15 Oct 2015
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Deep “E”-cology: Coming Home to Ourselves

There’s a war going on, and it’s not with Iraq. (Or Afghanistan. Or Syria.)

This war is on a scale so vast it’s difficult to see, so ancient we’ve taken it for granted.

It’s a war that has been gathering momentum since humanity first became conscious. It cuts to the very core of existence. It’s what drives the corporations and the deep ecologists, the religious right and the lovers. It’s woven so tightly into the fabric of our lives that we’ve accepted it blandly, without knowing there was ever a choice. It’s caused untold human misery for millennia, and still it burns on, more vividly in the digital age than ever before, as our collective awakening arches toward Armageddon — or quantum evolution.

It is the struggle between truth and heresy. Between subservience and sovereignty. Between opening our minds to wisdom, and clinging to what we’d prefer to believe. Between following a well-worn path, and cutting a swath through the wilderness of our souls.

This war marshals all of our natural resources. Passion and commitment. Love and communion. Faith and ecstasy. If we use them well, our stores will increase. If we use them foolishly, a barren landscape is certain. Because this war is taking place inside each one of us.

World Wide Web

$fractal-ying-yang-jaroslaw-grudzinski$

It is a clarion call to yinify: to wed our masculine and feminine energies for internal and external balance, harmony and peace at every level of co-creation.

Becoming whole — embracing our assertive/dynamic/solar/yang side and our receptive/magnetic/lunar/yin side, both within ourselves and as a planetary organism — is the creative quest of our time. It’s a homecoming, a re-membering (making membership again). As we are able to celebrate this marriage first in our own hearts, the joy and the love we then have available to share with our sisters and brothers increases exponentially.

Evolution through relationship defines the true “world wide web”: weaving our oneness through the meeting of minds and the holding of hands.

No lasting outer peace is possible without this inner reunion. The absolution of duality is the key to living Heaven on Earth, because it means the end of judgment. As the cosmic comic Swami Beyondananda says, “Nonjudgment Day is coming.”

With nothing to choose between, we are integrated, living in integrity, whole. In the seventh century, Zen master Sengstau expressed this potential eloquently in Verses On The Faith Mind:

The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.

When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.

Make the smallest distinction however
and Heaven and Earth are set infinitely apart.

Understandably, this is not an easy task for most of us to master — or to choose to master.

Many have run, continue to run, for apparent refuge, either into religious doctrine, which tells us how to think and what to believe, or into other well-organized movements masquerading as paths to freedom. Some groups purport to focus solely on spiritual love, ignoring the truth that matter is Spirit in form. Others emphasize sexual union as the ideal path to oneness, omitting the sacred element, and once again it is a lie.

It can be comforting to be a foot soldier in someone else’s army. You don’t have to do any real thinking. You don’t have to take responsibility for the outcome you help create. You can externalize your role: it’s terrorists, it’s the government, it’s anybody who looks or acts or sounds different from me. This is the old, patriarchal view that’s held sway for five thousand years. This Weltanschauung has run its course and is completing its earthly cycle, now.

If you choose not to acknowledge the war at all, you can still go on raising a family behind a white picket façade, with Sunday suppers and comfortable routines that mark a life. But the time for hiding out in this delusion is deliquescing, like Dali’s famous clocks. The light of universal fire is bleaching falsehood from our souls, enlightening and enlivening us, one by one, cell by cell, bringing more joy to the journey.

What we can learn from the limbic brain

The truth is, we’re all equal backstage, when the make-up and the costumes and the constructs come off. We are all rays of the One Being, sharing the same life support system, Mother Earth. Our similarity is the great leveler, because it humbles our unique, snowflake selves into awareness of a greater whole.

This was brought home to me recently when I was having dinner in a Chinese restaurant where I’ve eaten many times. I like a certain dish on the menu, substituting a sweet and sour sauce for the standard garlic sauce. One waiter, who is Chinese, knows my order so well he even “recognizes” me over the phone when I place a to-go order.

