The Growing Pains of Starting a Business During the Pandemic (and the importance of shadow work)
As we all begin to emerge from the hibernation of the pandemic and begin to take a look around, assess our environments and determine what’s working and what isn’t, we can’t help but look backwards at the past 18 months. In order to gain greater clarity of where we are, we need to see where we’ve been. I realize that can be dense and at times difficult to unpack. I think it’s safe to say that during the pandemic we have all lost but hopefully we have also gained too. For me and my business partner, this past year of isolation and what almost seems naturally paired–deep internal reflection and retrospection–has afforded the luxury of time to create what we might not have been able to otherwise had the hustle and bustle of typical New York City life been in full swing.
Before the “new normal”
Previous to the pandemic, I was a part-time yoga teacher and part-time brand strategy consultant running two businesses simultaneously and not really noticing that I was on a treadmill I couldn’t slow down for risk of face planting and to avoid all the metaphorical plates in the air from crashing down. Devi, my business partner was also running two businesses as a rising musician with a debut album, curator of the original Vibrobath sound baths, and okay maybe three jobs if you include a singing waitress gig at the once famous and now closed (due to the pandemic), Sammy’s on the LES of Manhattan. This part of our story is perhaps pretty common, New Yorkers hustling and working in pursuit of a dream, just one step away from both success and exhaustion until the pandemic put the brakes on pretty much everything. 2020–2021 provided the seeming contradictions of depression, opportunity, hope, fear and also the chance to once again walk the fine line between success and exhaustion although in a very different way than either of us could have imagined.
So rewind to November/December 2020, we’re six months into an unknown duration of the pandemic, we’re unemployed — mostly unless you count the intermittent private yoga/Pilates or sound therapy session– turns out that everyone in a pandemic needs yoga and sound therapy but no one can afford it. So we’re wondering what’s next when Devi’s brand IG gets hacked there’s a PR crisis (or opportunity depending on how you look at it) and there we are discussing ways we can support each other and potentially work together again. Only this time instead of consultant and client, as partners.
Partnership sounds simple enough, but it’s actually really hard work (ask a married person)
I am not married, nor have I had the pleasure (nor experienced the pains) of being married, but from what I can tell, a business partnership is not too dissimilar. Think about it, you share a bank account, you have to make joint decisions, sometimes you really want to throw in the towel and quit and then you remember that you have combined a life of commitments, shared dreams, and a lot of invested hours to build the house of your dreams (in this case of business, the metaphorical foundation of a house including content, shared ideas, hours of ideation that no one else beyond your inner team would get nor cares to make sense of). So for better or worse, you are stuck (err correction “lovingly committed”) to working through your issues, confronting your inner demons and shedding light on your shadows. Which brings us to…shadow work! Or as my business partner and founder of Vibrobath (2.0), Devi Mambouka would say, “Shadow Weeeeerrrrrrq!”
In order to build our business foundation, our dream home, or what is now the world’s first OnDemand meditation library of 100% original shadow work content, it requires, you guessed it, Shadow Work.
So what is shadow work?
Those in alternative wellness (although I prefer the term “holistic healthcare”), therapist circles, yoga communities, as well as Calm and Headspace app enthusiasts might be familiar with mindfulness practices, the art of observing, and breath work, however, many might still be unfamiliar with the practice of “shadow work”. While the trend of examining the self and taking ownership and responsibility for one’s part in conflict as well as harmonious resolution is certainly on trend at the moment, shadow work as a concept is somewhat new. Of course like all great ideas, they are most often a combination or shared, layered and built upon iterations. For example, we can look back to Carl Jung or even to shamanic traditions around the world as the original versions of investigating our shadows and hence the effects of unresolved anger, resentment, trauma, disappointment to our psyche and the ways in which our shadows can play out in our interpersonal relationships in the everyday.
Shadow work includes the examination of actions from the mundane to those of life changing kind of significance. We can even see the examination of one’s shadows in pop culture through music, film, poetry, novels, art. Some of the most recognizable being Anakin Skywalker’s battle with the dark side in the Star Wars Trilogy where his shadows literally consume him. To Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror as a way to look at yourself for change which starts with accountability, responsibility, and honesty with self to affect real change in your external world or environment. Yet, I’ll be the first to admit that neither notable examples are the most welcoming of heroes to follow when we think of the fall from grace that befell both men who embraced the shadow self. Some might even say that they read more like cautionary tales and suggestions to avoid rather than offering helpful advice to investigate the other side of a coin or what motivates our actions and reactions. So while shadow work as a concept isn’t necessarily new, the enthusiasm and guided framework for exploring those shadows of one’s soul safely and without great peril to one’s identity, sense of self or general risk of getting lost in the pits of despair and depression, most certainly is.
Why? Because the difficult work of looking at yourself to view all your flaws alongside your achievements, to view all the ways you contributed to an outcome that was less than desired, is hard work, uncomfortable and unpleasant. Sounds like a wet weekend, am I right? And life is hard enough so why would we want to dive head first into the depths of our beings, our subconscious really, because what if we don’t like what we find? And what are we supposed to do when we find it? To that, I offer the sage advice from Robert Frost, “the only way out is through“ or my personal favorite, a Victor Hugo quote, “what makes night within us may make stars.” So cheers to the hard-won successes that come as a result of shadow work!
Why shadow work is the new kale.
Shadow work is kinda like where kale was about 15 years ago, we always knew it was good for us but it took some convincing to embrace this vegetable with a chronically bitter taste frequently incorrectly prepared. But look at us now! Kale is the coolest veggie on the hipster block thanks to excellent PR, fun marketing, a healthy dose of open mindedness and adventurous eating spirits, also healthy word-of-mouth (puns absolutely intended!). So what’s missing for shadow work? It has a legacy PR problem (potentially) but most importantly it has yet to be entertainmentfied. Said another way, it has yet to be understood that it could be pleasant, adventurous, thrilling, or even dare I say: FUN! I know interpersonal and self development work fun? But before you wince and say ‘brussels sprouts!’, check out the newly released OnDemand spiritual library of advanced meditations made exclusively for the elevation of personal development through shadow work. What you find might surprise you and unlock an untapped potential for your most creative and liberated self.
