By Kate Pennell
Living under a dark cloud is hard on the soul.
Not long ago we had visitors from England. It was a time of the year when it was anything but sunny there, and they loved to be outside in the Spanish autumnal rays. They just soaked it up with smiles on their faces. But it was more than the weather; they needed some sunlight in their soul.
Banish the Dark Clouds
Sunlight gives us warmth and light. We’re not plants, but we also need this to grow. I need warmth and light in my life, don’t you? Not just physically but in my relationships and the situations that I find myself in.
When we’re in a relationship that produces constant negativity, it can be like we’re living under a heavy, dark cloud. Our situations can feel far away from light and growth, shut in. However, unlike a plant, we have the option to move.
We have a choice.
We want to grow tall and strong; we want to flourish. If we have people in our lives who strangle us like vines, we need to put some distance between us and them. They take our sunlight and can smother us with their need or their poisonous seeds. It sounds dramatic, I know, but have a think about your relationships—then write down some notes.
After meeting with these people do you feel nourished or drained? Do any of them feel like miserable rain clouds (negativity), storm clouds (aggression, anger, drama), or smothering vines? It is doubtful that you will be able to give and receive light and warmth with these people. Seek sunlight.
Ditch the Mundane
Things can catch at us and snag us like brambles. We can become caught in the mundane drudgery of life. It can get us down, like damp, cold, foggy weather that gets into your bones and wears at your resistance and health.
Life can feel to be “always winter and never Christmas.” In The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe the Narnians had to wait for someone else to break the cycle, whereas we don’t. Aslan’s arrival is always good news, but we can choose to change our own situations.
Those changes can be physical changes: If you’re in a soul-sucking job, change it if you can. Sometimes just planning our exit strategy from a situation gives us the energy we need to maintain our own light in the darkness. As we begin to take steps, the brighter our light becomes. Take the course, do the research, create a dream line and a plan.
In other situations, I appreciate that we cannot just up and leave; we’re currently rooted too strongly. The same goes for some relationships. Here our changes need to be internal, and these can be just as powerful.
Our situations or relationships may not change but rather we change within those situations or relationships.
If we wait for our happiness, our fulfillment, to come from outside of our selves we will be waiting forever. By empowering ourselves we can find our own happiness and fulfillment that can then flow out from us into the places and people we touch.
The Power of Choice
Having a negative or positive mindset is a choice. To be bitter and begrudging or to forgive is a choice. To react emotionally or responded with wisdom to a situation is a choice. We have so many choices and can use the power of these choices.
It all starts with us choosing to leave behind any victim mentality, choosing to be responsible for our own lives, and choosing to seek out sunlight. There is both power and warmth in that light.
Kate Pennell, English and slightly geekish, is a coach and dream catalyst who lives in Spain with three kids, various furry creatures and a patient husband. She loves nature, creativity and seeing people discover what truly makes them come alive. Kate provides the people she works with permission to launch and helps them begin to fly as they were made to. She teaches, encourages and connects with fellow travelers across our global village. Find out more at https://permissiontolaunch.website/.