Shadow Mode

Sometimes when things are rough, we paint pictures in our minds about things we think will bring us the joy, and peace, and beauty, and love we really want for ourselves. We imagine a better life – one that’s under our control, because it has all the pieces we think we are missing.

I am an expert at painting pictures in my head, and revisiting them over and over – getting lost in their wonder and luster. Rather than looking for the beauty of my reality, or creating that beauty in whatever way I can, I start to build resentment toward reality for not looking like the paintings in my head. 

Or at least, that’s how I used to be… Sometimes I forget how far I’ve come, how much I’ve grown, and how beautifully I’ve transformed. Sometimes I think I’m the same old me, when really, my attention has just fallen back to the shadows of my past.

There’s nothing wrong with shadows. Shadows are evidence of the light. To lack shadows means that you are still living in your own darkness. We have shadows in our lives because we’ve cultivated light.

How your shadows show up depends largely on how you’re interacting with the light in your life…

Are you fully immersed in the light? – Making your shadows so small that you only see them when you look down. 

Are you facing the light? – So that your shadows are behind you, no longer impacting how you move forward? 

Are you facing away from the light? – So that your shadows are the very first thing you see when you try to move forward?

Or have you been removed from the light? – So that your shadows are all you see?

A lot of the time, we have control over how we’re interacting with the light in our lives, and we can choose how involved we get with our shadows. But sometimes, the light we’ve created shifts and changes, rises and sets, adjusts around us due to circumstances beyond our control. In such cases, our shadows may become more evident. We may be forced to look at them, remember them, and deal with them.

This is when we fall victim to forgetting how far we’ve come, how much we’ve grown, and how beautifully we’ve transformed.

But regardless of what’s happening with the light that exists outside of you, never forget that your light always resides within you. And even if you don’t have the ability to bring it back out for a time, you always have the ability to go within and find it there.

xoxo,