Hi Beauties and welcome back to our Practical Enlightenment Meditations, where our theme is Surviving a Dark Night of the Soul. And I describe this dark night of the soul phenomenon as being a time of deep self-doubt. Feeling that everything in our world is collapsing, and just getting to a really low place.

I recently went through a dark night of the soul in the middle of this past book launch and it came out of nowhere. I felt this debilitating self-doubt where I went back to the core wounds from my childhood that I’ve experienced around not being worthy or being seen and heard. This old pattern emerged from my ego causing me to doubt what I had written and if anyone would understand me.

I share this because I want everyone to know that we all go through these times and experiences and we have these feelings. And it’s important that we talk about these times so we can help each other climb out easier, in a more easeful way. And we understand what all of this is about.

I believe the dark night of the soul experiences come when we are about to crack into a deeper understanding awareness of who we are. It’s about going into the dark breathing though not trying to move away, not trying to run away, and really going in and breathing our way through the darkness.

I offer this meditation for a time when you too, are going through a deep period of struggle, of self-doubt and old patterns, with the ego coming in. It’s like four steps forward, two steps back, eventually it’s four steps forward one step back. We’re always progressing and then we’re coming back.

For me, it was such a strong ego attack and a deep night of the soul. It took me about 48 hours to really get out of it. And despite how much self work I’ve been doing, I’ve been meditating now for over 13 years, it just shows that we are all on the journey. This human part of us continues to evolve, even though the divine, the True Self part of us is inside. We still need tools to manage the ego and to manage the low self-esteem and self-doubt that comes in from time to time.

Let’s get into our meditation today…

Guided Meditation

My sincere intention is that if you have an ego attack happen or go through this period of the dark night of the soul, this meditation will be there for you as a source of solace and a tool to help you come back to the truth. To come back to who you really are, which is not the self-doubt. It’s not the fear. It’s not the tightness, the constriction that we feel in these moments. It’s underneath all of that. The peace is always waiting for us.

Let’s come and sit in your meditation seat. And even that can feel like a big effort right now when you’re going through a really difficult period. If you’d rather lay down for this one, you can do that. Please make sure that your spine is straight. If you can rise up to sit, it is going to create some energy flow. So whether it’s on your meditation cushion or in your chair, go ahead and lift your spine.

And right now, just start to take some nice deep breaths in and out through your nose, just feeling your body starting to drop down into a deeper place.

The dark night of the soul feels like the thoughts and the doubts are crowding in. Let’s just let them rest for this moment. Ignore the thoughts, move your attention away and just feel the breath.

That’s it, just feel the breath coming in and out.

This natural tool came forth when I was going through my dark night of the soul a few days ago, which was the sacred sigh. And it feels like this way of just evening out the surface energy, some of the darkness and heaviness, and it helps to move it.

Inhale now through your nose and lift your shoulders up to your ears and just feel that feeling, that tightness and then exhale out through your mouth and feel some release.

Again, inhaling, letting the tightness rise up to your ears, and then sacred sigh, ha.

One more time, inhaling, letting the shoulders rise sacred, sigh ha. And breathe.

Put our attention and our awareness on each breath. Making space for every breath to come in. 

Take one more breath, time and time again. 

Even when it feels so heavy and feels so hopeless. I feel like we don’t have energy to keep trying to keep moving. We take one more breath and then we take the next breath. Do not worry about the future. Do not worry about the next hour, tonight or tomorrow. Stay here with me.

Take another breath. And one more.

And just as you continue to breathe, try to find a little patch inside where there is a softening. A little bit more space is emerging.

Don’t push anything. Just let this be the way through the darkness, is to breathe our way through and we sit in it to help it move. We breathe our way through it. We don’t run away. We just keep breathing.

Setting the Intention for Today

I’m going to say our seed intention now. Please just continue to breathe. Feel open to my words.

I Am worthy of life and love, though I feel the heaviness of darkness right now. I will keep breathing my way through until I emerge into the light.

I Am worthy of life and love, though I feel the heaviness of darkness right now. I will keep breathing my way through until I emerge into the light.

It feels so hard right now, but I know this is a temporary state. This is all temporary. I Am worthy of life and love. I know this is the truth. And though I feel the heaviness of darkness. I will keep breathing my way through until I emerge in the light.

I know this is temporary. This is not who I Am. This is the temporary state of the ego.

I Am worthy of light and love. I Am worthy of light and love and life.

I Am here. I Am breathing. I Am here.

Please continue to sit here as long as you like. Keep breathing and be in this space.

We all go through these periods and it’s okay. You will get stronger. You will have more self-awareness from these dark nights of the soul periods.

Just keep breathing.

If you’re ready to close now, please bring your hands together into prayer pose. And even in this dark moment, go into your heart and feel one thing you are grateful for.

I am so grateful for our connection and also for the dark times. We are always here to support each other.

Sending you so much love and light.