The Dark Night of the Soul

Every living being on planet earth is a spiritual being. Every encounter you have with another being is a spiritual encounter. There is no divide. People don't believe in spirituality, we are all living a spiritual experience. Many people dabble in the shallow end of a spiritual journey, gathering information, but never getting to the point of implementation. The souls that have ventured deep into themselves to be able to see exactly how it's manifested as their reality are the souls that have endured the dark night of the soul.

The dark night of the soul is the journey of releasing every negative judgement that you hold about yourself. The universe will bring you into situations that present the judgements that you are afraid could be true. For example, being lazy, being disorganized, being a flirt, being a liar, being a failure, these are all judgements that people run from. These are all things people are afraid to be perceived as, when in reality we have no control over how we are perceived by other people. How we are perceived by other people is a direct reflection of how people perceive themselves. If someone calls you lazy for not doing the dishes, it's not because you're actually lazy. It is because, when they don’t do the dishes, it triggers their own negative self-talk and they call themselves lazy. The more you’re able to realize this, the more other people's judgments won't trigger your own negative self-talk. So, the next time someone calls you lazy, you won't be sent into a spiral of negativity that focuses on all the ways that that accusation may be true. Instead, you’re able to separate yourself from their judgement and give yourself validation. You might say, I know I am not lazy, I know I accomplish what I need to, and I know they are only speaking to me how they speak to themselves.

The thing that makes the dark night of the soul so very intense is that it has you work through every single judgement you work to avoid. You will be put into situations to trigger these judgements, which will trigger all of your negative self talk. Some are judgements you weren't even aware that you were running from, like the fear of being alone. Many people grow up believing they have to be in a relationship, it becomes a part of their worth. So they believe they are not worthy when they are single, these are the people that are always on the search for a relationship. Fear of being alone leads to codependent tendencies, like needing external validation, people pleasing, needing external comfort. These are all aspects of yourself that you work through during that dark night of the soul. Many people struggle to face these things because of the shame and guilt they have about their actions. The bottom line is that none of these things are your fault. Our society has trained us to believe these things, they have instilled us with fear, confusion, and lack of intimacy with ourselves. Even though it is not our fault, it is still our responsibility to work through the negative beliefs we hold about ourselves. It is our responsibility to take control of our own actions and believe in our own capabilities. You are not any of the negative judgements that you hold about yourself and the more you're able to work through them, the more you're able to replace them with positive views. You start to believe that you are capable, you are loved, you are worthy, that you are successful. You can now live a life that is based upon your own standards and not on the things society tells you to believe about yourself. This is true freedom and it is something that I hope everyone will be able to achieve in this lifetime.