Dark vs. Light
In the spiritual practice I always find it easier to look at the lightness of myself. I really really love connecting with spirit and feeling that loving presence. There is no coincidence that my business is called The Light Embrace, however, we can’t have the light without the dark. If you look at the analogy of the lotus flower, it grows in the mud. It would not exist without it. The Yin/Yang symbol is the balance of dark and light. There is the earth and the heavens - dark and light. Night and Day. The list goes on....
You are unable to bring in more light unless you look at the dark. There is only so much space. You need to turn it over, hold it lovingly, dust out the old beliefs/patterns, hold yourself in deep understanding and compassion and bring it into the light. That is when the work works….hahaha. Shadow work is the part of the spiritual practice that brings in more light.
When I had my spiritual awakening I was always reaching for the light. I only wanted to see the good. And in retrospect, it was probably because I was in such a state of depression, that I only wanted to see the light. I was sitting in such a dark place that it was an effort to breathe. But as I gained strength with the light, I was able to look at my darkness with the courage of the light. What I mean by that is I was finally able to hold myself in the place of love while I was looking at those dark corners within myself so that I could compassionately love myself through the changes. Now, this took me some time to get here, not that I am judging but in order to get to that higher vibration, I needed to have a good basis of support from spirit. Without God and spirit I wouldn’t be able to get through those dark periods of growth.
That is why we need balance. So that when we look at those dark places and transition within our lives, there is a physical change that needs to happen energetically so that we can heal, ascend and thrive. Will we make mistakes along the way...sure. But it doesn’t matter, we are all on this earth school just trying to figure it all out.
When I was thinking about balance and dark versus light, I realized that there was integrity in how I was holding myself. That I wanted to hold myself in deeper integrity of myself. Meaning, I wanted to be safer within myself so that when I worked with others I wouldn’t loose my centre. So I really had to contemplate what that integrity looked like for me. Integrity meant to me, allowing myself to be fearful, allowing myself to not know what is going to happen next, allowing myself to feel the transition of going through something difficult and seeing that it will provide growth for me on the other side. Integrity of my body and within my body. There was a place where I wanted to leave my body because I wasn’t in integrity within myself or I didn’t trust that I could handle changes. It was a deep energetic shift that occurred that showed me....hey...I can handle this. I can do this. Even if I loose my #$(! That’s okay. It doesn’t matter what others think of me if I have an emotion or several for that matter, it doesn’t matter whatever happens, I will always hold myself in the space of integrity, compassion, and trust but most of all love. Because, you will see that the most important person to love you is yourself first. All the others including spirit, God, they already love you unconditionally, but if you can’t love yourself then you will not be able to receive the love that is already there for you.
So it is with the greatest of integrity within myself, that I send you love and compassion to hold your dark and light with the deep love for yourself and the knowing the you are unconditionally loved by God and spirit and they will always have your back.
Jackie Gutknecht