The other evening, dining at the restaurant, I ordered that same dish. The place was bustling. When I went up to pay, the waiter, who happened to be standing by the cash register, did not know me as the woman who always orders the dish with the different sauce.

I had a flash of insight and asked him kindly, “Please don’t be offended, but Caucasians — do we all look alike?” With a relieved grin he said, “Yes.” The Caucasian cashier was amazed by my question, but I understood. I told her, “It’s like this for every race, every culture. Isn’t it more difficult to differentiate between Asian or African-American people whom you don’t know, than other Whites?” She admitted it might be.

We’re coded with an innate affinity for our own small portion of the whole. This is the ancient, limbic brain in action, defending our “territory” against invaders; limbic means, “forming a border.” To bridge this chasm is the beginning of world healing. Recognizing the Other through conscious understanding takes both patience and practice.

To see the big picture we have to widen our scope, extend our artificial boundaries. There are no actual map lines on Earth, delineating this country, this language, this religion, this culture from the next. We’ve created it all. It’s our collective game. As we become technologically proficient, the playing field shrinks to a more agreeable size, and the game starts to seem superfluous.

A meta-field is beckoning. We’ve called it outer space. Again, we put the cart before the horse, our eagerness ahead of our readiness. Inner space is the foreign territory we must master first. Yinification begins at home.

Deep “E”-cology

This is the potential of the Internet: to help us come home to ourselves, as a species, as a people, as one culture united through whatever we choose to call the animating energy that informs our existence. The ‘Net is a universal connector, a universal translator, the key to deep ecology in the most profound sense. “Eco”, from the Greek oikos, means home. “Logy” is a branch of learning or study. Ecology is, literally, learning about home!

Coming home to ourselves means owning the truth that there is no separation, except what we allow to exist, through fear. Fear contracts our hearts and minds; love expands them. Many of us learn to open our hearts through sacrifice, which means, “to make sacred.” Releasing our deepest attachments is a crucial part of the initiation on our journey to self-awareness. Our gift is as great as our grief. The poet David Whyte says, “The rest of creation is waiting, breathless, for you to take your place.”

We can start by detaching from what numbs us (like television), and focusing on what feeds us — like “tell-a-vision,” a subtle shift that transmutes suppression into inspiration. The price of freedom is your voice. Begin to share your vision of the world you want to co-create! As you do, you become a “rainbow warrior,” awakening and balancing your energy throughout your being in order to realize the full spectrum of your purpose and potential.

Heaven on Earth exists in being fully alive in the infinite Now. This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, as The Fifth Dimension sang ‘way back in 1969. They were early messengers, carrying our Divine blueprint via the medium of music.

Let’s revisit the lyrics: “When the Moon is in the seventh house”. In Western astrology, the Moon is symbolic of feminine, receptive energy, what we draw in; the seventh house is about intimate interaction with other people. I’ve dubbed this new way of relating a call to yinify: to unify in the Divine Feminine essence. “And Jupiter aligns with Mars”. Jupiter is the planet of expansion, of expressing our truth through storytelling; Mars is the planet of pure desire and, when dishonored, of war. To have them align means telling ourselves a new, expansive story: transmuting war in the alchemical fire into spiritual warriorhood.

Then, as the group sang, “Peace will guide the planets/And love will steer the stars.”

How clear the message becomes, once we are able to truly hear. The battle cries dim; the masks fall off. A layer of separation evaporates as we become transparent to the truth of who we are. People start to seem somehow familiar, even though we’ve never met them before. It’s the resonant déjà vu of realizing there are no strangers. “Service with a smile” suddenly takes on a whole new meaning.

Getting there calls for a subtle shift in perception and behavior: from acquire to inquire, from escalate to elevate, from scared to sacred. As we cease consuming planetary resources and each other at the speed of greed, let go of buying more in favor of being more, we reclaim our true heritage as Earth stewards. And then barrenness transmutes into bounty. Separation into synergy. Fear into faith. Longing into Love.

