Embrace Your Phoenix Moment: Experiencing the Dark Night of the Soul
Ricardo da Costa, One of the best ways to learn things is by listening to other people’s stories.
Why?
Usually, when you can really feel someone’s emotions, the memory will stick.
One of the truest statements is, "People don’t usually remember exactly what happened, but they sure do remember how it made them feel."
This just goes to show that feelings and emotions are the staying-powers for our brains. Storytelling is a great way to learn from other people’s experiences without actually having to experience them for yourself.
If you’ve done any kind of research on spirituality, you’ll find a pattern. Most deeply spiritual people have some kind of "dark" past that they had to go through in order to reach the spiritual maturity that they are now at.
This phase in people’s lives is called many different things: facing the shadow, a dark night of the soul, mirror work, shadow work, and the list goes on and on…
What we’re getting at is that spirituality isn’t all "love and light" like everyone likes to think that it is, there is real work to be done in order to manifest your true soul’s purpose.
What Is The Dark Night of The Soul?
You know those experiences that we’re not always so proud to share?
Maybe these recollections are things that have happened that you’ve tried not to ever think about again, suppressing them from your conscious experience.
Or, maybe they’ve affected you so much that the reaction you have to certain situations in your current life stems from a subconscious learned behavior from your past.
Whatever the case is, the dark night of the soul or the shadow work that everyone unknowingly tries to avoid will bring it to light.
You see, this process is integral to being able to manifest your true soul’s purpose.
Why?
Without facing these buried experiences that we would rather not talk about, how can you truly know yourself?
A big factor about manifestation that most people miss is that you have to take radical responsibility for where you currently are in your life in order to manifest the life that your soul truly desires to live out in this realm.
Without extreme accountability, you’ll never know what needs to be addressed in order to live in your full potential.
This is not an easy task. In fact, our brains are wired with fight or flight reactions, meaning that if your brain registers that there is any kind of danger ahead, you’ll either be triggered to fight against it or to run away.
We’re here to reassure you that the growing pains that you’re probably experiencing on this spiritual path is not only completely necessary, but also universally and spiritually intentional.
How To Get Through The Dark Night of The Soul and Shine Your Light
We just talked about the body’s natural reaction to shadow work: fight or flight.
So, the first step to conquering this critical part of your soul path is to approach it in a conscious way. This means that you need to be fully aware and accepting of what you’re about to dive into.
As we said before, this is no easy task. And to make it even more inviting, you don’t just have one of these "phoenix moments," you’ll continue to experience them in order to get closer and closer to your higher self.
Don’t let this discourage you.
Simply remind yourself that as long as you’re incarnated here in this realm, there is always work to do.
So, why wouldn’t you want to learn the easiest way to integrate shadow work into your life?
If your initial response to facing your subconscious shadow self is to fight back and cause chaos, it’s imperative that you don’t let fear overcome you.
Again, this is not easy, but it is necessary. When we react out of fear, we’re more likely to lash out and destroy relationships around us that actually are supportive of our soul’s path.
To avoid doing this, recognize when you’re getting worked up and try to find the trigger in the situation.
Why were you triggered?
Are you acting out of emotion?
Is the chaos that’s being created really align with your highest self?
These are the types of questions that can calm you down and give you a different perspective.
If your initial response is flight when you face your subconscious shadow self, you have to also work on not acting out of fear.
This is no easier than the flight response above, but also just as necessary. When we run from something out of fear, we’re more likely to self-sabotage the very things in our lives that we’ve been working so hard to manifest.
To avoid doing this, take a moment to think about the big picture.
Everything you want is on the other side of fear.
Remember, isn’t this exactly what you’re asking for?
Do you feel worthy of the life that you’re manifesting?
These are some of the thoughts that can ground you again when you find yourself running from challenges.
Your Soul Knows What’s Best For You, Don’t Fight Against It! Sometimes, as we are stepping into our true purpose, certain situations will be manifested before us to help us hurdle into the next level of our lives.
There are people who will naturally try to go around the hurdle, sit in the same place, or even try to bulldoze through it, but neither of these approaches is the best way to face challenges.
As with anything, your strength gets better over time as you face more and more hurdles through life, you’ll become more and more comfortable jumping over them correctly.
Knowing a few things about yourself, like your natural talents and areas of opportunity can make your "training" that much easier.
Whether you’re ready to manifest the life that your soul is yearning for or you find yourself facing shadow work, learning about your soul path will reveal so much about you, including how you handle these situations.
Master Omikane