The Problem With ‘Love and Light’ Spirituality
There is a pressure implied within the fluffy ‘light and love’ spiritual rhetoric to always have your sh*t together, be smiling, happy and positive. To control your thoughts, be present, be grateful, be positive. To be in ALIGNMENT all the damn time.
To never have a meltdown, a bad day, to lose it, or cry into the raw vegan bowl (that you just blessed) which you’re eating for lunch.
That spirituality is only about light, love and enlightenment. That healing is all sunshine, rainbows and magical plant medicine journeys. Completely failing to acknowledge our darkness, our slip ups, our emotions, our HUMAN-ness.
Ironically for an ideology that is supposed to be based around acceptance, love and non-judgement, there is a fair amount of expectation and a fair amount of self-judgement placed on those who fail to live up to these somewhat impossible standards – that they’re not “spiritual enough”.
True healing is dealing with your darkness, addressing your emotions and integrating your shadow.
It isn’t using crystals, chanting and yoga poses to gloss over and conceal the fact that deep inside you’re repressing so much negativity that you’re one mantra away from exploding.
So while you’re pursuing the ‘spiritual path’, oh enlightened one, do not forget or neglect YOUR HUMAN-NESS, and the fact that you are not – and can not be – perfect all the damn time.
Sometimes, your human wants to ugly cry for an entire day straight. Sometimes, your human is going to feel heavy and anxious. Sometimes, your human is going to feel down for no apparent reason.
Mess things up. Make mistakes. Skip out on that workout. Not feel like meditating. Get triggered AF and blow up at someone.
Even the most enlightened people mess it up from time to time – stub their toe, snap at their partner or curse under their breath when the barista gave them full fat instead of almond milk.
The point is, having a blue moment, day or week doesn’t immediately mean you’ve slipped into old behaviours, you’re not enlightened, you’ve failed at your goal, you’ve derailed your manifestations or that you’re “not spiritual enough”.
It just means that you’re human. Full stop.
And you came here to be human, didn’t you? To experience ALL of the good, AND all of the bad.
It was YOU that chose to come here and experience contrast instead of blissfully floating around in the ether forever. And it is that contrast that is going to bring you back to higher expressions of love, light and enlightenment.
You cannot have the light, without the darkness – to use an old cliche.
Quit beating yourself up, show yourself some compassion and recognise that life – that spirituality and healing – is a personal journey, not a competition.
Take it one day at a time and ditch your need to play into the ‘look how spiritual I am’ spiritual ego game that threatens to diminish the very purpose of true spirituality.