Ya'll are talking apples and oranges.
I've just happened across this steemit site, scrolling facebook this mornin, where Doc's post was shared & this thread came up.
I'm a little confused by this likes = pennies thing...
& feel that the site could use some sprucing... but that's not what I wish to comment on... entirely. ;)
happyom, I can appreciate your perspective & yet, if I may be so bold as to attempt to further explain 'Doc''s point...
He references the Shadow & THAT work...
& that the law of attraction spiritual motto of, " if it's negative, stay far far away from it," is beyond a trap, it's a spiritual bypass.
I am a transformational life coach...
My work IS about going into the Shadow.
You don't teach people how to do this...
They wake up one day, on their knees in pain, unable to continue doing what they've done...
They have hit the proverbial wall...
A dark night of the soul (or ego as I prefer to clarify,) is upon them.
Our Shadows are merely patterns in which we've used all our lives to manage or navigate or control, painful situations...
OR they have become our way of feeling useful, or needed, or loved.
Archetypes, parts of our personalities which navigated our crazy childhoods, no longer serve us as adults.
We reach an all time heated pitch in our lives where we can no longer continue doing what hurts us.
The only way out is most certainly, THROUGH.
Through our shadow, through the dark, through the unconscious, slowly making it's way to our consciousness.
Yep, it's Jungian.
Yep, it's shadow work...
But let's just keep it simple & call it growth... & nothing to fear... but to embrace.
On the precipice of great change...
Empowering change.
Change which sets our hearts free.
Relationships which support us, instead of push all those buttons.
Freeing ourselves from being blood donors in relationships w/ vampires.
I could go on & on...
Anything which surfaces in our lives which isn't working is EXACTLY the place to DIVE ON INTO!
It's the only way to prompt conscious awareness & ultimately bring about LASTING change.
Spirituality has a well deserved bad rap on levels.
The law of attraction, focus on what you want & not on what you don't want, MOST CERTAINLY IS A TRAP... & quite frankly, a lie on levels.
Here's the reason why...
Our emotions are our Guidance system.
When we feel "bad" it's a queue to go on IN & tend to what & why we are triggered.
Feeling what we feel is the only way to set ourselves free.
Denying, sweeping, pivoting, w/out understanding what's driving the engine, a recipe for disaster...
OR more of the same.
Or a bigger wake up call down the road.
People, it's not that difficult.
Feel what you feel.
Mine those feelings for answers (lessons) which your soul is longing for in this lifetime...
& most certainly, what you signed up for.
Do the work at hand.
There are no monsters hiding under the bed.
It's not going to kill you to face your fears or your dysfunctions.
There's just the work at hand.
Moreover, there's just loving yourself more fiercely (or for the first time ever) through.
Happyom~I agree w/ you, on levels, drama-queens, cease focusing in the drama or the negative... yaddah yaddah...
But here's more of the truth, we never know a person's soul's path in this life... or how much or how long they need to recreate what they do until they hit their bottom or their dark night.
This spiritual community which teaches or insists that people are doing it wrong are full of shit... & they are the ones who are "wrong."
Or let's call them misguided.
The law of attraction, focus on happy thoughts, imagine your wealthy, happy, life w/ your perfect mate & your perfect house & car, is a load of it.
It would serve all of us to STOP-DROP-&-ROLL & get real.
We are here to love & be loved.
We are here to grow beyond our former selves.
We are here to find all the ways in which we diametrically stand in our own ways on those journeys.
Shadow work gifts you that. It's the only work which does.
Pivoting into happy thoughts, prolongs the inevitable.
In the words of one of my favorite authors, Tom Robbins, "It's never too late to have a happy childhood."
But first you have to face those wounds in order to tell yourself the truth...
You are the common denominator in your life & in your relationships.
You are making unconscious decisions based on your programs & patterns & ways of seemingly 'protecting' yourself...
How about dipping your toe in the waters of making deliberate & conscious decisions for possibly the first time?...
The only way to have & to make conscious CHOICE is to be CONSCIOUS!
If you want things to be different, better, happier, more creative, more love-filled, more yummy...
Face your dragons. Hug them even.
No need to slay them.
Love them.
What we need now, is MORE LOVE, not more shame.
The Law of Attraction motto is riddled w/ shame.
I say, it's grow-time.
& I say, it's perfect...
& beautiful.
& freeing.
& at many & multiple points in our lives, the only path to having it all.
Because when you've finally landed HERE, you realize that living YOUR truth, IS having it all.
& everything that society insists upon (new age incl) is not necessarily your truth.
Your truth lies in your heart.
Answer that calling.
It's time.
After-thought-add;
As I returned to facebook after writing this... I came upon THIS:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1829031957413895&id=100009213253461&pnref=story
& EXACTLY what I am attempting to say in support of those in a dark-night... A FAR cry from the law of attraction, look the other way ... or "feel this instead!"
THIS... THIS IS GORGEOUS!! <3