How to Find Hope Amidst the World’s Darkness
(Photo: Amadeo Valar)
Lost in the Darkness
Sitting in a grassy park overlooking the water, I soaked up the spring sunshine and settled into a much-needed catch-up with a girlfriend. The self-isolating, social-distancing, homeschooling, shutdown-of-all-things-we-love saga had taken a toll on all of us. As my friend spoke, I noticed the exasperation in her eyes and the exhaustion in her body. This mom of two active little kids confided in me that she had lost all hope in government, media, big business, big pharma, school systems and possibly even humanity. The darkness in the world had become too great for her.
This was the third friend who had recently revealed her deflated self to me. These fresh-out-of-hope friends are women who I know to be passionate, well-informed, opinionated and strong. These are women who are crusaders for what they believe in. And here they are now, drenched in hopelessness and worn out by the darkness, giving up on the world.
I began to wonder if my friends knew something that I don’t. Is it true that all hope is lost? Is it time to retreat with our petitions and banners dragging sadly behind us and our heads sulking in defeat? Are we forced to choose between abandoning ourselves and becoming zoned-out zombies OR abandoning the world and escaping to off-the-grid hideaways? Is there really no hope for a compassionate, conscious, ethical world?
With a heaviness in my heart, I did what I always do when I need clarity. I took it to my meditation.
(Photo: Pete Shoniker)
A World of Bright Lights
Sitting in meditation, I witnessed my soul pulling back until I could see the entire earth in my view. As I looked at the planet, I spotted tiny bright lights sprinkled around the globe. Like mini fire works, these tiny lights expanded and grew brighter. Similar to a grid, lines of light connected all the little lights. Suddenly, clusters and whole communities of bright lights appeared. These communities of lights are super-charged, with enough voltage to light up an entire hemisphere!
Our souls are these tiny bright lights. WE are the lights.
Connected to one another, we are never alone. Our commitment to doing our inner work and expanding our consciousness is the electricity that lights up the earth. Your commitment to healing and living in your light is igniting and supporting the transformation and healing of humanity. Because of you, me and our world-wide community of spiritually lit-up women and men, there IS hope.
(Photo: Josh Boot)
Anger, Hatred & Fear
Admittedly, there is darkness in the world too. Behind my closed eyes, this darkness appeared like a bubbling, thick, murky sludge. The darkness is suppressed anger and hatred. The darkness is greed, lies and the misuse of power.
On an individual level, it is the darkness in our psyche that we desperately try to deny. The gunk within us that makes us squirm, the parts of us that we fight to hide from others and ourselves: our shame, our prejudices, our buried rage. The darkness is fear.
On a system-wide level, the darkness is abuse of power. It is those in power misleading and manipulating those whom they are hired to lead. The darkness is the dirty, toxic muck of unethical actions that harm the environment and hurt people. It is ignorance and arrogance.
What good is the light when there is such undeniable heavy darkness in the world?
Be the Light; Heal the Darkness
The light casts a spotlight on the darkness. The light is the witnessing. Similar to when we do our own inner emotional work, we cannot heal what we deny to exist. The light is our willingness and courage to see.
The light is our courage to compassionately hold space while collective fear, anger and hatred rise up and out. It is the courage to be conscious and awake. The courage to speak truth.
When we commit to our personal healing, we shine a light in the cobwebbed corners, dark crevices and the abandoned boxes within us. The same is true on a global level. We shine light on the darkness, witnessing it so that it may be released and healed. So that we may usher in more love, grace, humility, compassion and light into the world.
Cleaning up our own Back Yards
How do we support this global healing?
We commit to cleaning up our own back yards first. We heal our personal fear, resentment, anger, judgement and helplessness. We release our stored emotions and self-deflating beliefs so that we may shine brighter and brighter.
During the weeks of the coronavirus shutdown, I experienced days when I felt some super intense anger and anxiety. With my fists clenched and the veins in my neck bulging, I was often in my ego, ready to defend and attack. I found myself over-the-top triggered. Everywhere I looked, all I could see were examples of peer pressure, bullying and injustice. Short-tempered and ferocious, I was ready to fight to protect my people and myself.
(Photo: Jack B)
When I took this to my meditation, I discovered that much of the anger, animosity, aggression and anxiety that I had been feeling didn’t actually belong to me. After I cleared these energies out of my system, I was better able to work with and heal what was mine.
With my eyes closed, I observed the details of a trauma from another life. A trauma in which I was bullied and subjected to torture and death at the hands of a cruel and shady leadership, authorities that abused their positions of power. This extreme example of bullying and disregard for human rights occurred, in part, due to the widespread ignorance of the public.
Now it made sense to me why I was so intensely triggered by any signs of bullying. Now I understood why I felt this fire inside of me that made me want to shake people awake out of their ignorance and complacency. When I released the helplessness and betrayal from my system, my anger and anxiety disappeared. The fear-based drive to fight to defend myself was gone.
I felt peace.
Healing the World’s Darkness
When we look outward at the world, we see proof of darkness. We see bullying, injustice, racism, lies, manipulations and abuse of power. Rather than attack it or ignore it, we witness the darkness and shine light on it. We do this by opening our hearts and being rooted in our compassionate, authentic selves.
Together, with courage and love, we shine light on the darkness. Aligned with our inner light, we meet the darkness from a place of love and peace. We pray for the well-being of all. We stay true to ourselves. We stand in our light.
Together we are a radiant, powerful force of light. There IS hope.
(Photo: Josh Sukoff)
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Much Love,
Rachel, Intuitive Healer & Clairvoyant
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