We use the expression, “Live and learn.” Implicit is the understanding that what we learn, we will also teach. We become self-renewing by gathering knowledge from our experience, forging it into wisdom in the alchemical fire, and serving as vessels to share the gift that is uniquely ours, but not meant to remain arcane.

Conscious evolution favors the curious and kind mind. Truth nourishes us in ways we might never have imagined. Synchronicity takes us by the hand and we laugh in child-like wonder as we witness Spirit-in-action, again and again and again. This is the Garden, and it is good.

Welcome Home.

By Ascension Lifestyle Contributor Amara Rose:

Amara Rose is a catalyst for quantum evolution. Her services include transformational coaching, talks, e-courses, and an inspirational monthly newsletter. She is widely published in health, business and new thought magazines, both digital and print. Learn more:

http://www.liveyourlight.com
http://twitter.com/Amara_Rose
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amararose

23 Sep 2015
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Thinking About Thinking

The Idea of Idea

Ideas do not happen from nothing; they do not miraculously strike like rare comets, but are ever present. Ideas are a reflection of a person’s immediate needs and deepest desires. Ideas are birthed from a need to find a solution. An idea occurs when a person develops an attraction to something that does not yet exist, or has only existed in a different context.

The idea chooses you.

You may notice the idea blatantly; it may immediately overwhelm you with its enrapturing potential. It may subtly reveal itself at first, but persistently drop signs that it seeks you to court it. When an idea chooses you, it entangles with the emotions, possessing a person like a spirit. The idea will run you through a spectrum of emotions, you become like a puppet on the strings of idea. You get excited talking about it, in the hopes that it resonates with another person, because it is something special to you. You feel guilty for not executing or neglecting it. You may feel crazy for being the only one that holds it, sees its value. You get dissatisfied for living in a world with no evidence of its existence. Seeing someone else do it makes you jealous. Pursuing it terrifies you, but those wild enough to devote their immediate gratifications to bring down heaven find that the process fills the person with a joy and fulfillment unparalleled to anything else. This is what many describe as fulfilling their purpose.

Deep down, you and the idea both know that the idea is more important than you, your existence, your needs, in your current reality. It seeks to share reveal itself through you. You are an outfit for ideas. You know the idea is essential to improving your life, as well as the greater good of the collective conscious. The perfect time to execute the idea never comes, the level of resistance seems to always elusively matches the degree which you desire the idea.

Ideas are unborn realities that temporarily possess those who are most eligible in potential execution.

To create is to receive from the unseen, and if it chooses you, it can choose someone else too. Ideas are maverick quantum fragments. They belong to no one. The best a person can do is refine themselves to the point they may be worthy of receiving and combining their unique imprint with the best possible ideas from the transcendent plane of all-there-is-and-ever-will-be.

Many people get stuck talking about ideas, because the ideas themselves are so alluring. Ideas are like affection, execution is like childbirth. The land of ideas is pure from messy realities. People talk about ideas to share the excitement they feel about it, the mutual basking of an idea provides an instant gratification and for most people, this is enough. But ideas are not seeking a spokesperson. Ideas deeply desire to be created, just as much as you deeply desire to be involved with its creation.

If the idea gifts you with its presence but you do not fulfill the labor or share with anyone, it will torment you. You will pay. You grow rigid and dissatisfied with your current world for the debt you have not paid for your fantasy; your expectations for people become distorted with residual resentment. You will avoid your responsibilities. You will over-promise and under deliver. You will dislike and lose faith in yourself. You will feel alone and you will make yourself alone. If you do not execute the idea, the idea will make you tell someone who will, just so you can claim some sort of stake in its existence.

