You must be empty before you can receive – here’s why

There’s something I’ve noticed in the aftermath of confronting a wound or place of weakness in me and finally owning up to the problem.

And that is, I feel trepidation in letting the wounded part of me go. I don’t know who I am when I empty out of all that used to fill my attention, thoughts and feelings.

However, it’s become increasingly clear to me something subtle but important about the healing and transformation of the shadow: in order to be able to RECEIVE — love, gratitude, praise, a beautiful view, kindness, success — you have to first EMPTY OUT.

Empty out of the sticky darkness you are harboring from the wounding, negative and limiting beliefs, and coping mechanisms that prevent you from being receptive to the world.

Moreover the emptying out has to come FIRST before you will be able to receive. You are like a chalice that requires an empty state in order to be filled with something new. Otherwise you’re merely a full cup, unable to take any more; overwhelmed, distracted, maybe even dissociated and avoidant, full to the brim of old habits.

This is a bigger impediment to transformation than you might think. At least we know who we are when we’re habitual, full cups.

This is why being empty is both the feared and the desired outcome of personal transformation.

You have to sacrifice your lower self for the sake of your higher self to fill the spaces left by the withdrawal of the activities of the shadow.

We do touch on this at the end of our recent episode on depression. And if you’ve been listening to our Season Two, The Art of Mental Health, you might have picked up that we simply use issues such as anxiety or depression (and others coming down the pipeline) as places where we can do a deeper dive into the phenomena of consciousness and diseases of consciousness — how they come about and how we can transform them.

Our explorations are actually much broader than just being about depression or anxiety.

What we’re sharing is very unconventional; you won’t find what we talk about in any schools of psychology (we aren’t therapists), or mainstream sources. Instead, we draw from schools of inner work and spiritual development that are largely unknown today. It’s time to bring those schools of thought forward and share their practical and profound wisdom with you.

With love,

Louisa + Rachel