exercise · all tools
Distinguish Your Shadow
In a group of four to seven, each person in turn introduces their shadow — the part they hide or are ashamed of — and answers the group's questions as that part: how it most likes to be seen, what it does to be seen that way, what is underneath the wanting. Ten minutes each. The manual calls it edgy but powerful, and says letting the hidden part walk with us can free a lot.
Prerequisites
- The manual's own word is 'edgy'; it belongs after the group has done lighter self-revelation together
- Ten minutes embodying what one is ashamed of, questioned by the group, is exposure by design; the questions are gentle in wording and not in effect
- Nothing in the manual addresses what happens if a shadow turns out to be something the group cannot receive well; the facilitator carries that
- The Golden Shadow variation — the part one is proudest of — is a different exercise at depth 2 and a kind way to close
Practical
- Time
- 40 min
- Group
- 4–7 · small-group
- Settings
- in-person, online
- Mechanisms
- narrative-identity, emotional-processing, perspective-taking, creative-expression
- Change scope
- state → skill · repeatable
Instructions
- Where
- authrev.org/ar-games-manual — Authentic Relating Games Manual, paid
- Availability
- In the source document — the instructions live inside the material linked, on its terms
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0 (Authentic Relating Games Manual)
Source link checked 31 Aug 2026 — unchanged since we recorded it on 29 Aug 2026
This directory describes and points home; the instructions stay with the people who made them.
Origin
Authentic World, with variations by Sara Ness and Jordan Allen for Integral Austin — Authentic Relating (Authentic Relating Games Manual, 2025 edition); shadow work in the Jungian sense
In this directory via Authentic Relating Games Manual
Variations in the manual: Shadow Conversation (the group plans a holiday, as their shadows) and Golden Shadow.
status: checked · added 2026-08-31