What are the “dark nights of the soul”?
It is a period when you feel as though you have suddenly veered off your usual path, without understanding how or why. All you know is that you have entered a tunnel – dark and seemingly endless – with no visible walls.
The longer you remain in it, the more you feel like you are disappearing and losing yourself. You are unsure of what is happening, except for a strong sense of uncertainty and fear that follows you. It’s difficult to explain to anyone what you are truly going through. You wonder what will be left of you after this and whether you will ever find the way out.
However, what is really happening is not that you are disappearing, but that the old story of you is fading away. The version of yourself that is no longer aligned with the new version waiting at the end of the tunnel is dissolving.
The sooner you let go of that old story, the sooner you will see the light in the distance and realize it is the exit. The exit exists – do not forget that. The more you resist and try to return to the old, the longer you are likely to stay in the tunnel.
While you are in the tunnel, remind yourself of the following:
- This too shall pass.
- You are not alone – know that you are being guided by the invisible hand of Love.
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I believe that periods of “dark nights of the soul” will become something we experience 5 to 7 times throughout our lives, unlike in the past when they might occur only once or twice. These periods are always connected to the loss of part of your current identity and the formation of a new one, a necessary consequence of embodying a new version of yourself. As we increasingly strive to become new versions of ourselves, we will experience more frequent “dark nights of the soul”—though they will be shorter, yet more intense.