Springing Light

It’s a basic life truth that we are always changing, always evolving, always transforming. Even when we feel at our most static we are still in a state of change. Sometimes change feels absolutely wonderful and sometimes it comes from a place of deep pain.

I love it when I feel in control of my life and where I’m headed, and when I feel creative and “on top” of things. it’s a heady time, filled with movement and energy and excitement. It’s a total rush, not unlike how it feels to plunge down a steep rollercoaster: there’s a sense of anticipation, of moving forward, of sheer joy.

The flip side of this are the dark times. Often inner pain builds up to such an extent that it seems to completely take over. Nothing feels right, nothing goes well, everything is dark and it’s nearly impossible to envision a time when things will get better, or indeed, when things ever were better. All you want then is to make the pain go away.

You can do this a number of ways. Some people push it away, stuffing it more deeply inside themselves. Of course, it will always resurface again sometime later, and usually it will bring along a friend or two, so there’s more to deal with.

Some people numb themselves by self-medicating or simply by becoming inured to what life has to offer. They are numb to both the joys and the pits, but at least there’s little pain there.

It seems ironic, but the most effective way in the long-term is simply to allow the pain. Notice it, embrace it, let it be there without attaching judgment to what comes with it.

We’ve attached the notions of dark and light to our emotions. Dark emotions are thought of as intense and often painful, negative, while light emotions are thought of as happy and joyous, buoyant, and positive.

I’d like to help you move into a space of being more accepting of ALL your emotions and therefore removing judgment from them. And in doing so, you’ll also be able to more easily move into a space that accepts your transformations, whether from joy or pain, as the two are really one and the same. In other words, joy and pain are simply two aspects of Love.

Imagine you are awake and indoors in the very early morning, before the sun rises. It’s fully dark outside and you have kept the lights off indoors. You are enjoying the darkness and stillness that comes from being awake and aware in the night. You are alone and you revel in your solitude.

You move through whatever occupies you at this time and after awhile look up toward a window and notice the faintest glimmer of light; you’re aware it is dawning. The windows glow a bit and you feel something has shifted. You no longer feel alone and instead have a greater awareness to the world outside simply because there is more light.

Again you move your awareness to what occupies you. After a time, though, you again notice what has taken place around you: it is fully light outside and the light now lights your indoor activities. It is bright and fully daytime; the sun has risen.

That’s very much like what takes place during transformation. All the darkness and all the light are simply two aspects of the entire day, of the entire interactive experience with the sun, are they not? And you move through these spaces even though you don’t fully notice the change occurring around you. The transition from darkness to light is almost imperceptible, is it not? Yet it occurs even without your involvement or even your direct awareness, and when it is fully light you finally can bring your full awareness to it.

It is the same with riding the storms of your personal transformations. You may feel all manner of darkness and pain, but if you sit back a bit, detach from the experience a little and allow movement, before long the movement is noticeable, which then allows you to invite still more movement, and soon you are feeling fully in the light again.

It is by removing emotional attachment to which aspect of the process you are in, i.e. in the darkness or in the light, that allows the seamless transitions from one to the other, and allows this constant change with far less pain and far more joy.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!