Prompts

40 shadow work prompts, by theme

Shadow work prompts are questions that point at what you avoid: old wounds, masks, anger, grief, envy. Here are 40 prompts taken word for word from the Soul Arc app, grouped into the 12 themes the app uses.

How do I use a shadow work prompt?

1. Pick one. Choose the question you least want to answer.
2. Write for ten minutes without editing. Nobody else will read it.
3. Notice where you slow down. The sentence you want to delete is usually the useful one.
4. End by naming one thing you saw. One line is enough.
5. Stop there. One prompt answered honestly beats five answered quickly.

New to this? Start with what shadow work is.

What are the prompts?

Each theme below shows a few of the 12 prompts the app has for it.

Start here if you keep reacting to the present with feelings that belong to the past.

• What did you need at age ten that no one thought to give you?
• What story from childhood are you still living inside without realizing it?
• What have you called 'just how you are' that might actually be an old wound?

For the gap between the person you show and the person you are when no one is looking.

• What version of yourself do you put on before a room? What happens if you forget?
• What do you edit out of yourself before speaking in most conversations?
• What mask do you wear at work that has started to feel like your face?

For loneliness, and for the habit of leaving before you can be left.

• When did you learn that belonging required becoming someone other than yourself?
• Do you pull away first so no one else can? When did that start?
• What would it cost you to stop being the one who needs nothing?

For anger you swallowed, and the boundaries it was trying to draw.

• What are you pretending not to be angry about right now?
• What injustice have you called 'fine' because making it a big deal felt too dangerous?
• What emotion have you been calling weakness?

For losses you kept moving past instead of grieving.

• If grief had a shape, what would yours look like right now?
• What dream did you stop mentioning because wanting it started to hurt too much?
• What would you have to stop staying busy with in order to feel what you've postponed?

For control, perfectionism, and the fear underneath both.

• What are you controlling that is really anxiety about what you can't control?
• What rule are you following that no one is enforcing anymore?
• What are you perfecting to avoid finishing, because finished things can be judged?

For wanting, envy, and what you decided you were not allowed to have.

• What do you want so badly you're embarrassed to admit it even to yourself?
• What do you deny yourself while giving it freely to everyone else?
• What do you envy in others that points to what you need to claim?

For the traits you disown in yourself and notice fast in other people.

• What quality in another person bothers you most? And where does it live in you?
• If you stopped pretending to be the good one, who would you be?
• What part of you do you hide, even from people who love you?

For what you already sense is true and keep arguing with.

• What do you already know that you're spending real energy trying not to know?
• What have you called 'overthinking' that might actually be intuition?
• What do you keep almost saying, but swallow at the last moment?

For the identity you have outgrown and the one you have not stepped into yet.

• What are you still defending that you have actually already outgrown?
• What would the person you're becoming say to the person you are now?
• What gift is hiding inside the thing you most dislike about yourself?

For over-giving, and the needs of your own that you keep last.

• Whose emotional world are you managing at the expense of your own?
• When did you last ask for help without minimizing what you needed?
• What are you sacrificing that no one has asked you to sacrifice?

For the life you keep postponing.

• What are you waiting for permission to do?
• What decision have you already made but not yet admitted to yourself?
• What are you staying busy with to avoid something that matters more?

What are Soul Quest prompts?

Soul Arc also has 45 longer prompts called Soul Quests, 3 on each of its 15 planets. Here are 4 of them:

• What are you most afraid you'll find when you look at yourself honestly?Planet 1: Origin Point
• Who in your life were you never allowed to be angry at? What would you say to them now if there were no consequences?Planet 3: Ember
• What part of yourself do you judge most harshly in other people? What does that tell you about what you've rejected in yourself?Planet 5: Umbris
• What pattern in your life do you recognize from your parents or family? How has it lived in you, and what would it mean to be the one who ends it?Planet 12: Veldara

What if a prompt brings up too much?

These questions aim at painful material, so that can happen. Stop writing. Do something that brings you back to the room: stand up, drink water, go outside. You do not have to finish a prompt, and you can skip a theme completely.

If a prompt keeps pulling up something you cannot settle, that is a good thing to take to a licensed therapist. A journal is not a substitute for one.

Where do these prompts come from?

They were written for Soul Arc. In the app, each of the 12 archetypes carries one theme:

On the free plan you get 3 new prompts a day. Soul Arc Pro opens all 144, and you can pick them by archetype or theme.

Keep reading

• What is shadow workWhat the shadow is, where the idea comes from, and how to start.
• Jungian archetypesWhat Jung meant by archetypes, and the 12 that Soul Arc uses.
• UmbraHow the AI companion works, and what happens to what you tell it.