Needless to say, we are living in dark times. With COVID-19 spreading across the globe, economies collapsing, and climate change continuing to ravage onwards, the external world is as turbulent as ever. Real action is needed, by all of us, yet it also seems hard for some of us to figure out what our role is, what we really have to offer.

Once we have done what we can in the external world to care for ourselves and others, we have the opportunity to turn inwards and explore our unique gifts and resources. The very gifts that will help us thrive in the most difficult of situations and allow us to make meaningful contributions to our families and communities in the days, months, and years ahead.

Deep within all of us, there is a world of nearly infinite capacity. One that we rarely turn to intentionally. This is the inner world, the world of dreams, the body, intuition, and the world of the deep past and distant future. It is a world that is uniquely our own, yet also connects us intimately with each other and every living being on the planet.

The initial movement towards the inner world can be challenging. We often confront anxiety in the face of the unknown, we fret about not knowing how to do it or how to do it right, we encounter parts of ourselves that we have neglected or fled in the past. This part of the journey can be facilitated by a guide who has been here before.

By working past the anxiety and confronting what we have sought to previously avoid, we come face to face with our emotional life, parts of ourselves that we disconnected with long ago, and our true values, goals, and gifts. Our work then becomes integrating these lost parts of ourselves into our well-defined personality.

While it might feel that challenging external circumstances require us to do something, it is often by taking pause and going inward that we find the right course of action. Challenging times also create openings for something new to happen, something new to come forth. By turning towards our inner life in dark times, we explore what our real gifts are and how we might make a meaningful and lasting contribution in our own lives and the lives of others.