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Monday, April 23, 2012

A Glimpse of Our Shadow

It is a dark and painful moment of awareness when we suddenly realize that we are doing the exact thing that we are most critical of in someone else. The weight of that new awareness, and the pain we may have caused ourselves or others as a result can feel overwhelming. The urge to run and crawl under a rock, freeze up like a deer in headlights, blame someone or something else can be immense, anything to avoid feeling the pain that can accompany such moments of clarity. So what happens if we don't freeze up, run away and hide, or blame others? We feel the pain. We allow the pain to move through us, we feel it in each one of our cells, and we don't resist it, we surrender to it, we embrace it. We acknowledge our truth, our imperfections, and the pain and shame that accompany denying any part of ourselves. We open to feeling, so that we may open to true healing. And just when we think we can't stand it any longer, we see the first rays of light of the approaching dawn, and we breathe a sigh of relief. Our pain has not consumed us, we are strong, we are resilient, and we discover a great freedom in knowing the truth. All in an instant we can both sympathize with the one that hurt us, and the one that we are are hurting, and consciously choose how to treat ourselves and others.

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