I was reading some one's advice on how to deal with our faults and negative emotions. They suggested 'embracing the dark side' of the emotion, letting it grow inside and then trying to control it. Sounds a bit like creating a monster and then trying to rein it in.
Mmm, I have a lot of issues with this advice, especially as it was given to someone I care about and it was given during a moment when they were upset and just wanted someone to listen to them.
First of all, we all know what happens to a person when they go towards 'the dark side of the force.' Although, Anakin's intentions were good to begin with; he wanted to save the love of his life; by embracing the 'dark side' he was no longer in control and was consumed by it.
If you want to get rid of the shadows in your life, don't extinguish the lights, instead fill up the room so brightly there isn't any more room for the shadows.
I'm not saying that we aren't going to experience emotions that we consider more on the negative side, such as anger, sadness, worry, etc. And it's not wrong to feel these emotions, sometimes they are very necessary things.
Sadness has to be felt; either to properly grieve or to change things. When confronted by a situation that brings us sadness, we can direct that emotion into compassion and do something positive. Such as volunteers, mentoring, or taking care of each other in our times of need. But we can't just waddle in it otherwise it will send us into a well of depression.
A bit of time worrying over situations or people shows that we care. If we control the worry to solve our problems and help our loved ones, and not allow it to swallow all our other emotions, then we can use it. (I'm not so good at not worrying, especially as lately. Hero hottie is the loud worrier. I'm the quiet, let it collect in my gut worrier. I'm working on this one. Of course, when the science channel told me the sun might burn out in billions of years, I couldn't resist making fun of my own tendency to worry and turned to hero hottie with a laugh. -- "Oh, great. Something else for me to worry about now." )
Anger, can be directed towards change, if we use it positively, such as to discuss problems in a relationship, not resorting to name calling or violence. We can use it to change injustices in the world without using the violent side of this strong emotion. I have never seen a person able to allow the anger to grow into a fiery rage and not be close to losing control of it. Perhaps that is why anger reminds us of fire, the stronger and hotter it gets, the harder it is to put out. This emotion, along with jealously and fear, can be quite dangerous and that's why I feel like advice given to embrace the dark side of these feelings is foolish. Terribly dangerous.
You can not find your spiritual path, your journey to faith in the black places of the dark side. That's not to say that your path may not wind into these tough and despairing destinations where hope is a bare, thin thought, but we do not leave these places by dwelling in them. By embracing them- the dark side.
We survive these lost areas of our soul by finding a light to guide us. To find our faith. Our path. To shine on the road so we don't trip over the stumbling blocks; such as people that either enjoy the dark side or have been so lost in it they are blinded by the light that searches for them and want company.
I admire people whose lights shine brightly, for they bring hope along on this collective journey of faith. And we all could use a little extra helping of hope on this tough journey we call being human.
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