Illuminating Darkness
Illuminating ourselves depends on our willingness to step out of our darkness. It is said that if we could sense everything around us, we would go mad. The pursuit of knowledge can also drive us into madness when we have bo foundation to ground in.
Carl Jung joins us today on our trek with his timeless illuminating insights: “We are still certain we know what other people think or what their true character is. We are convinced that certain people have all the bad qualities we do not know in ourselves.
If you imagine someone who is brave enough to withdraw all his projections, then you get an individual who is conscious of a pretty thick shadow. Such a man has saddled himself with new problems and conflicts. He has become a serious problem to himself, as he is now unable to say that they do this or that, they are wrong, and they must be fought against.
Such a man knows that whatever is wrong in the world is in himself, and if he only learns to deal with his own shadow he has done something real for the world. He has succeeded in shouldering at least an infinitesimal part of the gigantic, unsolved social problems of our day.”
Why Discern?
When we realize no one really knows much of anything as everyone is creating and believing stories, what we choose to believe is foundational. This is why getting in touch with ourselves is important right now.
When the outer world is overwhelming, we may question who we can truly trust. This is why 2022 is the year of choices and discernment; not getting sucked into projections and dramas outside ourselves.
When we are in a state of suffering, we might have negative thoughts or we suppress what Carl Jung calls our shadow by forcing ourselves to be “positive.” Toxic positivity harms people going through challenging times. Instead of being able to share ourselves genuinely and gain support, we find our feelings dismissed, invalidated or pushed aside. Like anything, we need balance.
Radical honesty doesn’t mean we get to project ourselves on someone else. When we are honest with ourselves, we can then connect with people at a much deeper level of co-creation. Life is messy and our ability to be honest instead of “nice” or “appropriate” allows us to experiment with people in our life. The ones who resonate with us will allow us to be who we are without being “triggered,” offended or needing to correct us.
Illuminating Our Path
Do you ever turn on a very bright light in your house? And when you do, do you see dust and dirt, which until this point, was invisible? All of a sudden you see dirt in a new light. This is what is happening right now when we begin to sense darkness that may have been hidden before.
Many people are seeing things that we didn’t notice before because our light was not as bright. We hear people complain about how bad everything is and that things are getting worse. But, at the same time, as we face our fears and darkness, we ask ourselves, what am I illuminating?
For me, some include, and please create your own ways:
- Being thankful at the beginning and end of every day regardless of what transpired
- Illuminating the shadow by practicing compassion and understanding energy
- Laughing, smiling and being conscious of anything that creates light and opens us up profound truths that overwrite the old programming
Some live in darkness and some live in light. When we know ourselves, we live in both worlds in balance and harmony.