If you embark on the manifestation of the idea, you will come in contact with those who share the same ideas as you, or will challenge your idea, which strengthen or alters them. We are all vessels for ideas, meant to intersect to shape, sharpen and improve another, to bring forth better ideas. You will inspire all who bear witness to you. You will feel in control of your life. You will trust yourself and attract people you trust. You will be productive in a direction that is gratifying and beneficial to the universe. You will feel aligned with your desires. You will consistently energized, and alive with excitement. You will be a beacon of light.

Since ideas belong to no one, it is impossible to steal an idea. We mimic or we channel. Stealing an idea is a false concept because ideas are contagious. Ideas choose their best possible vessel, but if the vessel does not execute, the idea will find a way to express itself through someone else. People who have many great ideas often consult others, spreading their greater idea and vision to others who will execute it in their own way. Visionaries are those who manage to shape their fantasy world and manipulate time, space and effort to intersect the dimensions of desire and existence. The nature of ideas follows momentum: the more ideas you have, the more ideas you get, and so forth. The more you cast the net of your subconscious into the infinite world of possibilities, the larger your net gets and the more you know how to eliminate the unnecessary. Ideas are like water that gets used and purified over and over again, changing forms. You can never run out of ideas, and clutching onto ideas is useless. Weak ideas become less relevant as time goes by, since the conditions in which the idea came, constantly evolve. Ideas can be good one month and terrible the next, or the month before. To manifest is to date time, and your chance eventually runs out. Let ideas go. They are supposed to. Better ones come. Great creative careers are built upon a long, consistent stream of new ideas, and occasional bad ones that everyone eventually forgets about. The word “epic” really means “a long story”. This is the true definition of “epic”.

The best ideas are repeated, replicated, reproduced over and over until they become a part of culture. This is what is meant by the old adage “Imitation is the highest form of flattery.” Culture is created through repetition, and repetition is created rampant approval. Ideas find their way into the world one way or another, and their success is measured on its impact. Some ideas may have a great impact on a few people, some may have a minor impact on a mass population, few have a great impact on a great number of people, but ideas find their way. The highest function of an idea is to get as many people to repeat it as possible. Ideas only want to exist through people. The more people share an idea, the more powerful it becomes. If a person is to devote their life to channeling ideas, they must be disciplined in refining themselves as if their existence were a divine tool, because it is. They must inform, train, polish and nurture themselves. Every potential idea recipient is equipped with their unique technique, their executional thumbprint that is sculpted through countless hours of repetition and focus. To create is to court the world of ideas, to intimately receive its vital parts and rigorously improve yourself to execute it the best way possible.

The world is constantly pulsating with idea, ideas are the source of all. You start off as an idea with capabilities to channel other ideas. To create is to surrender to the world of ideas and sacrifice your surrounding reality to make shape to the idea. Idea gives shape to us and we give shape to idea.

About the Author:

Mreeuh Chang

Mreeuh Chang is a 24 year old tattooer, painter, children’s book author and illustrator. A multi-faceted and extreme personality seeking universality, her work blends the foreign and familiar, ancient and modern, imagination and intellect.

book: www.dronesdontdream.com

portfolio: www.mreeuhchang.com

online shop: www.store.mreeuhchang.com

twitter: https://twitter.com/mreeuh

23 Aug 2015
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19 Real Life Examples of An Extroverted Introvert

If you’re like me, you’re an extroverted introvert. You can be outgoing, yet you desperately need your alone time.

You can’t do that. You’re one or the other.

No, this is how I am. And that’s how many other people are. But we’re often misunderstood.

Take for instance, people often see me as completely, inarguably, extroverted because that’s the personality that gets the most attention. The other side of me, the side that stays home and reads all day, doesn’t get any attention (but I love doing that, take a look at my reading list if you don’t believe me).

Let me tell you what happened a few weekends ago.

I spent Saturday alone, reading, writing, getting errands done. At 8:54 pm, I got a text from a friend, asking what I was up to. He was making plans to go out. I responded, “Nothing. What’s up?”

