Dark Light and The 3-Point Analysis

They follow each other everywhere. It's a never ending chase. As if darkness and light are running in circles. When light brightens something, it leaves a shadow too. And sometimes the shadows are more dramatic. Like when we create those shadow figures / animals with our hands!

Figuratively, the dark times in our life are followed by lighter moments and vice versa. For some of us, the dark times are much longer than the brighter ones. We do try to convince ourselves that the sad phase will be followed by a happy phase. But the truth is that we are so tightly entangled in the sad phase that we actually end up increasing its length. 

Consider the following 3-Point Analysis I came up with (my very own debut theory... hehe):

Point 1 - Pre-Dark: Often, we sense the depressing / upsetting time as it is on its way towards us. And so, even though the sorrow has not arrived yet, we let it overpower our happier current phase. It's the anticipation that spoils it all. 



E.g. You are all excited about planning a vacation. But even before your system soaks in the lovely feeling, you start wondering if your leave will be granted. What if they say it's just the wrong time as there's a lot of work coming up? What if they mention your previous sick leave indicating that you have been off work quite 'frequently'? What if they deny the leave? 

We thus increase the length of the dark phase much before the start of it. Draw your own analogy to test this point. Possible breakups, upcoming interview tensions, upcoming arrival of a new baby, upcoming marriages, appraisals...

Point 2 -  Dark: The actual dark phase. Something bad happens, small or big. Well, now that it has happened, it's only human to be upset. So it's okay to be sad for a while. But when will the bad phase end? It doesn't have an expiry date, does it? So we shout or cry or keep away from everyone or feel depressed, depending on several factors and our own style.

Point 3 - Post-Dark: So the dark phase arrived and overshadowed your light. And it passed. It affected you temporarily (e. g. Travel leave not granted) or permanently (e. g. Being diagnosed with an  incurable disease which will stay with you until you live). 

Now what? Will you keep crying over spilled milk? Or will you stand up, clean it off and get a new packet of fresh milk? A cancelled trip bothers you for a few days. Breakup depression stays for a few months or years for some. The incurable disease / unhappy marriage is well a parasite, but will you let it eat you up until the day you die? 

We really take a super long time to overcome the sorrow. As if a brighter light will blind us. Actually, we personally pick up the dark and place it on the lighter phase. We are ourselves responsible for the super long dark phase. So something happened. It's done. Finish.

Poor light! What wrong did it do to us? Why are we filling its space with dark. And then we always say we have really few happier times!

Okay! What next?
Now pick up any sad phase of your life. Make a timeline. 

1. When did you think it might happen before it happened?
2. When did it actually happen?
3. When did you accept it / got over it and moved on?

Seriously, draw the timeline. And you will have an instant solution to the future darkness. 
Pre-Dark: The next time you sense the appearance of darkness, you will wait for it but still enjoy the existing phase.
Dark: You will be stronger to deal with the actual Dark phase.
Post-Dark: You will not cry over spilled milk for long, as you will remember the last time you did it, that was such a waste of happy times.

Happiness and Sorrow, Light and Darkness will always follow each other in circles. But why should you get in the way! Take them one at a time. And trust me, you will find light at the end of the tunnel!

Dark Light or Light Dark, the choice is always yours!

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This post is written by me for the A-Z Blogging Challenge where I will post every day (except Sundays) all through the month of April. Most importantly, I will blog thematically on topics from A to Z! So for April 1, I chose a topic starting with the letter A, for April 2 the letter B and so on. 
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My A-Z Challenge Entries: A B C D...