When I was thinking about this blog, a number of images came to mind. There was a person kneeling in prayer, a rosary, a buddhist monk using his prayer wheel. And so on. Images with which we are familiar. But these all seem to me to be too value laden. The origins of the word “spirituality” are linked to words like soul, vigour, or courage. All of which are related to an idea of “breath” or "light”. And "light" has a sense of radiant energy. And energy is, as we know, is essential for life. 

So, I’m suggesting that light and life are connected. Something we all know. Try growing anything with no light and see what happens. Nothing. Death happens - as all gardeners know. Yet all too often we try and grow our emotional life without light . And wonder why our inner world so often feels dead and lifeless. We become depressed, anxious, angry. And we might over exercise, over eat and drink or get hooked on pornography for example. So many unhealthy behaviours come from a lack of light. 

One definition links light to radiant energy. That’s a connection that I like. Once again it connects light to life. And, of course, vice versa. Part of my work as a counsellor is to enable people to find their own sources of light, whatever that might be: meditation, prayer, relaxation exercises, learning to breath. And here’s where everything joins up. We might be scared of the dark, but sometimes the light can be even more worrying! Coming into therapy takes courage. Freud said that the aim of therapy was to make conscious the unconscious. That’s a high task to face. Looking at our dreams, our relationships, even our driving! These and many more show us our unconscious world. A world of light and dark. Sometimes this can be a scary place to visit. The old maps used to have unknown territory labelled “Here be Dragons.” We, too, have our dragon areas! We don’t know what’s actually there - and we’re not sure we want to know.

One aspect of my work that I throughly enjoy is talking with my patients about God and their understanding of this Being. Is it an old man with a long beard sitting on a cloud, possibly with a harp? Or an omnipotent divine poker player rolling the eternal dice to determine our future? Personally I like the theologian Paul Tillich’s definition of God as the ground and source of our Being. But I’ll come back to that later. For now I want to leave with the idea of Light as a form or expression of spirituality and, thereby, of something life giving.

If you want to explore this further, please contact me on www.aylesburycounsellor.co.uk