Fifteen minutes passed and he didn’t respond. I wanted to go out and considered calling him to see what was happening, but also wanted to sit in bed and read a book before going to bed at 10 pm. So I didn’t call.

Another fifteen minutes passed and I finally made the call. It took half an hour and a significant amount of energy for me to put down my book, pick up my phone, and call him to figure out the plan for that night.

So instead of staying in and reading myself to sleep, I left my apartment at 9:30 pm to go out for drinks.

And you know what I did? I danced. And I was obnoxious. And I had tons of fun.

But the next day? I sat at a coffee shop and read a book. I did some grocery shopping, cooked, and ate alone while watching Netflix. I spoke to almost no one. I only texted my friend who I went out with the night before to see how he was doing. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. And I loved it.

So yes I’m outgoing. But not all the time.

The fact is, extroversion and introversion isn’t an either/or type of thing. It’s a spectrum and you can lie anywhere along that spectrum.

For us, we happen to be very close to the middle and even flip-flop between the two.

I know, it’s confusing.

Some of us learned to become more extroverted because we realize that the basis of human nature is grounded in interacting with each other – it’s kind of unavoidable.

To relieve you of some confusion, here are a few things we’d like you to know about extroverted introverts.

1. We’re often quiet, but it doesn’t mean we don’t want to talk.
We most likely have plenty of thoughts we want to talk about, but think that they won’t interest you. We’d rather listen to you talk because we want to learn about you and we know you’d enjoy talking.

2. And just because we like being around people doesn’t mean we want to talk.
Talking requires a lot of effort. For us, being around people is often enough to make us happy. I know, it’s a little confusing.

3. We like hanging out one on one better than groups. We’ll listen to you forever.
One on one hangouts are more intimate and we like that. It means we get a chance to actually get to know you and have a thorough conversation about what we real;y care about instead of making small talk that an entire group can contribute to.

4. We suck at responding to texts because sometimes we don’t want to talk – to anyone.
It’s not that we hate people or that we’re annoyed. Sometimes we’ve just been around people so much that we’re exhausted from talking and texting and Skyping and we just don’t want to talk. We’re totally open to hanging out in person, just don’t expect us to talk too much when we’re in one of these moods.

5. We’re open to meeting your other friends. Just let us know ahead of time that we’ll be meeting new people so we can mentally prepare ourselves to socialize.
We’re not closed off to meeting new people, it’s just a very exhausting thing to do. So we literally have to prepare ourselves to socialize. We have to get into the mindset of, “Okay, I’m going to be talking a lot.”

6. Despite needing our alone time, we do get lonely.
It’s difficult to balance between alone time and not feeling lonely. Often we’ll want to go out because we feel alone, but our apartment is so comfortable that we won’t want to leave.

7. It’s hard to get us out, but we’ll have a great time when we go out.
Sometimes we’ll require some coercing to get us out of the house. Again, it’s not that we don’t want to go out, we just start thinking, “What if it’s not fun? I could totally be reading my book. What if the tickets are sold out? What if they don’t actually want me to go and they’re just inviting me to be nice? We begin to draw into our own heads and make up things that could go wrong and use them as excuses to not go out.

8. We’ll happily chat up your parents/friends/girlfriend/boyfriend/boss/etc., but once it’s over, we require silence.
After so much talking, we really need to recharge.

9. We’re not always the most talkative person in a group, but if someone is in need of a social life jacket, we can step up and offer that.
Again, we’ll happily chat someone up if the situation arises. We get that conversation can be uncomfortable, so if we see someone who is worse than us at holding a conversation, then we’ll take the initiative to make them feel more comfortable.

9. We won’t plan a party, but if we do, it’s a really big deal for us.
We can’t imagine hosting an event solely for our own sake. We don’t even think people would want to come to a party that we host. So if we do host something, it’s a big deal for us.

10. We live in our heads even if it seems like we put ourselves out there.
Even when we’re being outgoing, our thoughts are still running and analyzing the situation.

