In my experience, dark nights, existential terror, and even general discomfort is rooted in identification and trauma.
Identification means identifying with the viewpoint of any story, taking it as true, and believing it. And I am using the word trauma in a very broad sense here, meaning what happened when something scared us enough so we created beliefs and identifications to protect ourselves (aka the imagined separate self).
For some of us, it’s easy to either romanticize dark nights and existential terror or see it as something mysterious and intangible that has to run its course and resolve by itself. And while there may be some truth to it having to live out its life, seeing it as rooted in identification and trauma gives us a pointer in how to work with it.
At the root of dark nights and existential terror is identification, and that’s something we can work with in a practical and grounded way. It’s rooted in identification mixed in with all sorts of mild and more serious trauma.
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Initial notes…..
- dark night, existential terror, trauma
- dark night of the soul
- dread and terror, loss, surfacing of unprocessed material, trauma
- healing of the human self, realignment with reality, humbling
- existential terror
- “Existential anxiety refers to a sense of worry, dread or panic that may arise from the contemplation of life’s biggest questions, such as “Who am I?” or “Why am I here?” “
- trauma
- threat + powerless
- deficiency story
- dark night of the soul
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Second draft…..
In my experience, dark nights, existential terror, and even general discomfort, is rooted in identification and trauma.
I am obviously using the word trauma in a very broad sense here, meaning anything that scared us enough so we created beliefs and identifications to protect ourselves (aka the imagined separate self).
For some of us, it’s easy to either romanticize dark nights and existential terror or see it as something mysterious and intangible that has to run its course and resolve by itself. And while there may be some truth to it having to live out its life, seeing it as rooted in identification and trauma gives us a very practical pointer in how to work with it.
At the root of dark nights and existential terror is identification, and that’s something we can work with in a practical and grounded way. It’s rooted in identification mixed in with all sorts of mild and more serious trauma.
Initial draft…..
In my experience, it seems that dark nights, existential terror, and even general discomfort, is rooted in trauma.
I am obviously using the word trauma in a very broad sense here, meaning anything that scared us enough so we created beliefs and identifications to protect ourselves (aka the imagined separate self).
For some of us, it’s easy to either romanticize dark nights and existential terror or see it as something mysterious and intangible that has to resolve on itself. And while there may be some truth to it having to run its course and live out its life, seeing it as rooted in trauma gives us a very practical pointer in how to work with it.
Said another way, at the root of dark nights and existential terror is identification, and that’s something we can work with in a practical and grounded way.