Self-Care//Dark
Feb. 22nd, 2025 03:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deja_indigoDark self-care.
That is what is needed now.
Not the self-indulgent, toxic-positivity, New Age pampering that focuses on calmness and serenity and light. Not the self-care that treats pain and grief and rage and despair as obstacles to overcome, toxins to be purged, or shadows to be banished.
No, what is needed is a form of self-care that honors our darker feelings, while channeling them in ways that do not harm that which we wish to protect. A form of self-care that transmutes our darkness into something that can act as a shield or a defensive weapon against the encroaching horrors of this nightmare world.
Sharpen your grief into a porcupine's quills. Coat yourself in your despair like a slow loris coats its fur in its venom. Wear your rage in bright colors, like a poison dart frog.
Make your darkness dangerous to your predators, rather than letting it fester and consume you within. Don't treat it as a sickness to be purged, a demon to be exorcised, or a toxin that must be purified. It is natural, right, and just. It belongs within you, it deserves your attention and respect. It is here to fulfill a need. It becomes dangerous when you don't respect it, don't trust it, don't accept it...it is powerful, and it will turn on you if you give it no other options.
Take your darkness and create with it--not to release it, but to give it form and to bathe it in your attention. Use it to destroy the things that hold you back, and allow yourself to revel in that destruction. Allow it to animate your body, to move you, to cultivate power within your muscles and bones and tendons. Let it choose your words to pierce the veil of complacency of those around you. Let it resonate with the darkness in others, to connect and create a shared shadow space, to see and validate, and be seen and validated.
Above all, allow it to be alive within you. Feel its power and its strength, find the dark comforts of its protection.
That is what is needed now.
Not the self-indulgent, toxic-positivity, New Age pampering that focuses on calmness and serenity and light. Not the self-care that treats pain and grief and rage and despair as obstacles to overcome, toxins to be purged, or shadows to be banished.
No, what is needed is a form of self-care that honors our darker feelings, while channeling them in ways that do not harm that which we wish to protect. A form of self-care that transmutes our darkness into something that can act as a shield or a defensive weapon against the encroaching horrors of this nightmare world.
Sharpen your grief into a porcupine's quills. Coat yourself in your despair like a slow loris coats its fur in its venom. Wear your rage in bright colors, like a poison dart frog.
Make your darkness dangerous to your predators, rather than letting it fester and consume you within. Don't treat it as a sickness to be purged, a demon to be exorcised, or a toxin that must be purified. It is natural, right, and just. It belongs within you, it deserves your attention and respect. It is here to fulfill a need. It becomes dangerous when you don't respect it, don't trust it, don't accept it...it is powerful, and it will turn on you if you give it no other options.
Take your darkness and create with it--not to release it, but to give it form and to bathe it in your attention. Use it to destroy the things that hold you back, and allow yourself to revel in that destruction. Allow it to animate your body, to move you, to cultivate power within your muscles and bones and tendons. Let it choose your words to pierce the veil of complacency of those around you. Let it resonate with the darkness in others, to connect and create a shared shadow space, to see and validate, and be seen and validated.
Above all, allow it to be alive within you. Feel its power and its strength, find the dark comforts of its protection.