11. Because we can be outgoing and calculated at the same time, sometimes we end up being leaders.

But that does not mean we want praise, nor do we want to talk about how great we are.
People seem to think that we’re fit to be leaders. We can stand up and talk in front of crowds when we need to. We can make decisions when we need to. But we often analyze ourselves and don’t think highly of our skill sets. Sometimes we don’t believe we’re good enough to lead. We always think we can be better so praise often makes us cringe.

12. We bounce between wanting to be noticed for our hard work to panicking over the thought of somebody else paying more than 30 seconds of attention to us.
Sometimes we want attention, other times it’s hard to believe anyone would spend more than 10 seconds on us.

13. People think we’re flirtatious. We’re not.
We understand that interacting with people is a necessary part of life. So we make an effort to do it intentionally, and genuinely want people to know that they have our undivided interest and attention.

14. We get mad at ourselves for wanting to stay in and letting our friends down.
Which is why we sometimes force ourselves to go out. To let our friends know that we enjoy spending time with them, not because we want to be out.

15. We’re at your happiest in places like coffee shops and cafés: surrounded by people, but still closed off and keeping to yourself.
We just like being around people, even if they’re strangers. It’s the compromise of being around people but not having to talk to them.

16. We have a constant inner struggle of controlling our introverted side.
It’s frustrating because we’ll realize when we start withdrawing into our own minds and become extremely introspective. It happens when we’re in really big crowds. And the only thought is, “Oh no, it’s happening. No. I have to talk to someone now. But it’s so difficult. No. Yes, you have to talk or else you’re going to end up in your head for the rest of the night.”

17. We really don’t like small talk.
We’d avoid small talk if we could. We want to really get to know you. We want to know what you think about, what your goals are, what your family is like. We don’t want to talk about how bad the weather is. But if that’s what you’re comfortable talking about, then we’ll talk about it.

18. We don’t actually have a staple “group” of friends.
We often pick and choose one or two individuals from different social groups that make up our closest friends. But we make this handful of best friends our life and we’d do anything for them.

19. If we like you, we really like you.

We’re extremely picky about who we spend our time and energy on. If we’ve hung out multiple times, take it as a compliment.
Seriously. If it’s such a struggle to talk to people and if we get so exhausting going out, it’s a big deal if we’re willing to spend our time and energy with you. It isn’t to say that we’re full of ourselves. We just wouldn’t want to spend that energy with people whose company we don’t enjoy.

By David Khim for Lifehack.org

David Ly Khim is a content and growth marketer for Sidekick. He writes about marketing, career development, and productivity. When he isn’t working, he’s in the middle of a book or on the dance floor.

16 Jul 2015
Comments: 1

How Native American Fashion Looks Without Appropriation

Bethany Yellowtail Is Redefining Native American Fashion In A Beautifully Authentic Way

Cultural appropriation is nothing new in fashion — many designers, brands, celebrities and even editors have been known to repurpose traditional garments for the sake of style.

Twenty-six year old fashion designer, Bethany Yellowtail, is about to change that with her fashion line, B.Yellowtail. Her label draws inspiration from “the sacred and re-imagines it for the contemporary woman,” breathing new life into ancestral knowledge and redefining Native-inspired design.

The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising graduate, who is from Crow (Apsáalooke) and Northern Cheyenne Nations in south eastern Montana, first found herself at the centre of a cultural appropriation debate back in February. London label KTZ sent a model down the runway for its fall 2015 fashion show wearing a dress that was strikingly similar to Yellowtail’s design. Now, she’s making waves on her own terms with her latest collection, “The Mighty Few.”

Named after her home district on the Crow nation, the collection is all about honouring the continuity, beauty and resilience of Native Americans.

For inspiration, she created a mood board centered around a black-and-white photo of her great grandfather, “Hawk with the Yellowtail feathers,” and built around his image with more photos of her relatives from the early 1900s.

