In the path of Knowing Thyself, we will come to understand the importance of clearing the mind from certain beliefs of ourselves and of others and from this we become free from repression of our own thinking and free from subjugating others of our own beliefs and our own understanding but only in the quest of knowing who we are in a deeper level, the one that truly resonates with our soul.
We somehow wake up to this world ingrained with certain beliefs based on what is identified as the so-called “right” and what is deemed “wrong”. “Right” equates to what the majority dictates; often solely derived from certain beliefs of oneself and of others and anything outside of this majority’s frame of identification is deemed “wrong”.
Knowing this, we follow what is “acceptable” to gain proper identification, otherwise, the fear of unacceptance arises and the ego who wants to be identified struggles as it creates “emotional pain”.
The repercussion as one protects and shell the ego leads to anger, anxiety, resentment etc.. as the ego likes to be identified as “I am this” and “I am that” and fear comes as a by-product of losing these “self-identifications”.
All of these create an illusion of “who we think we are” and what the society “thinks of us” and in the process we loose our soul’s authentic core, which is centered and in full alignment with acceptance, with compassion and with unconditional love.
In totality, we are the glowing light and the depth of the dark, these are all in the same space, but in different scale and each one lives with-in all of us.
The yin and the yang.
To bring out our glowing light, one needs to understand the depth of our dark, and yes, we all have this, it is there for a reason.
Both light and dark are interconnected, and the connection there is, is that the light needs to emerge from the dark where it can beautifully and thoroughly shine.
This understanding is vital in our everyday lives as we maneuver in the intricacy of the world we live in.
Metaphorically, the “glowing light” is referred to as our authentic- self, we can cite this as the GLOW in GLOWplug (ex: love, compassion, understanding, empathy, kindness etc.)
The authentic self is how we are truly made of, these traits come from the Absolute SOURCE, from the Divine, this is who we are, and this is how we are meant to be.
The “dark” is our shadow-self, we can refer this as the PLUG in glowPLUG (ex: fear, ego, hatred, anxiety, jealousy, resentment, victim mentality, low self-esteem etc.)
The shadow-self comes from the illusion of the mind, these are all human-thought form manifested as painful emotions, these illusions were taught to us from several generations for thousands of years, these are all learned and induced but to see it in a total perspective, it is there for a beautiful reason.
The authentic -self and the shadow-self are both inside each one of us and both are essential for our growth and as we go along, we will understand the connection and the integration of these two and how important these connections are for the totality of our being.
The shadow-self is often identified as something that we should avoid, but how can we avoid something that lies with-in ourselves? To avoid the reality of the shadow-self, is to avoid the totality of who we are.
The impending peril of avoidance can give birth to hatred, anxiety, anger, jealousy, fear, ego, resentment, victim-mentality just to name a few of its “children” and these “children” will grow and spread its dark core to the society. We might have witnessed a few of these already in different situations, ex: war, greed, corruptions, and all sorts of crime that the inflicting negativity of the shadow-self is unendingly unacknowledged and never understood.
The seed that lies in the dark is there to be processed, to be understood as its being nurtured positively for its growth, so it can be exactly what it’s meant to be—an awe-inspiring, divinely-wonderful-work of nature. This is you. This is all of us.
To trust this process is to accept what is, so we can break away from what is not. To accept a part of us, that does not truly identify us, is a step forward to be totally free of it. As a result, we embrace our full glowing authentic- self.
Rumi, a theologian, and poet says, “Like a shadow, I am, and I am not”. Shadow is part of us, but it is not who we are, it is not the entirety of our being. This shadow- self persist in our system– both our internal and the external, the individual-self and the society and to disintegrate the shadow, is to know what represents it, and to understand and to dissect each one as they emerge.
The Universe always has its way of revealing all of these to us, a portal to our self-discovery, through different experiences, situational exposures in our everyday lives and moment by moment and eventually, it will lead us to self-mastery.
Once, I was talking to a friend who had a quibbling fall-out with another friend.
As I was trying to bring her out to light. I was noticing the indulgence of her disgust fuming in her, which is one of the ego’s masterpiece, pretending to feel good until it becomes addictive as to the reason why it can easily camouflage as righteous and above others. I then remember the story I once heard about the two wolves and I had to share it with her and so with you and hopefully we will all find value from the story as we did:
There are two wolves that are about to fight. The black wolf and the white wolf. The black wolf is full of ego, resentment, anger, jealousy, anxiety, and the white wolf is full of love, compassion, understanding, empathy. I asked my friend, who do you think won? She answered, the white wolf, but based on the story, the one we feed is the one who will win.
We are feeders, and observers of all these thoughts, and consequently, all the emotions that come with it. As we separate ourselves from these thoughts and these emotions, we will understand that we have the power to choose, and because we have the power to choose, we can choose the best and the highest thoughts available to us, and to feel the best and the highest emotion there is as a by-product of these thoughts.
Trusting our abilities to connect the negative and the positive as we integrate these two poles like a battery, to bring out the light, the light of clarity and of truth.
Why? Because this will define our lives.
In connecting these two poles, we find the plug for us to glow. To do that we provide a step by step method on how to bring out our light in every situation.
We cite a couple of examples for you.
Note* IT’S TRULY IMPORTANT TO BE BRUTALLY HONEST WITH OURSELVES
Daunting, but a small price to pay for plugging and thus be a glowing light.
Situational exposure I: A car overtook you; he honked the horn loudly as to say, “you’re too slow!!!”. You are flustered, and you want to confront him.
Dealing the shadow-self: What am I feeling right now? — I feel angry, hate, enrage, victim
Why do I feel this way? — Because I feel deflated, embarrassed, and hurt.
Why I do I feel deflated, embarrassed and hurt? — Because my ego was touched
Is the ego important in my life? —No.
What good does this ego serves me? – Nothing
So, this ego should disappear. Say goodbye to it.
It was not the situation that made you angry. It was because the ego was touched that made you angry. To disintegrate the ego is to expose it and not shell it with anger, hate and rage. Ego must be disintegrated to release you from this shadow.
Situational exposure II: Somebody grabbed your things and crosses your boundary.
Dealing the shadow- self: What am I feeling? — annoyed, flustered, angry, frustrated etc..
Note: You must name each emotion until you find which one resonates with you, then focus on that certain emotion.
Why do I feel this way?
— Because I feel stepped-on, taken- advantaged etc..
Why do I feel stepped-on or taken advantage?
— because of my certain beliefs of my attachment to that thing.
—- because my inability to not know how to speak up and set my healthy boundaries.
—- because I want to be like therefore, I cannot speak- up for myself with the fear of rejection.
Know which reason resonates with you and act accordingly in a manner centered in love and in compassion, safe in the knowledge that the person is only doing it based on the consciousness and understanding of his/her current reality, like it or not, it has NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU, we are only responsible as to how we respond and nothing more.
This is liberating.
Note: Do not mistake Shadow-self emotions from GUT FEELINGS, the latter comes purely from the INSTINCT, a guide from the DIVINE. Gut feeling gives signals from the gut, you feel the heat, the warmth, the uneasiness telling you what is coming, it is in the realm of knowing. Instinct or gut gives signals before a situation is going to happen. TRUST it.
Our next article is all about unconditional love for ourselves and for others and our step by step method on how to integrate this for it to come authentically from the core.
Thank you for growing beautifully with High Sorority Couture and being a part of this journey!
Sending love and hugs always!