Insights for your personal evolution
The Dark Side of the Light Chasers: Reclaiming Your Power, Creativity, Brilliance, and Dreams
(3) Comments
Shortly after I became intrigued with learning about my shadow side, a colleague recommended The Dark Side of the Light Chasers: Reclaiming Your Power, Creativity, Brilliance, and Dreams
We begin in childhood to disown parts of ourselves, usually through family experience which shapes our core beliefs. “The pain you experienced when you were two, six, or eight is just beneath the surface of your consciousness. Until it’s transformed, it’s always there driving your life.” The coping techniques we enacted from childhood remain our behaviors as adults. Ford teaches that we “attract whomever and whatever we need to mirror back the aspects of ourselves that we’ve forgotten.” The universe provides exactly the experiences that will teach us particular lessons.
The simplest method of discovering what we need to learn is to recognize the traits that bother us the most in others. We project onto others what we deny in ourselves. It’s important to make the distinction that simply noticing a trait isn’t enough. The moments that affect us emotionally are the opportunities to focus on. Once you embrace a quality in yourself, others with the same quality can no longer annoy you. The charge around it is lost and miraculously the particular trigger evaporates from your experience.
I have attempted explaining this concept to others and it often meets with resistance. In this current trend of positive affirmations and focusing only on the positive, it is difficult to understand how bringing attention to the negative could be at all helpful. Ford says, “When we believe we can only be one or the other, we continue our internal struggle to only be the right things.” However, when we are able to integrate those negative aspects, we accept and become our total selves.
Likewise, we project positive traits onto others which reveal the possibilities in ourselves. We are not able to see qualities in others that we don’t have ourselves. Often we admire others because we wish we could be more like them. In fact, we have that potential but often live in denial.
A revealing way to discover your shadow side is to ask others what they perceive as both your positive and negative traits. Ford states, “We never have to believe what others think about us, but if we are afraid to hear what the people closest to us have to say, we should take notice. Most people are afraid they will hear what they fear most. This is denial at work.”
In order to live authentically, we must take responsibility for all events in our lives. We are not victims of chance, our experiences are reflections of our selves. We choose how to interpret and respond to the people and circumstances that surround us. Ford says it best in this statement: “Don’t strive for perfection, because it’s the desire for perfection that leads us to build these walls. Strive for wholeness, and for light and dark to live equally. Just as everything has a light side and a dark side, so does every person, because to be human is to be it all.”
Book Author: Debbie Ford
Riverhead Books, 1998
http://www.riverheadbooks.com
Debbie Ford conducts seminars on the dark side at the Chopra Center for Well Being in La Jolla, California, where she is a consultant, teacher, and integral faculty member. She also leads her own day and weekend Shadow Process workshops nationwide.
Other books:
Why Good People Do Bad Things: How to Stop Being Your Own Worst Enemy
Spiritual Divorce: Divorce as a Catalyst for an Extraordinary Life
The Secret of the Shadow: The Power of Owning Your Story
The Right Questions: Ten Essential Questions To Guide You to an Extraordinary Life
The Best Year of Your Life: Dream It, Plan It, Love It
Frequency: the Power of Personal Vibration
(1) Comments
As the earth moves at a faster vibration, human bodies attune to this energy and it can be overwhelming. In Frequency: The Power of Personal Vibration
Each of us is born with the capacity for unbounded love and expression. As we interact with our parents and others we become accustomed to their responses and adapt our behaviors. When we are validated, our soul feels truth and love. When our expressions are ignored or rejected, we learn to adapt to the lack of approval and acceptance and shut off particular feelings. For example, you may withhold affection if your parents become uncomfortable and tense. Our natural frequencies shift to accommodate those around us.
Peirce describes how to sense the different vibrations in the body while focusing our attention on differing sensations as a range of emotions takes place. We note the differences and then learn to tune in to what feels most natural, our home frequency which reflects our truest selves. When we are able to consciously shift our frequency with intention, this is where the true power lies.
In order to transform to the higher frequencies, it is necessary to remove the blockages from past conditioned behaviors. It is important to recognize and observe unhealthy feeling habits without judgment, both in yourself and in others. As you learn to recognize different frequency levels you can consciously choose to merge (or not) with them to activate new experiences.
One excellent tip is to “feel into what you notice” rather than assuming we are separate and need to wait for a sensation to come. It is necessary to let go of preconceived notions and allow what is noticed to make itself known. Peirce recommends starting with more mundane situations, such as what to have for breakfast. After becoming adept at this level, move forward and discover more meaningful insights and impressions.
During a problem, often your energy will move toward what has your attention. It is helpful to think that this is an experience you’re supposed to have. Peirce states, “Your problem is really a question. The question helps you discover an experience your soul wants you to have.” Rather than trying to change the quandary, focus into your body and view the issue in your imagination. In a relaxed and present state, often the resolution will work itself out.
A key to the law of attraction is that, according to Peirce, “In a unified world, instead of attracting something, you notice it already existing in your reality, and you keep paying attention to it. …When willpower surfaces, the ego is back, thinking it’s running the show, reinforcing the idea of isolation and difficulty. …Therefore, energy is wasted in protesting, over-riding, and trying to change what you have before you fully understand the perfection of why it’s there.”
We attract what matches our frequency – good or bad, in relationships and in the problems we face. For example, partners often act out the same issue from opposite ends. While this may feel like conflict, there is much in common between the pair. When a relationship is over, it reflects a shift in frequency and we no longer have a need for growth possibilities in that situation. The shift can be conscious or unconscious and every connection brings value.
As we become further accelerated, maintaining higher frequencies allows our souls to exhibit freely. Deeper awareness of ourselves allows us to connect profoundly with others. We develop empathy, a “direct knowing through vibration; it is sensitivity filtered through your heart.” Authentic soul expression becomes the source of transformation.
Book Author: Penney Peirce
Beyond Words, 2009
http://www.beyondword.com
Penney Peirce is an internationally respected clairvoyant empath and intuition development trainer known for her common sense approach to developing expanded human capacities, heightened perception, and spirituality. She’s trained and counseled business and government leaders, scientists, psychologists, and those on a spiritual path since 1977.
Other books:
Dream Dictionary for Dummies
The Intuitive Way
Dreams for Dummies
The Present Moment
