Be Human

Dabble in the dark, for it brightens the light.

Your lowest point is the doorway to your highest self, for when the heart breaks something far deeper is taking place than mere misfortune. We often don’t realize the value of the darkness until it has passed, for only in the absence of light that we learn to become the light. The human mind seeks comfort but the soul stirs for change. It longs to grow not to stay the same. As I’ve said before, the meaning of life is just to be alive, and yet we resist the very currents that are pulling us into deeper awareness of that aliveness. You’re not here to chase happiness like a dog chasing its tail. Happiness is a byproduct of becoming whole, and wholeness requires contrast, dark and light, sorrow and joy, breaking and rebuilding. So when it hurts, let it hurt. Don’t run. Sit with it, listen to it. And when you finally rise from it, you’ll realize the joy was never in the outcome, but in the transformation. Feed the soul, not the ego. Choose evolution over escape, and the light you’re searching for will no longer be something you find. It will be something you are.

-Alan Watts

What do you do if or when you find yourself at your lowest or darkest point?

Let me preface by saying I hope you never find a true bottom. I hope you’re able to navigate and process life as it plays out. Maybe your childhood was free of the “bad”. Maybe your chosen profession doesn’t include trauma or moral injury. Maybe the demons don’t dally about in your brain.

If these things are part of your life or have been, you’re familiar with the “darkness”.

There may come a point when the dark overwhelms the light. Before you know it, you find yourself lower than you thought possible. That infamous rock bottom can consume you.

It nearly consumed me. It was gradual right up until it wasn’t. The journey to the bottom can be slow and camouflaged, but once you land on rock bottom, you know it immediately. You’ll know everything you’ve done and are doing is simply not for you anymore. It won’t suit you. The dysfunction will be glaring and jarring. You will ache for change.

Here’s the thing, though, you don’t need to hit rock bottom. You don’t need to experience the chaos and ruin that accompanies it.

But you must attend to and heed the “dark”. There’s value in darkness. You need a pinch of darkness in this recipe of life. For without it, you can’t and won’t recognize the “light”.

Far too often, we are told or expected to be happy.

“Happy” sells.

“Happy” is a billion-dollar product.

“HAPPY” is bullshit.

It’s unattainable. It’s a false construct. At its “best,” it’s a Madison Avenue sales pitch.

If you aim to be happy all the time, you will fail. I guarantee it.

Aim to enjoy the ride, regardless of the ups and downs. Embrace the downs as much as the ups. It’s within the downs you’ll find true opportunity and growth. The learning presents itself; all you have to do is embrace it.

It sounds so simple and easy. Truth be told, it is definitely simple, though anything but easy. Let’s be honest here. There’s an entire industry of motivational posters and kitsch built off of this.

Pick any quote and plug it in here.

“When life gives you lemons…”

“When the going gets tough….”

“Tough times never last…”

On and on it goes.

Here’s the thing, though, they’re all right.

Feel the dark. Sit with it. Learn from it. Grow out of it.

Don’t resist the currents. Swim in them and feel that aliveness. It is part of the human experience. It’s the price we pay for being enlightened, but it’s also the first step to growing as a human.

The joy is in the transformation.

Get outside and do something for yourself!

Stack

Please visit our sponsors and support the show/page.