Dark Nights and Voids - Finding the Light

We hear of the dark night of the soul experiences, and most of us have experienced one. Sometimes we have more than one of them! When we remove ourselves from the pain of the experience, we discover they really are about finding clarity and ourselves. 

There are also times we enter the void, a place where it feels that all the love and color is sucked out. We feel alone, drifting in the darkness. We come to realize the only way out is through our own doing, which can feel insurmountable when we are feeling lost, detached, and drifting. 

In these situations it can feel like helping ourselves, or finding assistance, is too much. Sometimes we become stuck in this pain. But we will come to the point where we have to make a choice because we know we cannot stay there any longer.

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Stepping Out of the Darkness
A few shifts that may assist 

~All it takes is a small spark of light to brighten up the darkness. A small flicker, flame, or ignition can light up the blackness. An act of kindness, reading an uplifting article, feeling a trickle of love when watching a child experiencing joy, or finding a small moment of inspiration. 

~ This is a moment, not forever. Your soul does not feel the pain the way your mind and emotional bodies do. It is whole and there to assist and guide you through this.

~ There is a gift. Acknowledge that even if you do not know what this darkness is about, or what the pain is, that there is a gift in it. Even if it doesn't make sense, just know that that you will discover what the jewels of this experience are when you are ready. 

~Drink water. Water will help flush the physical and emotional stickiness. 

~Find gratitude. Even if that feels hard. You can be grateful for your bed you are laying in, for having a body that allows you to walk, for the air you are breathing. Gratitude is the lifting device that will lift you from fear, anger, pain, and struggle to feeling more joy again. 

~Find self-forgiveness for feeling this way. Often the beating up of ourselves perpetuates the loop of the void and darkness. We can find ways to blame ourselves for being in this position in the first place. Forgive yourself. 

~Honor your feelings - anger, resentment, blame, guilt, fear, or other painful emotions.. Allow yourself to acknowledge them. Then try to expand beyond them by putting a hand to your heart and breathing, exhaling with sound and tell yourself that you are more than these feelings. 

~Be in nature. By a river, a hillside, under a tree, by a lake. Just be and allow yourself to feel what you need to feel.