Light and Shadow
Originally Published in the Awakened Soul Newsletter sent February 3, 2025
What does it mean to increase your own personal light?
How can we recognize our own shadow?
The good news is that the answer to both questions lie in expanding our capacity to love.
With an open heart, we can acknowledge the ideas, beliefs, and behaviors we hold in the shadows. With love and courage, we learn to embrace our light — the divine life force within us — and join it with the light of others.
The difficult news is that this process requires a willingness to grow, mature, and face the truth of our own shadows.
It means finding the mirrors that reveal both our golden shadows—the unrealized or unexpressed gifts within us—and the darker aspects of our wounded or immature ego. To take on this challenging but essential task, we need the support of a healing community.
A healing community can be built by surrounding ourselves with healthy friends, support groups, wise elders, spiritual mentors, capable therapists, and holistic healers.
We need others to help us see ourselves clearly, accept what is, and take responsibility for what is truly ours.
When we consciously choose to change, the work feels difficult, but on the other side of that fire, there is lasting light.
It is also essential to recognize that support extends beyond human relationships. We can find guidance and hope through connection with a higher power—the living, loving Presence known by many names yet beyond them all.
The details of belief do not matter as much as tapping into the fundamental truths of the Divine: love as a life force, creativity, beauty, harmony, balance, inspiration, compassion, and healing.
This is the essence of Spirit, both within and around us.
How do we align with this Presence for guidance, comfort, and courage?
Through spiritual disciplines—meditation, prayer, ceremony, being in nature, sacred texts, contemplation, and mindful reflection—we open ourselves to this connection.
In these uncertain times, take heart.
Step into the light around you.
Nurture the light within you.
May you feel the Presence of a living, loving Universe as you take responsibility for what is yours to do.
Much Love,
Sue