631. Setbacks and the Dark Night of the Soul

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Hello and welcome to Soul Elevation, guiding your ascension to new heights. I'm your host, Kara Goodwin. Today is Friday, September 4th, and I am so excited to be here with you today. I wanna talk today about setbacks and the dark night of the soul. The dark night of the
soul are periods of time that anybody can find themselves in where they just feel kind of spiritually dry, kind of low, lower points of life. You can feel disconnected from source, you can feel disconnected from your own soul, from your own spirit. And it's funny, I was

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talking about this with a friend yesterday because I was, because I've been feeling this way in my own way. It hasn't been like super dramatic or, um, or detrimental, you know, it, it's just been, but it's been there. It's just been this sort of feeling of kind of blowing in the breeze
and not feeling particularly connected the way I normally do. And there was, I experienced a couple of setbacks this week, just regular old things that I was really hoping were gonna happen that didn't come to fruition. And those were related to my work and they just kind of left me

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feeling a little, again, disconnected, but also questioning. I could feel these questions creeping in like, "Is this worth my time? Is this, am I on the highest path, the best path for myself?" Um, and as I was re- reflecting on these questions that were bubbling up, these doubts that were bubbling up, I was thinking,
"Well, normally I go live on Mondays and Fridays, tomorrow's Friday, and maybe I shouldn't go live because I don't wanna get online and be like, yes, you, you know, feel the, the charge of spirit moving through you when that doesn't really match how I feel on the inside." It's important to me for my inside to match

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my outer expression. And when I wasn't feeling that, I wasn't feeling very inspired, I was feeling these questions, these doubts, these, this resistance. And I thought maybe it's better if I just don't go live because I don't want to pretend that I'm in a place that I'm not in. But I also didn't wanna plant any
seeds unintentionally. You know, I didn't want to, the, the, the risk of me sharing the way that I'm feeling, even though it's genuine, I don't wanna unintentionally plant seeds for anyone who's not feeling that way. And so I was kind of like, maybe it's better if I don't, if I don't go live. Hang on a second.

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But ultimately, we all go through these seasons and it's important for us to be honest about it and it's important to talk about it because it is so normal. And I believe that it's a rite of passage. And you may come up against this rite of passage more than once. You may have times where it's fleeting and you may have times where it lasts for a long time. When I
shared this with my friend how I'd been feeling, she was talking about, uh, an author that we both really like, um, Friar Richard Rohr. And she said she's come across, uh, writings of his that say that he went, has gone through a dark night of the soul that lasted like 15 years. And he's, gosh, he's gotta be upper 80s or 90s by now. Like he's, he's lived a long life in

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service of spirit. And, you know, it's one of those things where it doesn't escape anybody. And the question is, what do you do about it? What, what can you do when you find yourself in a place of spiritual dryness? And what's interesting too about this, I mentioned that this happens, this can happen to anyone and
everyone. And it's funny because you can have these peak experiences on your path where maybe you feel really, really connected. You feel absolutely sure. Maybe you have some sort of visitation by some spirit and it's so, I mean, it's so palpable. It's so visceral. And you have absolutely no doubt about the true

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nature, the spiritual nature of life. And you think you will never have to doubt again. And life happens and you experience setbacks and you, you, your energy wanes. And that darkness, those doubts can creep back in. Maybe you've had a near death experience. And again, it's so, that's the thing about near death experiences. They
are experiential. You don't, you're not taking anybody's word for it, that there is more beyond the physical existence. You experience for yourself the spiritual truth and that you are always loved and you are always connected. And yet, even with experience like that on your side, it is possible that you will have times where you

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feel spiritually dry, where you are in a dark night of the soul, you feel disconnected, you feel forsaken, you're not sure if you're even on the right path, you're not sure if there is even a God, even though you've experienced God. So that's the really funny thing is that sometimes we can think that we're immune or that other people are immune and they never experience this. And the
truth is there really, it just can, it can just come. I wonder, you know, I, I, I love astrology, but I, I don't, um, regularly check like my planetary alignments against my birth chart and things like that. I mean, the planets have, can have such an effect on our life, our, our li- lived expression that that can play a factor. If you've got some of those outer planets that are, uh,

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have those bigger influences in your life, that can contribute, I'm sure. I, and like I say, I'd be interested to see right now what's going on with my planets. Um, so this is a normal part of spiritual living, and it's not a fun part because it's much more comfortable to be absolutely sure that we are on the
right path, that we are living in alignment with our purpose, that we are loved and seen and guided and protected by our higher self, by God, by source, by our divine team. And we can feel that we're coming up against one door that's closing after another door that's closing after another door that's closing.

