It's okay to just BE.

Just gonna stay here for a bit... And breathe.

If you’re on your own healing or personal growth journey, you might be able to relate to the unexpected “stuff” that rises to the surface at times, for example when you have had a Reiki session.

You may even think - “But I’ve done this work already”... oh but no, there’s always -ALWAYS- a deeper level of healing for you to explore.

This is happening so that it - the energetic emotion stored in your body - can ultimately be released. Growth... transformation, are not a one-and-done transaction. Its not a quick trip from A to B. It’s ongoing ups and downs, ebbs and flows, and, if we are open, peeling away another layer of pain energetically stored in the body; peeling away another layer of stored emotion; peeling away another layer of this stagnant energy that is weighing us down, both energetically and physically.

And when that moment is happening, it’s important to allow yourself to fully sink in and open to all the feelings that are there. All of them. Sink into the darkness.

We need to re-write the negative connotation around dark - around “good” and “bad” and around the binary concept in general. This concept of the binary of light an dark [light = good / dark = bad] is rooted in our societal construct and it is another way we have been indoctrinated to disconnect from our soul... It promotes toxic positivity (“good vibes only”) and and while many spiritual practices/groups/sisterhood circles play to this concept too - of love and lighting everything away- it keeps us from being our fullest expression of our light within.

Light cannot be seen without darkness. They are two equal parts of the same whole, just like yin and yang energy, or feminine and masculine... They are equally integral to our being.

When it comes to our personal journey of evolution - how ever that may look for each of us - we cannot simply “love and light” our pain away; it’s the exact same as burying it or replacing or distracting in order to avoid it. That’s another learned behaviour of keeping ourselves busy to avoid

feeling how we feel. Here, the “doing,” the action... Is in the “being.” We need to BE in it and FEEL, as difficult as it can often be, it so that we can release it.

Being in the darkness, the unknown, the anticipation of the feelings we don’t want to feel... All of that can be scary, of course. It’s likely why many choose simply not to go there and simply bury it (or try to). Our ego wants us to believe that we’ve let go or overcome “it,” whatever “it” is. But ego doesn’t get a seat at the table... This works requires us to leave ego outside the door and open up to our own - potentially raw - vulnerability. This is the real act of courage.

We have all become great actors in making it appear as though we are ok because we’ve been taught that positive emotion is more receptive by our peers than negative. Being in our vulnerability and doing the actual work is what we ultimately need to strive for if we want to create a more beautiful world, as opposed to appearing as though we have gotten over or through (when we know the truth that deep down we have just temporarily “locked it down”).

When I heal, you heal... we heal.

Being in our own darkness in order to heal ourselves is a positive act of love. It is a courageous act of love. This is us loving ourselves. This is self love.

It is also important to give yourself permission to take the time needed to integrate that processing; the integration of the freed up space and any newly gained wisdom into your current being. Again, we are always constantly feeling an external nudge to do-do-do... but we need to also just be. Just be with ourselves in this new fuller essence of our truth.

It’s ok to just BE.

Image : @mignonettetakespictures on Instagram