Many human beings find their spiritual paths from encountering the dark night of the soul. They become so battered and worn that they simply cannot resist any longer and choose to surrender into a new way of being.
From such a painful place it is natural to seek relief. The first steps must be to self nurture, to heal, to shift energetically into a better feeling space. Many people are in survival mode at this point of their journey, and are very fragile. The purpose of this phase is to discover the spiritual supports that are available to them, to open up to new ideas and ways of doing things, and to find their way out of crisis. This is about stabilization, comfort, and relief.
As the person begins to balance out and explore the ideas of creating for themselves, the power of positive focus, and that better potentials may exist beyond where they’ve been, they begin to grow and expand. This is a phase of learning, exploration, and new possibilities. The focus must be on feeling better in order to move to a different energetic layer beyond crisis, where the initial stages of healing can occur. This phase may last many years where the person is focused on spiritual learning, experimentation, and creating a more satisfying life experience.
Once the person has built a much more solid foundation for themselves, and have developed skills to create balance for themselves, they will then be ready to move into some of the heavier healing work. They will be prepared to roll up their sleeves and start looking at the darker aspects of self, the shadow work, if you will. They will be ready to assume responsibility as their own loving guide and parent in order to move through this more challenging phase of healing, unconditional love of self, and integration.
Dear Ones, please understand that all phases are important on your journey! A person who has just come out of their dark night of the soul is simply not ready to tackle shadow work. A person who has mastered moving into better feeling space is not going to do what is commonly referred to as spiritual bypassing forever. Your soul is always going to seek the expansion and growth that it is ready for in perfect timing. Trust the unfoldment, and honour each step as being equally important on your own sacred journey of healing and self discovery. ~Archangel Gabriel through Shelley Young