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And it can make us question, okay, well, if I'm on the right path, why are things not lining up the way that I feel inspired to move? I feel like I'm being directed in a certain way. So when I take steps in that direction, why are the doors not opening? And there's not one right answer for that kind of query if you're experiencing things like
that. It could be, could be that you need to pivot. You're on, you know, you're not on the right track or something, or that was the right track for you for a time. And if things stop working the way that they used to work, then maybe you are being shown. Like it might feel like failure or disappointment or a setback, but it's actually the way

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that your guidance team is talking to you to say it is time to pivot. It can also be that we are meant to persevere and we are meant to keep moving forward even when we feel like we're up against doubt. So there's never one right way to interpret anything. We, we have to keep feeling it out. And like I said, it may be that the path
has been keep in this direction, keep going north, keep going north, keep going north. And then there comes a point where we're meant to go east. And so if we keep trying to go north, we're not gonna get any traction with that. That is possible as well. So it's al- always up to you as an individual to keep tuning into yourself, to keep

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listening, keep checking in on that guidance. And so that's a personal experience. But when we feel this way, it can be easy. It can be tempting. Let me say, it can be tempting to feel like we, you know, maybe none of it's true. Maybe, you know, maybe I've just been living in this, um, this
faithful way, but I've been wrong. And again, what's interesting is you can have your own experience, like a near death experience and still come up against this, which is fascinating because you've seen for yourself. So that's, that's really interesting. And so we want to, we live in this

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energetic world and this energetic reality has all different types of fluctuating energies that are available. We can have very high vibrational experiences and energies and we can have lower ones as well. And those lower ones can, if we start resonating with those lower ones, they can start to pull us down where we start feeling things that are
more in resonance with the lower vibrations and the lower frequencies. And if that happens, then it is possible for us to, to really start to entertain those doubts, to really start to question ourselves, to tell ourselves things that aren't ultimately true, but they start to feel true because that's what we're entertaining, that's what we're giving

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our energy to and our attention to. And again, I experienced this in my own way this week. What is so funny that I wanna be sure I remember to share is that I had two, this week I had two different, um, setbacks where I had, um, gone. I was kinda, with one of them, I was kinda stretching myself, so I knew that let's call it rejection would, was possible. That, that it, maybe it was even probable. It was
kind of a big swing. And when it came back. But I was hopeful and I was kind of putting my energy into it and my positivity and my, you know, blessings and it didn't come about and rejection happened. And again, that was a probable output, out, out, what's the word I'm looking? Outcome. That was a probable outcome. But it was still stung and it was still disappointing and it still was like, ugh. I had

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another, not as big of a swing as that one, but another kind of like bigger outreach that, um, was another possible rejection. And that one was a yes. And then I had a third thing that wasn't even. Like that one was weird because I though the ball was gonna be in my court and it was gonna be my decision about whether I wanted to move forward with, for, with something or not. And then it came back as a
rejection anyway, which was a surprise because I didn't even really know that was an option. Where it was like, um, you know, I thought it would be for me to think about and to feel into and see if it was the right step forward for me. And then they came back and they were like, "Oh, we're, you know, this isn't the right fit for us." And so that was a weird rejection or re - weird setback that didn't

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even seem like it was gonna be a, a possible, um, outcome that I would not be the one to say no, even though I wasn't like completely convinced. I, I left that meeting thinking, "I'm gonna have to think about this." And then it came back with like, "Oh, sorry, we're not gonna be able to do that." So then that hit kind of hard. And isn't it funny if you've ever been in this experience where it's
like, "Well, now I really want that." You know, it's like, "Wait, you, you are not gonna let me do this? Well, now I really wanna do it." Um, so it was funny. I had these two sort of rejections and then I had this, this like, "Ooh, that was a win." And that could, there was a probable, maybe like a probable outcome that that would've been a no. Um, but what I found was as I've moved through this

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week and these things have kind of like landed in my reality, what do I focus on? Where, where does my mind naturally get pulled to? It get, it gets pulled to the negative things. It gets pulled to the rejection. It gets pulled to the, um, the things that didn't get yeses. And then I've got this beautiful yes that was a nice like, "Oh, yay, this is what I wanted." And that is like overshadowed
by the rejections. And that's an interesting thing that we wanna be aware of too, is our propensity because that's a me issue. Like that's, that's my choice, right? I can think about, at any given point, I can think about whatever it is I wanna think about. I don't have to think about these things at all. But when I, I can feel something kinda niggling at me and I pull the thread on what is

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that feeling and what I come up with are these things that don't feel great, that feel that were the nos, and then I've got this yes that I could be focusing on and celebrating and being excited about and I don't. So that's something to be aware of is just the way that our psyche and our, our human mind, the direction
that it can go of its own accord. And so it's up to us to recognize that that's happening and to be the master of our thoughts. And so, like I said, I've experienced myself these, um, kind of more, uh, doubtful and kind of, well, the dark night of the soul, my own version of it. This isn't like I'm wallowing and it's super

