(Cover Photo: Us, 2019)
Light comes from the darkness, this is also true with us.
Think of every one who ever existed that did something so extraordinary it was immortalized in the hearts and minds of the world. In our time it would be someone like a Michael Jordan, Mike Tyson or Muhammad Ali. They were able to do more and greater things than their predecessors, to the point they became the new standard of excellence.
How did they attain this power? What was the source of their strength? Was it something outside of their self, or was it something on the inside?
Don’t be fooled by their charismatic personas, smiles and jokes for the cameras. That’s just the public version of themselves, the side of themselves that they want you to remember, but that is not the real them that accomplishes legendary things.
When it’s time to perform, they tap into the darkness. They go into that version of themselves hidden from the public’s view. It is usually a place filled with pain and traumas where there is a childlike version of yourself drenched with sorrows and rage, abandoned by your conscious mind.
Think of all the horrible and painful experiences in your life you’ve tried to forget as another you that exists in an alternate dimension, because it is. That’s why no matter how hard you try to forget it, those memories break through like a prisoner trying escape a prison. That is a segment of your conscious mind that you trapped away in a time bubble, it still is a living part of you.
However, that version of yourself is not half as humane or comprising as its public counterpart. It is the version of yourself that only typically appears in life threatening circumstances that require an ultimate level of hyper vigilance and aggressive action. It is not aware nor concerned with the rules of society. It is pure energy pressurized in the darkness. It is the beast, demon, monster type of energy that all of us try desperately to keep in the confines of our own heads.
It’s the difference between Django at the beginning of the movie versus the end. It is the Hulk inside of Bruce Banner. It is our alter ego that has been suppressed so long that when it finally comes out it’s like Dave Chappelle in that one skit, “f*ck yo couch n*gga”.
This is the source of strength of all extraordinary people, the darkness.
They all knew how to tap into that monster within but rather than be overcome by it, harmonize with it.
When professional athletes are squaring up against their opponent, they allow the darkness to hop in the front seat (beast mode), because they know the public version of themselves is not ferocious enough to get the job done. The hidden version of themselves would be more than happy to release some suppressed energy on anything in the way of the primary objective.
Michael Jordan, Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali were extraordinary athletes because they found a way to use that version of themselves that was imprisoned by fear and trauma as a fuel source to be come “The Greatest”.
Stop running from the darkness within you, it is your greatest source of strength next to your own divine mind. That means you have to face yourself and deal with the realities within yourself. That version of yourself you’ve tried to forget or hide is still alive no matter how hard you try to get rid of it.
You better find it before it finds you.
If you don’t, you will lose your opportunity to balance the light with the dark, and one day the darkness will overcome you.
