| Darkness is an Essential
Part of Abundance |
by Kalinda Rose Stevenson,
PhD
Today marks the winter solstice, the shortest day of the
year in the Northern Hemisphere. Winter begins on this
day.
Many of us seek abundance and we seek to live enlightened
lives. And yet, on this time of the solstice I want to
celebrate the darkness as an essential part of abundance.
What if the hidden obstacle standing between you and living
an “Abundantly Alive Now!” life is that you
don’t have enough darkness in your life?
Darkness and Light
Throughout nature, life is a balance between night and
day, dark and light. And yet, many of us live as if the
balance of the dark and light doesn’t matter.
Nothing has thrown us off balance more than the machine
called the computer and the invention called the internet.
There is no darkness in cyberspace.
In earlier times, people used the winter as a time to
prepare for the coming growing season. Farmers took care
of their tools, fishermen tended their nets. Women spun
wool. People used the winter as a time of retreat.
Not us. Not when we can have lights blazing 24 hours each
day. Not when the internet never quits. Not when business
is open somewhere 24 hours a day in our global economy.
Not when we are told that we have to adapt to a world
that never sleeps.
Yet our effort to live in the light without respite sets
us at odds with nature itself. Nature demands periods
of darkness alternating with light.
I sometimes wonder about the health of trees in store
parking lots. Have you seen them? The basic plant process
of photosynthesis requires a dark phase. Plants take the
energy of the sun and transform it into food for the plant.
Yet, the well-lit trees in parking lots across the land
are exposed to light all night long, night after night.
At a time when a tree needs darkness to create energy
for itself, sodium lights cast a weird orange glow over
the tree.
Don’t Snooze, You Lose
Human beings aren’t all that much different from
the trees. We are people who need the darkness but we
expose ourselves to relentless light. Most of us are chronically
sleep deprived. Closing our eyes to darkness seems like
a waste of time, when there is so much to do. We are convinced
that if we snooze we will lose.
And yet, lack of sleep threatens our health in profound
ways. Sleep research has become a hot topic in medicine.
Many of us suffer because we don’t sleep enough.
Sleep researchers are claiming that many of us overweight,
not because we eat too much, but because we don’t
get enough sleep. The lack of sleep throws off our biochemistry.
What is especially significant is the effect of sleep
deprivation on our brains. The latest research indicates
that our bodies don’t need sleep but our brains do.
One of the primary tools used to abuse prisoners is to
deprive them of sleep. And yet, that is what we do to
ourselves. We deprive ourselves of sleep in our unyielding
quest after our elusive goals. We don’t allow ourselves
enough dark time to rest our brains. The consequences
are disease, stress, and confusion.
Sabbath
The Sabbath is a uniquely Judeo-Christian concept. Many
people have rebelled against the idea of keeping Sabbath.
They see it as a time of restriction, without understanding
that the concept of Sabbath was a truly revolutionary
and liberating idea in religious history.
Sabbath blesses the idea that that people are neither
slaves nor machines. We are not meant to work constantly.
We are meant to rest periodically. To take stock. To slow
down. To have one day each week devoted to something other
than work.
Choose To Celebrate The Darkness
How does any of this relate to abundance? Constant striving
demonstrates a failure to trust in the essential abundance
of the universe. A choice to live an “Abundantly
Alive Now!” life is rooted in the consciousness that
there is enough. In this dark time of the year, you can
choose to celebrate the darkness and slow down, rest,
and rejuvenate.
About the Author
Kalinda Rose Stevenson, Ph.D. and Certified Guerrilla
Marketing Coach is the author of "Debt or Alive:
How To Get Out Of Debt and Feel Abundantly Alive"
Get your free ezine, “Abundantly Alive Now!”
at www.abundantlyalivenow.com/goarticles.htm Learn how
to live joyously, calmly and lovingly in the present moment. |
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