“A man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness.” Like. When we think of all despair as a mental disorder or a biochemical illness, we miss the spiritual metamorphosis to which it calls us.In retrospect, a more helpful answer from my meditation teacher (and one more in line with the Buddha’s teachings) might have been, If you are grieving, do so mindfully. is the only cure for illusion. The emotions we call “negative” are energies that get our attention, ask for expression, transmit information and impel action. This is accompanied by a set of unquestioned normative beliefs about the “negativity” of painful feelings.Emotion-phobia is endemic to our culture and perhaps to patriarchal culture in general. The dark emotions call us to find the right action, to act with awareness and to observe the transformations that ensue, however subtle. At the least, it’s a process of becoming aware of how our thoughts both trigger emotions and take us away from them. But how much is too long? Stop and listen to it. It's where your interests connect you with your people.DeviantArt is the world's largest online social community for artists and art enthusiasts, allowing people to connect through the creation and sharing of art. “How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? We act out impulsively. . Get over it. Like. See more ideas about Dark art, Dark fantasy, Japanese quotes. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Grieving mindfully—without recourse to suppression, intellectualization or religious dogmatism—made me a happier person than I’d ever been.What I learned by listening closely to grief was a transformational process I call “the alchemy of the dark emotions.” Many years after Aaron’s death, after a second radiantly healthy child and a third who was born with a mysterious neuromotor disorder, I began to write about these alchemies—from grief to gratitude, fear to joy, and despair to faith—that I had experienced in my own life and witnessed countless times in my work as a psychotherapist.The alchemy of the dark emotions is a process that cannot be forced, but it can be encouraged by cultivating certain basic emotional skills. Attending to, befriending and surrendering to despair, we discover that we can look into the heart of darkness in ourselves and our world, and emerge with a more resilient faith in life.Because we are all pretty much novices at this process, we need to discipline ourselves to be mindful and tolerant of the dark emotions. Befriending emotion is how we extend our emotional attention spans. “I envy people that know love. I must have a dark side also If I am to be whole.” Emotions like grief, fear and despair are as much a part of the human condition as love, awe and joy.

Either way, please allow us to re-introduce ourselves: “the skills of good listening are generally not taught to trainees in the art of psychotherapy.

What does your grief, fear or despair ask of you? “We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. In enlarging your personal story, you connect it to a larger story of grief, fear or despair in the world. Healing Through the Dark Emotions Quotes Showing 1-10 of 10 “anyone who’s ever lost a parent, child, lover, spouse, or close friend, knows that grief is one of the most powerful emotional forces there is—powerful enough to shatter the self we’ve carefully constructed.”