“Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie
Which we ascribe to heaven.”
~William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well
Let’s Play a Little Doctor Doctor
Say you get sick. Your physical body needs time to repair. A no-brainer?
It’s important to have down-time when your body is out of alignment physically — which we call having dis-ease or an ailment. We all know this. To carry on ‘as per normal’ when your body is feeling worn-out, sore or in pain is futile and leads to more suffering.
Let’s try this out on something slightly different…
Call in the Psychiatrist
So, now why can’t we seem to gift ourselves with the same ‘down-time’ when our emotional body is ‘sick’?
Sometimes we get into a slump or feel down — this is human! If we don’t let ourselves be in this space and give ourselves some time to get quiet, reflect and just ‘sit with it’, we can make it ten times worse. It can even lead to a stronger form of depression.
Denial of the space you’re in is suppressing something that is just going to come around again sometime in the future to nip your ass.
Peaks and Troughs
The other day I felt elated. Oh my wobbly, knitted hat! I was on cloud 9 and nothing could get me down. I had figured out life on earth and all the other idiosyncrasies therein and I was feeling good.
The next day I woke up in the pits of hell.
What happened?
Shit Happens
I could blame it on solar flares, the news, collective pain-bodies, minor psychosis, PPISS (Post Physical Incarnation Stress Syndrome — or taking ‘the piss’) or even schizophrenia — but there you have it, my mood swing saw me in tears by the end of the day wishing for it to all end.
I felt like a cop-out — someone who writes about how to get out of emotional quagmire and here I am sitting waiting for the ground to swallow me whole. I felt like such a hypocrite!
I even went over some of my ‘how to pull yourself out of depression’ stuff from my articles but it was too late for that. I was descending into the smelly pits of Beelzebub’s bowels.
Now, in my defense, some of that advice can and does work but this case was slightly different.
The next morning I woke up with the phrase ‘zero point’ in my head. I do this sometimes — have dreams or little ‘a-ha’ moments in my sleep or just before I’m rebirthed into a brand new day and I usually can recollect it soon after I awaken.
I sat on my couch with my morning cuppa, deep in contemplation over these two words…’zero point’.
Zone Out to Zone In
Zero point (in my understanding of it) is the whittling down of one energy to it’s lowest point in order to gain momentum to a new energy.
My ‘depression’ did feel like I had wound down to an almost nullified space, so this was intriguing.
Here’s the upshot of what came through when I meditated on this concept and what I should do about my feelings:
- There is an elated, blissful, enlightened self
- There is a shadow self
- Merge the two
- It’s okay to feel down and you don’t have to put your ‘Julie Andrews’ slippers on if they don’t fit in the moment
- Be silent and sit with your feelings
- What’s in it for you?
- Find the source of the problem and bring it to the light
- That’s how you merge the shadow and light self
- You can’t just be one or the other — there’s no balance in that
- Be a Gemini and merge the ‘celestial’ with the ‘corporeal’ (see here for the mythologically captivating tale of how the constellation ‘Gemini’ came about)
What the blazes am I on about? Simple:
It’s okay to feel the emotions of duality — there should be no judgment in that. Just find your balance (zero point). Don’t let either one swallow you whole or you will be out of alignment.
“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within.” ~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
You are both Glorious and Diabolical. Embrace it! Accept who you are fully and totally.
Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.
To date, she has published 3 self-help and motivational books and brings out weekly inspirational blogs at her site www.cherieroedirksen.com. Get stuck into finding your passion, purpose and joy by downloading some of those books gratis when you click HERE.
Her ambition is to help you to connect with your innate gift of creativity and living the life you came here to experience by taking responsibility for your actions and becoming the co-creator of your reality. You can follow Cherie on Facebook (The Art of Empowerment — for article updates). She also has just recently launched her official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates).
Awesome article Cherie! It’s really great to have you back posting on CLN. -Ross
Thank you, Ross — It’s great to be back! Sorry for my long absence — I have been preoccupied with bringing out my latest book but now that it’s done, I’ll be more active here and looking forward to it! 🙂 xxx