“The style from that time period was transitioning from traditional wear to apparel influenced by European assimilation,” she told HuffPost Canada Style via e-mail. “I love these images because they speak true to the resiliency of our people. Regardless of the times or circumstances, there were always strong elements of Crow design and craftsmanship, especially in attire.”

This inspiration translated into stunning pieces including a French lace top with elements of elk teeth hand stitched onto it, a colourfully printed women’s warrior ledger scarf and a floral tea skirt with artisanal beadwork.

She chose to feature only indigenous people in the campaign, from the models (Jade Willoughby, Martin Sensmeier) to the photographer (Thosh Collins) to the video editor (D.E. Hyde) and even the poet (Tazbah Rose Chavez), so she could accurately share an authentic story through fashion and art.

“From my own experience, I’ve often found that people’s perceptions of what Native American people are, is very limited and often times constrained to a stereotypical ideal,” she explained. “The media, film, and especially [individuals] in fashion perpetuate those ideas by creating generic and romanticized versions of our ancestors.”

“I want the people who view my work to see the faces, hear the voices of our people, and participate in an authentic story that honours our diverse nations,” she continued. “My hopes are that the campaign showcases a variety of the immense talent and diversity that exists within our native nations.”

And while she does draw inspiration from Native Americans, B.Yellowtail is for people from all walks of life. The line takes pride in storytelling through fashion in hopes of authentically representing its nations, while sharing its culture and creative an inclusive space.

“For me, my mission is not about trying to combat cultural appropriation,” Bethany explained. “I simply want to carve out a space where an authentic voice and an authentic representation of Native America exists and thrives. If that means we’re combating cultural appropriation while just being true to ourselves, then that’s a bonus.”

You can see more of Bethany’s work on her website, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

About the Author:
Madelyn Chung
Madelyn Chung is the editor of StyleList Canada, and a self-professed shopaholic and fashion/beauty/pop culture junkie. A graduate of Ryerson University’s School of Journalism, Madelyn’s past stints include Lifestyle Editor at MSN.ca and Associate Editor of Digital Marketing at Rogers Digital Media. In her spare time, you can find Madelyn live-tweeting during TV shows, jamming on the piano and ukelele, and indulging in some good eats around the city.

14 Jul 2015
Comments: 0

Why It’s Important To Understand Your Dark Side

When you were little, were you afraid of the dark? Most of us were. And I doubt we ever thought to question this fear. We were almost naturally taught to be afraid of the dark, because the dark is full of unknown things that might hurt us.

But what usually happened when you turned the light on? You learned the unknown things were not so scary. And they were not so unknown. They were just part of the environment.

We learned to associate darkness with scary and unknown, and we learned it’s better not to speak with our dark thoughts and emotions. Turning the light on our emotional shadow is a lot more challenging than flicking a physical light switch on. So we avoid it. Superficiality is easier. But this darkness of our soul has a life of its own which thrives, whether or not we choose to acknowledge it. It’s there, and it’s powerful.

Understanding Darkness
This fear of our emotional complexity grew as we grew, and with time became our shadow. It’s a hidden part in us that influences our choices more often than we are aware.

In truth, much effort goes into repressing and hiding it from ourselves and others. It’s our dark side. The parts we are ashamed and afraid to show. But through denial, we fail to see that in the obscurity of darkness also lay our strengths.

For reasons originating in the past, we have decided to negate and hide this dark side without exploring it further. And so in return it keeps us distant from truly expressing ourselves.

In many ways, hiding our shadow can be considered the highest form of betrayal. By concealing this part of us, we are saying we don’t deserve to show our complete selves, thereby betraying ourselves. In return, secrecy, manipulation, and pretending take over large parts of our lives from fear of being ‘exposed’ and rejected for the part of ourself we are hiding.

