The Power in the Dark Side of Mindfulness.
Feeling the wisp of a cool breeze on a summer’s day, basking in the sunshine, reveling in a soothing, serene sunset walk on the beach — that’s the pleasant stuff, the beautiful stuff, the stuff of love songs, poetry, sonnets, and unrestrained proclamations of hope, and love, and all is right, and life is good.
But, that’s not the good stuff, the substantial stuff, the earth-shattering, world-changing, life-altering, soul-penetrating stuff.
The hearty stuff, the meaningful stuff, the stuff that radically changes our very experience of the world — that stuff comes from witnessing our darkness, everything we’d rather not admit to or acknowledge.
It’s piercing through the darkest shadows, looking directly into the black mess of muck and chaos.
It’s in not only seeing a black hole, but opening that sucker right up — reaching in and grabbing whatever unknown demons lurk inside.
Through mindfulness, we become aware of thoughts we’re not proud of, tendencies that don’t serve us, and entire belief systems that are based on false ideas we’ve unwittingly groomed.
My ego, I’ve learned, is far more limiting than self-promoting — more concerned with breaking me down than building me up. She’s on a quest, it seems, to keep me stagnant and safely secured…
