Millions of people the world over see Valentine’s day as the official day of love and, with this, comes expectations. People are expected to act and feel a prescribed way (after all love is in the air).
But is love really in YOUR “air”?
Are you really feeling the love or are you experiencing changes in feelings of well being, sleep patterns, and maybe eating habits? Do you feel like withdrawing from social contacts and are lethargic (low energetically)? Are there alternating periods of depressed moods?
Whenever these symptoms are powerful enough, they are diagnosed as a form of clinical depression known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D). People who live in countries farther away from the equator are more prone to experiencing S.A.D. because of the shorter periods of sunlight experienced in the winter months.
What about YOUR Light?
What does this have to do with you? Everything. If you are in the process of awakening to the truth of who you are you WILL experience similar symptoms (the severity varies). There is this feeling of darkness when one is faced with the realization that what they for years thought and accepted as the norm is no longer what feeds their soul…their authentic SELF. How does one share this with family, friends, place of worship? What do you do when there is the possibility that your entire support system could disappear and you are left on your own? The internal struggle is real, so real that depression … clinical depression, at times develops.
Individuation is not a process of improvement or getting better… but of becoming more “YOU”
— Thomas Lavin
The psychologist Carl Jung spoke of individuation which (dissected on the simplest level) is the process whereby one recognizes that they are an individual and not simply an extension of friends, family, social and cultural constructs. Individuation is SELF work..developing and integrating all aspects of self. Embarking on this process entails consciously navigating the darkness before YOUR light comes to the fore.
A few days ago I shared my process of “unmasking” with a small group of ladies. Sharing our stories is one way of providing reassurance that whilst the struggle is real,
the reward of being and living as YOU is a real possibility (if one is committed to doing the work required to make it happen).
Honour YOUR process by:
- getting to know yourself
- understanding that darkness and light are spectrums on the same pole
- releasing judgementI will end with a quote from Carl Jung. “Depression is like a woman in black. If she turns up, don’t shoo her away. Invite her in, offer her a seat, treat her like a guest and listen to what she wants to say.”