Toxic shame is a common wound. This type of shame shows up as looping patterns of feeling unworthy, wrong and quite literally toxic. The clients I have worked with may feel like they are not really a good person and they may feel that they have done some terrible things or made bad choices creating deeper feelings of being unworthy and wrong.
Most people are not aware or have not learned there is a difference when experiencing shame that is healthy and productive. Shame that serves is supposed to aid us in stopping behaviors that do not serve and to create new and healthy behaviors that serve our lives.
This is built into our DNA which is why when we feel convicted our bodies have the sensation of burning and heating up. When this occurs know we are in the Phoenix Process purifying physically. This is a real process and it is a purposeful tool for healing and our ability to step into our wholeness and our Higher Selves.
Toxic shame is counter-intuitive, it is not healthy and does not serve in healing. Toxic shame just adds another level to whatever issue the person is dealing with because this type of shame is dis-empowering and bad for our Human nature and Spirit. No wonder people want to avoid feeling shame! Toxic Shame, is physically and emotionally deflating, heavy, bleak and down trodden. When people stay in toxic shame they typically go into victim stories and martyrdom. Basically going deeper into dysfunction and negativity, instead of healing, rectifying and evolving.
Healthy shame, from my experience, is a legitimate and real element of being human. We do things wrong. We make mistakes. Healthy shame is a way of owning and being accountable for our mistakes, which is also part of our humanity. In healthy shame we are given the opportunity to go into our life lessons, in order to process, rectify, and learn from what we have done. This type of shame is purposeful, serves to create change, cultivates healthy conviction, and has the ability to transform us.
In Healthy Shame:
● I can see what I have done wrong, or what I am currently doing that is not right for me. I can see the impact of my actions on others, because healthy shame clears up my ability to see myself and others.
● I feel and see how my actions are not aligned with me, my beliefs, or my true nature.
● I see myself and others with greater clarity because using healthy shame helps me stay open. Being open enables me to see and feel my life. This openness is where I go into the heart of my life lessons.
● I feel the burning sensation of healthy shame throughout my body, which may be concentrated around my chest and throat. This burning sensation is my natural emotional purification.
● Allow the healthy shame to burn at the root chakra (base of your spine) and energetically come up in a beautiful burning sensation, and beautiful burning light, up out the crown chakra (top of your head) to be released.
● Allow the burning sensations to cleanse and detox your body and Soul. Open up as much as you can to support this process of physical cleansing.
● If I use healthy shame to hold myself accountable, allowing myself to feel badly, to feel the burning sensation about what happened or what I did, this process can be part of my rectification. This is a natural way of redeeming myself energetically, physically, and emotionally if I am open, allowing this natural process to take its course.
● I am willing to stay open and experience healthy shame when it is needed.
● Healthy shame gives me energy to change. It burns up the emotional charge around what occurred, and clears up my energetic field. This process gives me more energy. I am not depleted.
● Healthy shame has the power to burn my life lessons through me so I learn those lessons in a deep and profound way.
● My openness to experiencing healthy shame naturally opens me to experiencing my life, my loved ones, and the people around me to a higher degree. I am more open because I am not hiding or avoiding things in order to avoid shame.
● This natural process is trans-formative! Healthy shame has a built-in mechanism of cleansing, healing, transformation and evolution.
A new way is now needed... you are not supposed to know what to do. This is divine order that you do not know how to fix this. Your life is trying to move you into a new place. You have not been in this place, so it is unknown. You cannot know how to get there. Being open to not knowing helps break you out of the loop of toxic shame if you will allow it to.
In Toxic Shame:
● I feel heavy, unworthy, and I feel wrong. I am drained of energy. Unredeemable.
● I feel panicky or out-of-control. I feel futility and dread take me over. I feel deflated and depressed.
● My reality feels precarious and/or distorted. My life feels murky.
● “I shouldn’t be here. I know better than this. I shouldn’t still be dealing with this. This shouldn’t have happened. I should know what to do. I need to fix this. I need to figure this out.”
You are not supposed to know what to do here. This is divine order that you do not know how to fix this. Your life is trying to move you into a new place. You have not been in this place, so it is unknown. Being open to not knowing helps break you out of the loop of toxic shame if you will allow it to and embracing owning your life in conviction can shift you into healthy shame.
● I am so collapsed on how wrong and bad I am it is hard to see myself and stay open. When I am in this collapsed place I cannot see all the potentials and lessons trying to unfold. I am just looping in my terrible feelings.
● I feel I cannot let others fully see me. I need to hide. I cannot expose parts of me that might make me feel deficient.
● I cannot really see the people in my life when I am so busy trying to hide and avoid truth. Most of my attention is on myself and managing what others might be seeing or thinking about me.
● This whole toxic reaction feels so terrible, I do whatever I can to avoid shame.
● The toxic process does not end. It recycles itself over and over and our shame gets deeper into our psyche. I can punish myself over the same thing forever.
● Physically and energetically, toxic shame feels like it has been poured over you and everything is draining out of you. By contrast, healthy shame is a burning purification that starts at your root chakra and burns up and out of you if allowed to do its work.
● In this place of deep shame I feel sure others are making me feel bad and ashamed; they make me feel bad and wrong. Then I feel the need to defend myself . . . whatever is happening is not my fault! I feel terrible. Toxic shame scrambles and distorts what other people say to me. In my toxic shame I hear some form of criticism, scolding and condemnation in almost everything.
● Someone else must be to blame for how I feel or for what happened, because this is too much for me to handle or carry on my own. I feel victimized.
● I also feel like whatever occurs is my fault; in any given situation there is an underlying feeling I have done something. I may not even be sure what. I feel unease much of the time.
● Toxic shame makes me feel like I need to guard myself against others and life.
Time to Expand and Evolve! Wake Up!!!
● I tell myself my toxic shame proves that I care. If I hold it long enough and feel terrible enough, this means I am truly sorry. This may even prove I am a good and worthy person.
● Toxic shame can be a built-in mechanism to control others. The way this shows up is that my loved ones know without being told what triggers me into my toxic shame response. If they care about me they will avoid those trigger points.
Healthy shame is a powerful avenue in healing, transformation and evolution. Healing the most dark and wounded parts of yourself is the greatest gift you can give yourself, your loved ones and the World. If this article has awakened a desire to experience a new way of being, I would love to help guide you through your process of healing and transformation.