 Mystics and monks throughout history have talked about this idea of the dark night of the soul, which is really a period of life, sometimes months to years or even decades, where you feel deeply abandoned by God, or if we want to extrapolate that we could say by purpose and meaning, by people, by life, where we cannot see the path ahead, we cannot see the path behind, nothing seems to inspire us or excite us, nothing seems to want to draw us forward, and we aren't sure on what to do next or what to do now, and we don't feel that sense of vitality and aliveness. In this video, I want to share a little bit about how I've survived these dark nights of the soul and what it is and how you can get through them. Hey guys, Alex Hine, author of the self-help book Master the Dizzle. Now, I've included down there below the first link as for a free journaling worksheet. If you're going through your own dark night of the soul, use that worksheet to journal out and plan your best, most exciting, happiest year ever, all right? Click the link below. You're also going to get an email every couple days on how to use journaling to reinvent your life. So what is this dark night of the soul idea? Now, as far as I'm aware, it comes from this idea of a guy named Saint John of the Cross in the 1600s who wrote this poem, and even though I don't think you mentioned the dark night of the soul, this idea of the dark night of the soul is primarily a feeling of religious abandonment. Like, where are you God? What do you want me to do? I don't see your presence or feel your presence anywhere. I don't feel that certainty. I don't feel that purpose. I don't feel that meaning, this meaninglessness and feelings of abandonment. Whereas maybe prior in your life, you felt guided, but now you feel lost and wandering for 40 years, right? You just don't know. What do you want me to do? What do I do next? It's this feeling of existentially being lost. Now for many of us who are not religious, we can go through that too because the very fact that you're a human and there is no book that tells you what to do with your life or how to live your life or the purpose and meaning of life, why you should work that nine to five job to pay your rent to exist on a piece of land you may not even like. And then again to spend 40 hours a week working for that meaningless existence. There's no guidebook that explicitly says this is what you should do with your life and why. So maybe you are in that phase where you feel like the ship without the rudder. You feel like that adventurer who is now standing in the middle of the forest at midnight on the edge looking into the abyss and there's no guidance. There's no light. There's no direction. And you're in the middle of this just falling, falling, falling forever feeling. So I think that something is very, very, very important to remember here that no rituals or habits will be the most important thing that you do during these phases of your life because these dark nights of the soul can last years for some people. And I'm a believer that problems almost never go away on their own unless we change something. Some will. But what if they don't? That's why we should change immediately. But for the dark night of the soul, it's a different kind of phenomenon in life. It's a phenomenon where something regarding the psychospiritual parts of life are not lining up in the way we want it. What is it that will guide us and give us strength in these times? And in my opinion, it's hunger. Hunger, drive, will, desire, whatever word you want to use is the thing that can get you through when nothing else can. But how do you do that when you're already maybe feeling the least motivated of your whole life? You know, what gets the single mother to work three jobs and sleep five hours a night her whole damn life? What is her hunger that gets her to do that? It's her children. She never wants to see her children in that poverty that she had to go through herself. What gets through someone who's living through the Holocaust who seizes whole family and kids die and then live? Why bother living? It is some kind of hunger to generate meaning and purpose in this suffering like Victor Frankel. What is it that keeps someone going when they've seen their whole family die? They've seen the person that was their life, their husband or their wife die or even be killed. And they decide they're going to leave their country and go start a new life in America alone with nobody, no family, no purpose, no meaning. What gets that person to keep going and not just quit on life or even commit suicide or the slow suicide of a life of substance abuse? What is that? It's a hunger for something. It is a hunger more than anything that gets us through these dark nights of the soul when habits and rituals, the exercise, the meditation, the journaling, those things are all accessories, but they are never going to be the core pillar, the guiding focus of your life, especially in these times. So to me, the biggest thing you can do is really find a suffering story, some story that gives you strength when you feel like your strength has been gone for a long time. Now I would recommend two things to do daily in this time. A psychospiritual exercise, something that affects your psychology and your spirit and a somatic exercise, something that affects your body. So it is in these times where I personally began doing Qigong over an hour a day, which is a series of breathing exercises with movements to really build vitality and build strength. But the thing that it is primarily is it's not seated meditation. It is you are doing physical movements with intense breathing exercises because these ancient Chinese doctors and Taoist monks believe that breath was the strongest way to strengthen your Qi or your vitality, we could say. But for you that may be going for walks or yoga or massage, whatever it is. But then the second thing is coming up with a story for your suffering. And I want you to read it out loud a few times per day. And I'll give you an example of something I've written myself in my little notebook here. I've kept a series of affirmations and subconscious directions I call them. And I want to read one from the power of your subconscious mind, a book on altering your subconscious. This is a affirmation process for happiness. Divine order takes charge of my life today and every day. All things work together for good for me today. And I know today is going to be one of the most incredible days of my life if I allow it. I know that there will never be another day like this one. And I am divinely guided all day long. Whatever I do will prosper and work out. Divine love surrounds me and folds me and enraps me and I go forth in peace. Knowing that whenever my attention wanders away from that which is good and constructive, I will bring it back to the contemplation of that which is lovely and of good report. I am a spiritual and mental magnet attracting to myself all things which bless and prosper me. I am committed to being happy all day long regardless of how I feel. And I know that going forward in life the perfect route has already been selected, the perfect path and I will be guided to it at the perfect time under perfect ways, swiftly and effortlessly. And if there is anything for me to do, give me a definite lead. That's a combination from the power of your subconscious mind and Florence Shin's book, The Game of Life and How to Play It. And I just go through this multiple times per day. And I use that to kind of program or prime my story to being something that I wanted to be, not this default. I'm this rudderless ship. I feel like I'm falling and there's no bottom. I feel like I'm in this rut that could last a lifetime, this dark night of the soul. And I think if you commit to a somatic something in your body practice every day and if you commit to a psychospiritual exercise like this every day, you can really get out of this and stay out of it for the rest of your life. So I hope that helps. If you're going through this, it's a tough time. But if you begin to do these practices, it'll make you a stronger person that will make you more well equipped for the other difficult times of life. Now, if you want a journal to get through this, click the first link below because I have a few free journaling worksheets and an email series on how to use journaling and get started with it. And then before you go, I have a couple related videos on this topic right here.