An Invitation from the Darkness to Feel your Feelings

The darkest days of the year are upon us. This Thursday, the 21st, the "sun stands still" at the horizon on Winter Solstice, lingering for a few days before beginning its long and glorious return of growing light.

But for now, we are in Darkness' domain.

Darkness is calling us into her womb of silence and stillness. She draws us near, inviting us to not only rest, but to unravel. To set down the productivity. To wiggle out of the tight sweater we’ve been holding ourself together inside of, and let it all hang free.

Here in the darkness, we are invited to weave spaciousness into how we adorn ourselves and our lives.

We are invited to integrate the gifts of darkness (the imperative yet oft-forgotten fallow aspect of the Cycle of Life) into our own lived experience.

It’s something that our culture shies away from. Terrified of what it would mean to stop for a moment, we trudge on, exhausting and martyring ourselves.

I think one of the things we’re most scared of about the darkness is that it invites us to feel.

It invites us to face all of the stories that we tell ourselves, and question them.

What stories do you tell yourself about what you need to do and be in order to belong? In order to be good? In order to be liked?

In ​the Golden Stone Wisdom School​ we’ve been deep in shadow work, bravely exploring inner beliefs and ways of being. We’re integrating pieces of our pleasure back into our lived experience, and collecting pieces of our power from systems and false-stories that have made us believe we’re less powerful than we are.

This work requires courage. Courage to traverse the inner landscape of the Self in order to find liberation and truth.

But at it’s heart, this embodied exploration of remembering ourselves and our truth requires us to feel.

When we can connect to the feeling body we unlock access to memory, inner children, pieces of our energy and power that have been hidden, pieces of our joy that have been discarded, pieces of our wholeness that have been broken.

And then we weave. We pray lovingly over them, we invite them back in.

When we feel we liberate space within our body to fill with our truest desires.

When we feel we clear our perception so we can see the world with clarity.

When we feel we let ourselves be seen and heard.

When we feel we clear our channel for magic to come through.

In this hour of extreme collective pain and massive collective awakening, part of our job is to allow ourselves to feel. In the space that is created, love can pour in.

To align with love, to move from love, to consciously bring more love into this world, we must feel all the anger, grief, helplessness, and fear. We must acknowledge and feel any hatred within our own selves, and give these feelings a safe place to be seen.

It’s truly a magical process what happens. So often, once felt, seen, and loved, these feelings will transform. They will transform into an inner light and power. They will transform into a deep-rooted love for the world.

It is from this place that we act, aligned with love and clear vision for a brighter tomorrow.

A PRACTICE FOR FEELING YOUR FEELINGS:

• Put on some music if it helps you, and then give yourself permission to scream, throw a tantrum, punch the air or a pillow, stomp, cry, and move the energy through your system.

• Hold yourself. Hold your body, hold your pain, and let you know that you’re here with you. That it’s ok to feel what you’re feeling. And that it’s all welcome.

• Then, let yourself sense any spaciousness that’s opened up from the emoting.

• Into this space bring in love. Bring in desire for a world you want to see. Let yourself fully feel, embody, and vision a future. Let it feel good.

• Let yourself feel the joy, the peace, the love, the freedom, the radiance, of what it is you are visioning. What are you doing in this vision? What is your role?

• Close with gratitude, knowing this vision is on its way.

• Take one action towards that vision today. Whether that’s calling your reps to support a permanent ceasefire, donating to an organization that protects the waters or the wolves, reaching out to a friend or mentor who can support you, being kind to a stranger, embodying peace, etc. Do one small thing.

May these precious days of darkness bring you space to feel, space to unravel, space to be, space to love.