PATHWAY TO JOY AND HEALING

When I first heard of Dark Night of the Soul, I thought it is an emotional nightmare or horrible physical ailment that we suffer during our spiritual journey.  Many have interpreted it as such, but I believe it is neither.  Dark Night of the Soul is when we come to realize that everything we believe to be our reality is really an illusion.   When we awake to this truth after death of ego, it is the Dark Night of the Soul.

During most of my life, I believed that my reality was that everyone around me was attempting to hurt me, that my suffering was caused by others, that my failures were caused by others, and that I knew who my friends were and who I could trust.  What I have come to realize about my truth is that what is white is black and what is black is really white.  The choices and decisions I made were by my ego, full of dysfunctions and addictions, and I engaged with those who behaved in these negative ways.

For many years, I was unaware that I was engaging in dysfunctions and negative behaviors and truly believed that it was the right thing to do and good for me because it helped me avoid my true reality. My childhood abuse and trauma clouded my ability to see my life clearly, and I continued a life of victimhood where I was stuck emotionally. However, after years of engaging in these negative behaviors and with those who engaged in them, I began to understand that I was the cause of my own suffering.  I had numerous failed relationships and friendships, felt unfilled and dissatisfied in my career, and felt emotionally stuck in my life.

In February 2012, I began to change my life in earnest when I left my marriage that was unworkable, a career that made me unhappy, negative behaviors involving infidelities, affairs, and addictions, and escape and running away behaviors.  In the past three years, I began to turn my life around.  I simply stopped hurting myself with my own choices and decisions by leaving behind negative behaviors and those who engaged in them.

After the Dark Night of the Soul when ego dies, there is a new beginning for each of us with a new life where we stop running after our illusions and begin to live our truth.  When we do, we will  live our lives at our highest potential through the path of our higher selves.  May you find your truth and live at your highest potential.  (Copyright 2015 Living Wide Awake with All Rights Reserved)