Facing your demons is a term for dealing with the repressed or unconscious aspects of your personality.
You may have repressed them for a variety of reasons and remain consciously unaware of them. However, much like an iceberg of which ninety percent remains submerged underwater, the unconscious mind is useful to that analogy. It is responsible for your voluntary and involuntary actions.
Through awareness and understanding, you become aware of your unconscious actions, so as not to become a victim to the programmed patterns which accompany them.
1. Everything You Desire Lies On The Other Side Of Facing Your Demons.
?If I got rid of my demons, I?d lose my angels.??Tennessee Williams
Every person has inner desires. It might have been a childhood dream up until adult hood when you became consumed by a job you no longer enjoyed in order to pay the bills and make ends meets.
Before long you resigned yourself to the fact that you?ll never achieve your lifelong dream. You convinced yourself that dreams are fairy-tales only a select few can achieve. You arrive at this conclusion since you weren?t able to achieve yours. This makes you feel better rather than think of yourself as a failure.
Without the risk of painting a grim picture, I draw the point to your attention since many people experience mid-life crisis as a result of settling. They feel life has deprived them of something precious. They?re at a loss to navigate their way ahead, since they?ve been propelled forward and now find it impossible to turn back.
Your demons which represent your fears, insecurities, doubts or negative beliefs are the source of suffering. To achieve your desires, it is imperative to break through them to experience the greatness you deserve.
Brendon Burchard writes in The Motivation Manifesto: ?Our internal demons poison us with worry and fear whenever we might be vulnerable, stunting our growth and vitality. Our destiny is decided by how well we know our demons of Doubt and Delay, how well we defend against them, and how many battles we win against them each day of our lives.?
Even though you undertake the process of self-examination, there are no guarantees life will reward you. There are no promises or assurances in life. Yet seemingly, you?re in the ideal position to achieve your dreams or goals when you face your demons.
2. Don?t Allow The Past To Be Drawn Into The Future, Unless You Make Peace With It.
?Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.? ? August Wilson
When following your path, the past may come back to revisit you. It does so to remind you of the neglected aspects of your life essential to your personal growth. If you overlooked a belief or emotion, it lays dormant at the unconscious level without your awareness.
Unexpectedly it serves as a reminder that you have unfinished business to attend to. You never know when your demons show up, though I can tell you they normally rear they?re ugly head when you?re emotionally vulnerable.
If something in your life is the cause of your unhappiness, attend to it by making peace with it. Find out what the belief or emotion wants you to understand. I speak from experience, having undertaken the process years ago. I became aware of emotions which I thought I attended to. Unknowingly they remerged when other related matters became apparent.
Instead of putting a lid on them this time, I addressed them in order to uncover the lesson behind them. Once addressed, they revealed an empowering aspect of my personality which I failed to recognise at the time.
3. Transform Your Demons Into A Gateway Towards Joy And Bliss.
?Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. But what you?re doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness. You can choose to not let little things upset you.? ? Joel Osteen
As mentioned in the last paragraph above when you face your demons, they have the power to transform energy into something greater. They appear as a negative state, since you suppressed them instead of allowing expression through you.
Imagine a friend who calls you regularly, yet you never return their call. In due course the friend gets angry since they?re at a loss to know why you haven?t returned their call.
While this analogy serves as simple metaphor, it highlights how your beliefs and emotions have the power to transform energy if left unchecked. When you attend to them, the emotion reveals the lesson essential to your personal development.
As I mention in the point title, they transform into joy and bliss when you make peace with them. The opposite state is to bury them deeper. Most people take the easy route continuing to repress their emotions until it?s too late. Don?t become that person.
4. Transform The Energy And Confront That Which You Buried Long Ago.
?Don?t fight your demons. Your demons are here to teach you lessons. Sit down with your demons and have a drink and a chat and learn their names and talk about the burns on their fingers and scratches on their ankles. Some of them are very nice.? ? Charles Bukowski
The important feature of self-examination is the willingness to address the repressed emotions or beliefs. Without the desire to clean out the closet so to speak, you remain victim to the emotion. It haunts you until it grows bigger and powerful in magnitude.
Give yourself permission to deal with the source of your unhappiness. Even if you don?t know how, it?s better than living in fear of life collapsing beneath you. I?ve witness people overcome with an intensity of buried emotions, it ruined their life. They fell victim to the ensuing emotions ? which eventually overpowered them.
Consider the advice by meditation master and author Orgyen Chowang who explains in Our Pristine Mind: A Practical Guide to Unconditional Happiness: ?Most people?s problems spring from their own thoughts. Their thoughts, their mental events, create unhappiness, disturbance, and chaos in their relationships and in other areas of their lives. That?s why thoughts are the real demons, because they are the cause of suffering, chaos, separation, and conflict in so many areas of our lives.?
You?ll know when you?re ready to examine your concealed emotions. Your readiness will herald overcoming your buried past. While it may seem frightening at first; it pails into insignificance to the havoc wreaked if left unchecked. Be kind and patient with yourself during this process. You will experience a spectrum of emotions which bring you closer toward unveiling your authentic self.
5. Allow Your Light To Shine On Your Demons. Light Overpowers The Darkness.
?Our demons are our own limitations, which shut us off from the realization of the ubiquity of the spirit . . . each of these demons is conquered in a vision quest.? ? Joseph Campbell
The metaphor of allowing your light to shine on your demons signifies the essence and spirit of your true nature. Through spiritual work you discover there is more to you than a body and a mind.
You discover yourself as an unbound being with unlimited potential. Your potential becomes apparent when your demons are no longer the source of your pain. Like a prisoner held captive in a cell, your demons have the potential to generate the same effect.
Allowing your light to shine on your demons invites you to go within to find that source of bright energy. Personally, I see it as a small white star within when meditating. When I give it energy, the light grows brighter filling my entire body. In that instance, I am the source of pure love and light. I recognise this quality as it feels familiar. It is kind, patient and non-judgemental. It doesn?t ask anything of me ? yet I am drawn to it.
You too have this source of energy within you. By going into regular silence through meditation or being alone in nature, you become familiar with it. Ultimately you unite with it so that others become aware of your light.
Make a decision to face your demons if you seek to liberate yourself from an imprisoned past. Ask for guidance from those you trust unsure on where to begin. Invite loved ones to help you realise aspects of your personality you wish to work through.
Be gentle on yourself as you undertake this process. Don?t pass judgement or criticism on what is ? merely observe through awareness. In doing so you not only liberate yourself from that past, you create a porthole into an unlimited future.
