your own cave and stay there long enough to listen.
You’re not broken.
You’re becoming.
And that process…
It’s sacred. Even when it’s ugly.
Especially then.
Let’s talk about it.
What shadow have you started to meet with compassion?
The control?
The anger?
The judgment that’s easier to project than own?
What shifted when you stopped hiding that part and started listening to it?
If you’re ready, share it.
The more we normalize shadow work, the more honest healing becomes.
Thanks for reading today’s Healing Text.
If you’re here, you’re part of something honest, something that makes space for healing without the performance. And I don’t take that lightly.
If today’s message met you where you are, and you’d like to support the work, here are a few simple ways to do that:
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And if you’re craving deeper reflections, long-form stories, raw journal entries, and shadow work tales that cut through the noise, I write those in my other newsletter…
Whether you support with a share, a coffee, or just by showing up… thank you.
With gratitude,
— Ryan Puusaari ☕💛
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If it holds your ache, your becoming, your breath...
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