Shadow Stories and the Gold They Guard

Our shadow stories have a way of showing up at the strangest times. You’re moving steadily toward a goal and suddenly find yourself stuck. Or you’ve just experienced a breakthrough—expansion, lightness, freedom—when without warning you contract back into old fears.

Sometimes they hover in the background, quietly keeping us from moving forward, resistant to every effort we make to shift them. They take many forms. Some are easy to name. Others are slippery, disguised as a kind of insidious common sense that sounds reasonable, until you realise it’s been holding you back from courageous action all along.

Shadow stories might sound like:

• I’m not good enough to achieve my dream.

• Success is scary and risky.

• Being visible means getting hurt.

• People don’t want to listen to me.

• My voice harms people.

• Things are harder for me than they are for others.

• I’m not smart enough to do what I want to do.

• I’m just unlucky.

There are as many versions of shadow stories as there are people. Yet most of them reduce down to a single refrain:
I am not good enough, lovable enough, or safe enough to do the thing I dream of. The usual advice is to reframe these stories with positive affirmations. But for me, affirmations rarely land. They skim the surface and slide off.

What I’ve discovered instead is that shadow stories are not empty. They cover hidden gold. Like dragons, they guard a mount of treasure. To dissolve the block, you first have to sit with your dragon long enough to see the gift it’s keeping from you.

Here’s what that can look like:

• Shadow Story: I’m not good enough to achieve my dream.
  Gift: I’ve learned how to work hard to get where I want.

• Shadow Story: Success is scary and risky.
  Gift: I’ve been pushed to deeply define what “success” truly means to me.

• Shadow Story: I’m just unlucky.
  Gift: I’ve learned not to rely on luck. I make my own fortune.

The first step is naming your fear. The second is sitting with it until you recognise the gift it hides.

Don’t let the dragon sit on your treasure. Claim the gift, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly the story dissolves and movement returns and your grand quest can continue.

May today bring you the courage to name your dragon, and the wisdom to take back your gold.