Often we get caught up in the darkness when we become embroiled in our difficulties and overwhelmed by problems. As we focus in our emotions on our worries or hurt, we unwittingly go deeper and deeper into dark areas within our psyche. This becomes a vicious, negative downward spiral.

It helps if we make a conscious decision to begin shifting our focus deliberately onto the areas of light in our lives. Looking for the positives in life that we do experience begins to create a different perspective.

Instead of deepening the spiralling descent into darkness, we begin to access the light and, like a person walking in a dark tunnel, we begin to perceive an area of light to focus on in the distance.

Once we have begun this process, it can grow and become a spiral upwards and we can sense a shift into the area of hope and optimism.

This is experienced as seeing life in a lighter way, and the light we saw at the end of the tunnel grows until we are guided out of that tunnel into the daylight where we can look around us and start seeing the world in its richness of experience, opportunity and variety.

So, either with a therapist’s caring help or on your own, start your ascent out of the darkness by seeking out and recognising the areas of light in your life, and this will become a way of shifting your focus, lightening your load, and leading you into the upward spiral.

Once this shift in perspective begins to take hold, then positive changes can accelerate and multiply. Momentum develops and life becomes a journey of light, not of darkness.