“On December 21st, we experience the shortest day and longest night of the year. The increased hours of darkness guide us to enter into the dark night of the soul, a time of retreat where we can go within and hear the subtler stirrings of our being.

Sometimes it is only in the darkness that we can truly feel comfortable to be ourselves. When the spotlight of the Sun shines down on us, we can feel exposed, we can feel that we have to act or be a certain way.

When the lights are turned off, when it is just us, alone with our thoughts at midnight, that is when we can truly dive deep into our core and come face to face with a new truth of who we are.

It is not that we have to shame who we are under the bright light of the Sun. For this is a part of us too. But if we stay there too long, we tend to get disconnected, which is why the Universe calls in the longest night of the year.

At this time, it is an opportunity for us all to enter into the darkness. To move away from the spotlight and instead to sit with ourselves and our own truth.

In the darkness, our thoughts don’t matter. It is our feelings that can truly shine. It is our emotional voice that gets a chance to speak, and we have to allow it to be heard.

We need to forget the labels and the judgments of the mind, and instead, allow ourselves to feel with the power of the heart.

When we sit in the darkness, and just allow ourselves to be, what feelings emerge? What discomfort grows? What happens when we just allow ourselves to be?

This is what the dark night of the soul calls us to surrender to. This is what we are encouraged to practice. We need to stop talking, and start listening.

We need to find the stillness, for when we do, we will be able to step into a new power and a new truth of who we really are.”

~Tanaaz, excerpt from Forever Conscious

Art by Anne Stokes