painting by Taras Loboda 1961 Link to more of their paintings HERE
If you find yourself in the darkness….it is partially a solitary battle. Trying to get out of that tunnel backwards, by retreating will not work.
You are thrown into the middle of the dark tunnel, by your personal demons.
If someone has hurt or abused you then you are realizing that this has triggered your old wounds to open up and your sleeping demons to awaken.
You have to sit with the darkness and interact with those fears, angers, grief or sadness demons. You need to let your inner child know that you are confronting those demons for them, because the child in incapable to battle them or defend against them.
If you try to run away from that tunnel, the demons will always follow you, because they refuse to be ingnored. Your inner child will continue to feel rejected and abandoned by you, because you are not integrating the demons.
If you experienced trauma at early ages, those demons are still haunting the child.
An incident of coming face to face with evil or darkness, will trigger the old fears, because they were never consoled and accepted.
You can sit with these feelings and let your inner child know that you accept them, love them, and will always protect them.
Once the child realizes it is not abandoned then the process of integrating the fractured child parts, and fractured memory pictures, can begin.
image from pinterest Link HERE
Each picture has a meaning attached to it. The meanings of things during childhood are programmed into you by others, who were concerned with their own agenda. You can change the meaning that your subconscious holds about these memories.
Take your time as you walk through the dark tunnel. You will get to the other side stronger and with greater ability to perceive truth.
Society, and people from your life, have dropped a veil in front of your eyes.
Any feelings you are carrying of shame, guilt, or obligation to violate your authentic self, are part of this veil.
There is more to see and perceive….and there are more possibilities that exist….and more possibities that you can create. People limit you by telling you what you cannot and should not do.
The darkness does not have to be pushed aside, in order for you to survive it.
Painful emotions are guides, telling you not to go in a certain direction.
Your emotions are an alert system that is important for you to pay attention to.
Others are not living your life. They do not have any right to dictate how you feel about their behaviors and words. They do not have any right to program your mind with the meaning they want you to attach to things.
Your brain and your emotions are your own. You have a right to feel how you feel, and to care about those feelings. Others who discount your feelings are not supporting you and those people are not good for you.
Highly sensitive people and empaths are criticized by the ones who want to dominate over and subjugate them.
They will tell you that you are “too sensitive” or that you are “over reacting.. “
They may even deny things they say and do, in order to gaslight you.
When you try to set boundaries with them, they tell you they never did what you are remembering them doing….or they just plain say that your needs are irrelevant.
This is to create ficticious examples of how your “highly sensitive person” qualities are not valid. If these people can make you question your perception of reality, then they can manipulate how you feel about yourself.
Do not discount or minimize your feelings.
Experience them and integrate all parts of you into the whole. Others will attempt to fracture your parts, because this disables you from being powerful.
You have a great purpose and there are many possibilities all around you. Accept and love yourself for who you are.
Photography by Karina Chernova – see more of her work HERE
As you begin to integrate the light and the darkness of the old and new demons, you will begin to see how you belong in the world.
You have purpose and are part of all life. Your gifts are special and unique. .
Listen to those people that nourish your soul…rather than those people that seek to cripple your spirit. Find others who can validate your worthiness ….
Highly sensitive people and empaths are in the minority.
It is important for you to exist in an environment that supports you. Seek out those who value your gifts and accept you for who you are.
Blessings,
Annie
Note – If you are interested in life coaching for expanding and blossoming your unique gifts, or help finding your direction, please feel free to visit my web site and join the email list.
gentlekindnesscoaching.com
-overcoming narcissistic abuse
-recognizing gaslighting
-dealing with the “red pills” and truth being revealed to you
-hypnosis and NLP
-energy healing
-compassionate conversation and validation
GentleKindness 
Annie, you are a person with a GIANT Heart Of Gold, and I have something for you, but your post brought back something we face everyday, even after all these many, many years.
I KNOW there is a hell, because we were raised there, at least half the time. It is estimated that over 99% of every person that has ever lived suffered from Thanatophobia, the fear of death. While most definitions attempt to avoid saying the main reason, it is right there between the lines, which is the way people have lived their lives and their treatment of others.
We, and when I say this, I always include my best Friend in most everything, because we survived together, he is My Little Brother Frank, but as I was about to say, we have never been scared of death, I KNOW, because I remember looking at the little boy as he cryed in fear as he watched me cry in fear as we would begin praying for Our GOD to kill us. When we did this, usually we prayed at least 1 or 2 times later. The only time we didn’t was when we didn’t get beat with a bull whip, or something else, and that was when Our Step-Father was out of town, or out of country.
While this was a very real hell for us, it didn’t end there. When the Bullying programs started, I posted they would never work, because it DID NOT address the REAL problem: which is that at least 1 or more adults are involved in a major way. I KNOW because we lived through it and the rest of what was visited on 2 little boys for 17 years. People at our church laughed at us when their sons, who were much older, hurt us and made us cry.
I told my Step-Dad not to beat my Brother any more when I was 11, he beat me and I didn’t cry, and I saw a look that I would remember, then he got evil looking, and said “Oh I’ll make you cry….”. the last I remember was Frank crying, begging me to cry. We never got mad at GOD, we thought we had made him mad for something we had done.
When I was 17, or nearly, he got mad and took it out on us, but I stepped in front of Frank and wouldn’t move, when he hit me I stared him in the eyes, and he has never touched us again. Few m4n have ever layed a hand on us through our entire life.
Being Abused DOES NOT make you want to hurt anyone, unless they hurt you, abd being Abused DOES NOT make anyone want to hurt animals, nor anything, especially a Child. However if someone could not excape the Abuse or Bullying, the result would be as we have seen.
No generation has ever enacted LAWS to protect Children and the weak adequately. If you consider the number of people Abused as a Child, then you consider the percentage affected with physical and/or mental problems, including, but not limited to Drug Abuse or addiction, Alcohol Abuse or addiction, Law Problems etc…. then you multiply this by thousands of years, there is NO ONE WHO CAN DISPROVE MY THEORY THAT: every person on this earth, or very nearly so, is a victim of Abuse or COLLATERAL DAMAGE there of.
Annie, suddenly I realize that this is not the place to tell you what I have for you. You use your own judgement as to posting this comment, although it is only a tiny bit of the hell we survived.
I am very proud of you Annie, keep up the great work.
Sincerely,
Robert
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Thank you for sharing your story and for the information you have added to this conversation. The more informed we are. the better we can deal with narcissists and learn to avoid them in the future.
We can heal and do our best to keep our circles of people kind and compassionate.
Thank you and blessings,
Annie
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going through my dark night of the soul is the greatest thing that ever happened to me. im not the same person I once was. being an empathy this was painful as hell at imes I thought I was going to die, but I made it through to the other side with a knowledge ill never forget.
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We never forget. Thank you so much for sharing about your journey. As empaths, we can heal and help others. but we need to keep our circles of people that we interact with on a regular basis to be kind and compassionate people.
It is very nice to have this blog space so that we can connect and offer support for each other.
Blessings
Annie
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empath stupid spell check lol
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The word empath is coming up as a misspelled word. I think that the computers and cell phones do not know the word. It seems weird…but also shows how in the minority we are. The word is not even recognized….
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Thank you for posting this, Annie :). It was exactly the validating, understanding post I needed to read today!
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I am so glad that this post came at just the perfect time for you. It is a good sign for you, that the universe is aligning for you. This is the time for you to create your path forward and blossom !
Annie<3
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