As mentioned, our shadow can show itself as weakness or strength. Becoming aware of our complete self allows us an opportunity for expressing strength. Ignoring these qualities, however, will always produce a damaging result.

The more we repress these dark corners of our being, the more we face disorder in our personality. This can manifest as addiction, anxiety, intentionally failed relationships or jobs, or other behaviors that cause destruction to ourselves and others.

To become aware of our shadow is to shed light on our earliest wounds and to give ourselves a chance for healing and transformation. But as long as we choose to close our eyes to this, the wounds will continue to decay while emitting poison into our lives.

To Deepen Our Spirituality, We Must Pass Through the Shadow
Any spiritual work must entail exposure and understanding of our shadow. Solely focusing on finding our light keeps us away from places of shame, guilt, jealousy, greed, competition, lust and aggression. But it is these very emotions that must be worked through first before coming near our lighter sides.

Even certain spiritual practices like meditation can become difficult when we try to ignore our shadow self. Its repression shows up when we shut our eyes, and we’re left with only our thoughts.

As with all strong emotions, what we don’t want to look at always keeps us contracted and in rejection. Deep down we know these qualities and feelings reside in us, and hiding them leads us to a life of inauthenticity and sometimes incomprehensible self-destructive behavior.

If our shadow is not acknowledged and embraced, the depth of our spiritual and personal growth is limited. Denying to look at the darkness is rejecting ourselves the need to be received in totality by others.

We start to overidentify with the side of ourself acquired through our own perception of reality. This in turn shapes our personality, the superficial side of us, which the world meets.

Our roles and personality try their best to help us feel worthy and lovable. For some, it is by being intelligent, successful, and powerful while for others it is the opposite. In whichever way our personality tries to control life, it remains just another attempt to be loved for something we know we’re not.

As long as this partial picture of ourselves is kept intact, we create separation. The message is “I don’t want to look and feel certain parts inside me and I prefer to judge others for showing and living what I choose to reject”, hence choosing separation, inside and out. It is a painful cage of continuous isolation.

Embracing The Complete You
The way to our light is through darkness. Whether we want it or not, the dark side in us is very active even though it is concealed and not evident to the outside. But we know it’s there, continuously asking for recognition.

The shadow should be met in a safe and loving environment. Otherwise, it is too afraid that its face will cause devastation and result in further isolation. When it’s safe we can start looking, seeing, and expressing what has been hidden from our awareness.

There are many unpolished diamonds of strength, creativity, and beauty, which we’ve kept limited so that others close don’t feel small, intimidated or scared. Speaking to our shadow is an immense step towards healing and self-love.

Initially, when we embark on this exciting and necessary journey, we may not be sure who we really are. But this is only because we are so used to our masks that expressing our true self is like meeting a familiar stranger. Soon new possibilities, choices and, perceptions appear.

Suddenly we can face the many question marks in our life from a place of strength and authenticity. We strengthen our capacity to be in this world more fully and completely. So, are you ready?

About the author:

Milan Karmeli is a psychosomatic therapist and facilitator of group workshops. He specializes in counseling, childhood/primal trauma healing, breath therapy, and bioenergetics. Milan’s love and passion is to live by truth, and to help others remove all illusion of separation through his work.

Check out his website: Milankarmeli.com via Collective Evolution

15 Jun 2015
Comments: 1

What It Means To Be & Love An Empathic Person

I have been wanting to write this Empath guide for such a very long time. I wanted to be brutally honest and thorough. I did not want to leave anything out. I had no idea when I started this intention how much this was going to impact my life personally. As I have been trying to gather the words I was flooded every time with emotions, stories, images, feelings, thoughts and experiences from my past that kept me frozen in my feelings about what it means to be a highly sensitive person. I feel like it has been one of the most defining aspects of my life up until now. The main feelings that come to the surface when I connect to the “frozen” feeling that I was describing, would be powerlessness and self doubt. These were the most dominant feelings from my past, relative to the concept of being a highly sensitive Empath. Read more!