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dark and, you know, but it's still hurt, it still hurts and it still makes me have some, you know, some level of doubt creeping in about my own mission and purpose and the path forward. And, um, and so what do we do when we feel this way? Because it really is not aligned with what the truth is. It's really us just kind of entertaining things
that are not aligned with source, but we always are connected to God, to our higher self, to source. We always are. We don't turn that off. It can just feel that we are separated. So again, it's up to us to notice the thoughts that are coming in, to notice what we're latching onto, to notice what we're sinking our teeth into. And notice,

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remember that we are the commander of our experience. And so there can be an element of taking action in favor of the truth, because even if we forget for a little while, or even if it doesn't feel as resonant in some days, in some weeks, in some moments, that doesn't mean
that it's accurate. It just means that that's where we are. But there are things like getting in contact with content that uplifts us. You know, I just released an episode yesterday with Rupert, uh, Rupent, oh my gosh, Rupert Isaacson, trying to combine Ruben and Rupert.

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Uh, Rupert Isaacson, this is our second conversation, and he is a near death experiencer. So we talk a lot about his near death experience, and we talk about the love that he felt and the message that he received in that experience, which was, "It's all okay. It's all okay. It's all love. It's, it's much lighter than we think when we're in it."
And, you know, he came back with this message that it's all okay. And it's hearing him talk about that and reflect about that, it helps to ignite things, to reignite things within us, where there is a remembrance within us as we connect with stories like that. Rupert also has extraordinary experience with shamanic healing all over the world with

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tribes in Africa and, um, Aboriginal tribes in Australia, Native American tribes in the American Southwest. And he taught and, you know, he had an amazing shamanic family journey in outer Mongolia. And so he shares what happened with those. And those stories, again, they really connect you with the other side. They really connect you with this spiritual reality because that is how
those, those tribal, um, nations live. And they're so deeply connected with it. So hearing him share about that, again, it kind of stokes that fire within and it reignites those shadows. It chases away those shadows that we may experience. And that's just one example, but I'm sure that you have within your repertoire of things that uplift you, that things that kind of spark that

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fire within you and help you remember, because that's really what we, we're on a journey of remembrance. And in this density, in this third dimension, third, fourth dimension, the whole name of the game is that we forget because we are souls in human body. And we come here with strong filters on where we forget who we are. And the whole purpose, the
big, big name of the game here on earth is remembrance. It's remembering. It's, it's not becoming who we are. It's remembering who we've always been. And so there are all of these things that can reconnect you to that remembrance. A big one, you know, is nature. Going in and being in nature for a little bit of time, that will really. And take out

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your earbuds, turn your phone off. Like, don't go in walking through the woods and be scrolling at the same time. Like, forget about any kind of multitasking fantasy that you have about, "Well, my body will be in nature, but I'm gonna really be in my phone." Let yourself really be in the natural world. And if you can, get some time away. Get some time where you really are on your own or with someone
who uplifts you, but where you can kinda take yourself out of time and space of what your regular routine is and kind of refresh yourself. Those are just some ideas. Of course, I'm always gonna recommend meditation, developing a meditation practice if you haven't already, or continuing to deepen your meditation practice. And these might be things that, as you're going through a dark night of the soul,

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don't necessarily appeal to you because you're feeling disconnected. So you may feel like, "Well, what's the point? I don't even want to," or whatever. But the point is, is that you will help, like there, even if you don't feel like you necessarily want to, it will help you to reestablish that connection quicker if you take those steps in favor of how you wanna feel, even if, you know, it's
gonna take a little bit for you to be able to actually feel it. You've gotta go through the motions and give yourself the opportunity so that you can help things to shift. So I think that that's enough for today. Thank you so much for being here. And please like, subscribe, share. That helps so much. I've got a new collection, a mindful surgery collection. Anybody that you know who might be

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going through a surgery journey right now will really, really benefit their very intentional, loving, um, mindful, um, resources. And the meditations have music from Michelle Qureshi that are at the 432 resonance to add to the, the healing frequencies of that, that collection. So I'll put a link to that in the notes. And thank you so much again for being here. Bless you. And I'll see you next time.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Soul Elevation. If someone in your life would be inspired or uplifted by what you heard today, please take a moment to share it with them. These are the kind of conversations that ripple out and elevate collective consciousness. And if you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss the powerful episodes ahead. Your presence,

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energy and support truly help amplify this mission of raising frequency and anchoring in a more
awakened humanity. Thank you for your support, and I'll see you for the next episode of Soul Elevation.