Befriending The Darkness

We have a natural tendency to avoid darkness and move towards the light. We are light seekers. Darkness brings us a sense of danger and insecurity. Our fears are heightened by darkness. We feel vulnerable and unprotected in the darkness, because darkness blocks our ability to see clearly.

Inevitably we experience darkness in our daily life literally and metaphorically. Literal darkness sets in with the sunset.  As the night time creeps in, our eyes get adapted to the low level of visibility, the body makes certain changes to keep it warm during the coolness when the sunlight is no longer heating the earth's surface and the air around us. The body produces more melatonin in the dark and makes us sleepy perhaps to keep us out of trouble as a protective mechanism preventing us from danger by lurking in the dark. Our body's natural response to the darkness is by accepting it and adapting to cope with it until it disappears.

We are in the dark metaphorically, when we are experiencing a negative situation. The world cannot exist without negativity. It is part and partial of our lives and our existence. When our fearful minds perceive a threat the negativity comes into being. Situations are neutral until we perceive it as negative. The darkness in the night time is neutral. We can see it as a waste of time and we have nothing better to do in the dark and therefore we go to sleep. Or we can see it as a gift to us creating most appropriate conditions for us to sleep and rest so that we can recharge, revitalize, refresh and rejuvenate to bring a better and more effective day with more productivity. Likewise, any situation can be negative to some and positive to others. Some negatively perceived situations can be opportunities for change and improvements if we can see it as positive. The negativity or positivity depends on our way of seeing.

During natural darkness, we are happy to accept and adapt waiting patiently until it disappears or makes many opportunities to live through the night with joy exuberating our creativity.  Without a night time, there would not be candlelight dinners, disco parties, movie theatres, moonlighting and much more.

But when we are dealing with negative or dark situations in life, are we accepting, adapting and make it an opportunity for joy and happiness?

The fear is the darkness resides in our minds. The fear is based on lack of understanding or misunderstanding. When the dark mind casts a shadow to creates a negative when the mind's eye is focused on something. The positive picture can be processed only by impregnating the light of understanding. When natural light is cut out to create shadows we can capture it using a camera to create a picture. Likewise, we create pictures in our minds depending on the shadows we own. There is no picture without a shadow. When there is total brightness, the picture disappears and the camera would not capture a picture. The darkness is a result of a lack of full awareness of any situation and not seeing it from all angles. When the light of full awareness brightens up our minds, the pictures we created about situations will cease to appear.

Nature is our teacher. Darkness is our friend and not foe. The dark and light, black and white are all neutral until the human mind identifies them as good or bad. Dark situations in our lives come to us to show us the opportunities to bring our own light using our own initiative and creativity, just the way we light up the night with candles, lamps, street lights and romance with the moonlight and the starry sky.