“You cannot bring the light to the darkness. You must bring the darkness to the light.”
– A Course in Miracles.
I’m guessing many of you have been feeling a lot of intense emotion surfacing this week. I’m right there with you. The past several days I’ve been experiencing a lot of old emotional junk come up, stuff I thought I’d dealt with long ago. It’s been frustrating to say the least. Still, I know that whenever old stuff from the past surfaces, it’s a call to go even deeper into my own healing.
In the past I would have adamantly resisted an emotional upheaval like this. I thought if I was feeling angry, anxious or sad it meant that something was going wrong in my life. (Don’t we all just want to be happy all the time?) Now I know that the lows are an essential part of personal and spiritual growth. I know from my darkest times, some of my deepest healing has occurred. In fact, spiritual growth is just a continuous cycle of constriction and expansion, purging and clearing, unearthing and healing.
It would be great if we could just wave a magic wand and have all of our old fears and emotional baggage disappear, but it doesn’t work that way. Fears and emotional wounds need to be brought to the surface to heal, kind of like a detox. Old limiting beliefs need to pop up and smack us in the face from time to time so we can challenge them and say, “Hey, that doesn’t really fit for me anymore.” Old hurts need to be brought up to the light so they can be viewed with fresh eyes.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you it doesn’t suck. Like I said, the past few days have been rough. What I am here to tell you is that it’s ok to dwell in that darkness for awhile. Don’t fight it.
When we allow ourselves to sit quietly and just be with our sadness, our discomfort, our fears, something magical happens. If we can sit patiently, without judgement, and simply witness this process, eventually we approach that place where darkness meets the light. And from that darkness, such a beautiful light is born.
xoxo
Kristi
These are the words I needed today. It has been a tough week, but I’ve been pushing through and remaining positive. I think I truly need to sit down and feel what I’m feeling and just let it all show through.
Oh honey, I feel you. Hang in there, be gentle with yourself and honor what you’re feeling. You’re amazing! xo
Great advice, thanks! Many of us definitely resist emotional upheaval, either trying to suppress our feelings or pull ourselves out of them. But, this is counterproductive and only makes things worse. I do believe that our deepest hurts offer us our greatest springboards (as you mention above) when we have the courage to face them squarely. I overheard a “random” message yesterday from a man speaking to his young son and it really applies here, I think: “So many people are afraid of the darkness,” he said. “But the darkness is beautiful. Think of all the thins you can see in the dark: the stars…campfires…”
Love, love, love this! Thank you for sharing! xx