The Dark Night of the Soul

The Dark Night of the Soul should never be allowed to take root in our lives. Our soul is like a garden, and we the gardeners. If we allow the Dark Night of the Soul to take hold, it can become permanent.

Pain and suffering is part of the natural flow of life. We all experience the Dark Night of the Soul at different levels, for different reasons.

However, if we let the grief, hurt, shame, guilt, or regret to take hold, we may never get over it as long as we live.

The Dark Night of the Soul is event or situational based, and always temporary. It comes during times of significant change or transformation. The length and strength of the Dark Night of the Soul depends on the depth of our spiritual dimension of being, a.k.a. the foundation of life.

There is no deeper well than that of self-pity. We all have the occasional moment of “Why me?”, or even “Woe is me”. One of the tools readily available to one and all is self‑love.

Not the self-love associated with narcissism. The agape self-love – self-transcended love ‑ that allows us to look at ourselves as we are, not as we wish we were.

When we look at ourselves with self-love, we do so with compassion and empathy. We provide ourselves with good companionship as we look at the scars, flaws, and the beauty, and the goodness. We accept it for what it is and embrace it with a loving gentleness.

When we can honestly look at our deepest selves with love and compassion, we can identify what the real need is, and then seek that to heal our suffering.

Living a positive lifestyle does not protect us from pain and suffering in the world. Each comes to us all at different times, in different forms, because pain and suffering are, like us, part of the natural flow of life.

One of the ways to approach pain and suffering is to observe it, and accept it for what it is, and then to take action.

The first step in taking action is to lean-in to your beliefs. When we lean-in, we inspire the light that lives inside of us. When the light is inspired, hope is sparked and grows.

The second step is meeting our beliefs half-way and taking action in our lives to change the course to something more manageable, while guided by our beliefs.

The third step is to step outside of our worry and fear, and engage with others of our beliefs to gain a sense of support and security. Before we can be the change we want to see in the world, we have to be the change we want to see in our own lives.