Maybe you’ve ever encountered the feeling that no matter how hard you try to be positive and do everything to feel good, something just isn’t right. It’s that global, hard-to-define feeling of darkness in the background. Well, living in a culture of positivity, it is quite tempting to give in to the idea that if we think only positively, read enough affirmations, resist the negative and push all bad thoughts and feelings under the carpet, life will succeed.
And it is normal that we indulge in it, because we are human and want to feel good. In an ideal scenario, we wake up in the morning, jump out of bed, face life with a smile, “high five” all passers by and thus live life in one long, smiling ride towards the sunset.
But in reality… just like an actor can’t play a show indefinitely, we also need to go backstage and be with ourselves.
What does it mean to be with yourself?
This doesn’t mean going home and recharging your batteries so you can keep chanting mantras and waging war on the front of positivity, or avoiding bad emotions by emptying wine bottles and sanding holes in the dance floor. It means the exact opposite – you have to make friends with your “darkness”.
What is this “darkness”?
It is a concept introduced by one of the fathers of psychoanalysis, Carl Gustav Jung. It would be more accurate to call it a shadow (shadow self), but I like the word “darkness”. Everyone can define it in their own way.
Darkness is the blind spot of the psyche or the unaccepted side of the personality. In the darkness lies the whole set of negative qualities that we want to hide along with our unconscious, undeveloped functions and contents.
2023-09-17 21:00:01
#gift #imperfection #struggle #personal #darkness #world #positivism
