Quite a few of my friends and I have come to talk about self-development and self-awareness work as opening up Pandora’s Box. For once you take those first steps into that realm, there is no turning back. It also poses the question, if you could, would you really want to?
I have yet to meet a single person that has chosen the path of self-development that wanted to go back and didn’t completely fall in love with the process. That’s not to say it’s all rose petals and champagne. Quite to the contrary. Moving into that space of learning about yourself also means looking at your shadow side.
This can be a very challenging process and can even be very frightening. Strong emotions, acute awareness, and emotional releases go hand and hand with this work. As does taking responsibility and ownership for the “good”, the “bad,” and the sometimes truly ugly (or truly beautiful).
That single fact of taking responsibility can be daunting. To have to say to yourself and accept that you alone are to “blame” for your behaviors and why you do and react the way you do. Please don’t misunderstand I’m not saying the experience that caused the behavior is your fault. I’m also not talking about triggers here, I’m talking about Woundings from the past (more to come on this soon). More specifically, outside influences and people who come and go in our lives can be the impetus for generating our behavior, patterns, etc. However, owning, clearing, and reworking those patterns and behaviors is our responsibility.
Within this work, the walls come down, things get raw and very real. Personally, I feel this type of work brings more blessings than discomfort, but it also depends on the perspective one takes. There are times doing this work when you begin to wonder why you ever took the plunge in the first place. Experiencing Dark Nights of the Soul, being unable to get sleep because of the thoughts, feelings, and emotions running through your space…
Some of these instances may only last a few hours. Others can last considerably longer. However, once we transition through these inner storms, once we have faced the Darkness that resides within, and we come out on the other side? There is no feeling quite like it. You come to appreciate and enjoy the journey, yes, even the difficult portions of it. Because when you take stock of the perspective shifts, new insights into yourself you’ve garnered, and/or let go of pieces that no longer serve you… it is nothing less than magical.
Yes, we always have a choice whether to stop or keep going down this path. But for those already familiar with it, it’s not much of a choice because going back or stopping is equal to regression and/or stagnation, which, to put it lightly, doesn’t feel good. Based on my experience, I would agree.
Being a huge advocate for self-work, I encourage you to take a look at that beautiful box that sits before you. Some of you have ripped the whole cover off, some have taken only a peak inside. But a peak is all it takes because once you even so much as crack that lid…
It’s all kinds of over… and I mean that in the best way possible.
Image credit: Image by Łukasz Mrowiec from Pixabay