Session 1
Reflection Questions
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Take a moment to take inventory of your insights into your shadow
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How well do you know your shadow side, how it developed, and how it motivates you (positively and negatively)?
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How effectively and contemporaneously can you identify your shadow when it emerges in your thoughts, emotions, behaviors and interactions?
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How does your shadow impact your leadership style, your wellness, and your relationships? Can you think of instances where your shadow had a positive impact? Negative impact?
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Session 2
Reflection Questions
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Have you been willing to engage in inner work to help you become more aware of your shadow and to help to manage it constructively? If so, how has this helped? If not, might there be an invitation to consider doing so?
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Can you identify recent experience where engaging in some “situational inner work” might have (or actually did) helped you to manage the situation in a healthier manner?
Session 3
Reflection Questions
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How might you describe the dark side elements of your personality?
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How might any of the leadership challenges you have faced been related to your shadow or dark side? How might your shadow or dark side have driven some of your leadership successes?
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How did your family of origin impact the formation of your dark side? How might other past experiences contributed?
Session 4
Reflection Questions
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Which, if any, of the five personality descriptions do you see as possibly being present in your shadow or dark side?
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How do these personality elements manifest themselves when they become apparent to yourself or to others?
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What Biblical character(s) do you most closely relate when you are at your best? When you are at your worst? Why?
Session 5
Reflection Questions
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How do you react to the image of “spiritual composting” relative to the elements of your dark side? What elements of growth and transformation can you identify that have come from the “composting” of your dark side?
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How have expectations shaped your dark side in the past or at present?
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What practices are you regularly engaging in that improve your self-awareness of your dark side? What additional practices would be helpful that you are willing to commit to?
Session 6
Reflection Questions
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Which, if any, of the five shadows that Parker Palmer describes as being common for leaders resonates with you?
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Insecurity about identity and worth?
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Belief that the universe is a battleground, hostile to human interests?
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“Functional atheism” – the belief that ultimate responsibility for everything rests with us?
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Fear of the natural chaos of life?
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Denial of death (including change and failure)?
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What “triggers” can you identify that might make you more likely to project these shadows on others?
Session 7
Reflection Questions
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What “masks” have you carried in your life? What events or situations in your life helped to necessitate or create these “masks”?
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How hard is it for you to “embrace the journey” of integrating your shadow self, as opposed to approaching it as an event or “an accomplishment to achieve”?
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Where have you embraced vulnerability and humility relative to your shadow? What inner resistance do you still notice?
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How would it look if you embraced your shadow self with a sense of “radical hospitality?”
Session 8
Reflection Questions
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Using the principle that “naming” our shadows and incorporating them into our life narratives reduces the power they have over us, reflect on the following:
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How would you describe the elements of the dark or shadow side of your personality?
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How has your shadow side assisted you? How does it manifest itself when you are “your best self”?
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How has your shadow side been a challenge in your life? How does it manifest itself when you are “not your best self”?
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What cues or “early warning signs” does your shadow provide when you are in the process of being “triggered”?
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How does your shadow fit into your life narrative?
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Can you embrace the places where it has helped your or been beneficial?
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Can you describe the growth you have experienced through processing when it may not have shown up in a positive way?
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What additional resources might you take advantage of to gain deeper insight and understanding into your shadow?