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A post shared by Gab Cohen ?ॐ (@gypsyloveflow) on Apr 19, 2020 at 6:27pm PDT

In the last few years, shadow work has been a thick thread in my life. 

The back and forth of light and shadow can be an intense and confusing battle—even for someone like me who is comfortable with darkness and the emotional waves of healing. 

As we navigate from isolating times and start integrating ourselves back into society, relationships, and dating, this new level of awareness can be quite jarring.

The gift we received from the isolated phase of the pandemic is a clearer image of our dark truths. Sometimes the light shines on parts of ourselves that we want to hide—parts of ourselves that we are ashamed of. The neurotic parts. The low self-worth parts that we pretend don’t exist. 

The parts of ourselves that make us cringe when we think back. Those parts of ourselves that lashed out on loved ones, or resorted to self-destruction to soothe our pain.

But once the light shines over those shadowy parts of ourselves, we can move through them, accept them, and relinquish them back to the universe. We can thank her for the lessons and her perspective. This is when we can begin to rewrite our stories completely. Yes, the past is real. But it’s not as real as this moment we are in now. It’s hard to keep choosing each day to live life moving forward rather than ruminating in the quicksand of the past.

It’s okay to feel somewhat emotionally attached to the past or those dark parts of the self, but I have to remind myself that my past is over. We energetically die thousands of times during our lives, and we are reborn with new energies, new perspectives, and new goals. Thank god for change, because if we didn’t change, we’d be stuck on a treadmill of the same old cycles and patterns our entire lives.

Want to learn more about shadow work, mental health, creative writing, and navigation through dark times? Tune into Gab Cohen’s podcast, “The Vibe Within.”