How Looking at Your Shadow Is Good for Your Recovery with Justin Shaw

How Looking at Your Shadow Is Good for Your Recovery with Justin Shaw

What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? Retrieving Sanity brings that question to life as host Keegan sits down with returning guest and recovering alcoholic Justin Shaw to talk about shadows, sorcery, and why facing your darkest parts can actually support sobriety. A big focus here is Justin’s idea of the “shadow” – the part of you made up of fear, anger and old beliefs that once kept you safe but now hold you back.

He jokes that if his shadow is driving the car, “it’s going to want to drive off a cliff every time,” and shares raw stories of addiction, jail, rehabs and chaos-filled twenties to show what that really looked like for him. Rather than labelling himself as broken or powerless, Justin reframes identity in recovery: “You are the awareness of the alcoholic.

You are so much more than your worst trait.” He explains how naming your shadow (his is “Floyd”, after a lazy couch‑dweller character) helps separate who you are from what you’ve been through, and how creative expression, humour and even Eminem’s “Slim Shady” persona can be healthy ways to let that side of you breathe without letting it run your life.

The conversation also touches on religion, spiritual trauma, and why Justin moved away from rigid systems that made him feel afraid for loved ones after death. He and Keegan talk about meditation as a “call for inaction”, using stillness to feel uncomfortable emotions, question old beliefs and shift from reacting to responding. This episode suits anyone in recovery who’s tired of feeling defective or powerless and wants a more compassionate, practical language for their inner mess.

If you’ve ever wondered why you keep blowing up over small things, or why relapse feels like a personality reboot, this chat might give you a new way of looking at yourself. Ready to name your own shadow and see what it’s been trying to tell you?