A LOOK
in the mirror
The same strategies we rely on in daily life to avoid discomfort and manage overwhelm follow us into the dark.
The darkness is about subtlety. For most people it isn't loud, bright or grand. It's in the subtleties of listening that one becomes receptive, responsive, and available to the dark. Yet most of our defenses and survival patterns prevent us from quietly listening and truly connecting, as we are. This keeps us from fully settling and being with the darkness directly.
Having another presence to engage with in a reflective way can help you attune to, notice, and register these defensive strategies. Without that mirror, it's very unlikely that you will recognize when you are in fight, flight, freeze, or other insulative and protective patterns.
"WE AWAKEN THIS TENDERNESS FOR LIFE,
when we can no longer shield ourselves from
THE VULNERABILITY OF OUR CONDITION, FROM THE BASIC FRAGILITY OF EXISTENCE."
~ Pema Chödrön
Part of the support staff’s role is to attune to your nervous system. They listen for the subtle signs and signals that may show the animal body, through instinctive survival responses, has taken over. The intention is to support your nervous system in discharging, so you can return to a felt sense of safety and connection in your body.
From this ground of safety, something different becomes possible. As the body truly settles, you soften and open — becoming receptive and available. The listening deepens, and perspective shifts. You’re able to meet the darkness directly.
In this meeting, clarity tends to arise, and many people begin to see themselves with new eyes. Insulative patterns and survival strategies are often uncovered, and for many, a fundamental shift begins to takes root.
Quietly, a new depth emerges — a fresh ground, a profoundly simple intimacy with what is.
"IN ORDER TO ENSURE SURVIVAL, YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM
will prioritize any information
COMING FROM YOUR AUTONOMIC STATE OVER YOUR RATIONAL BRAIN."
~ Annie Chen
Fear, agitation, discomfort, sadness, loneliness, and boredom often surface in unexpected ways in the dark. Without the usual outlets or distractions, these reactions can feel amplified. It’s easy to become lost in them or blinded by unconscious defense mechanisms designed to manage and avoid these feelings.
In the darkness, this pressure often builds just beneath conscious awareness. As it builds, our capacity to regulate can be exceeded, and survival impulses instinctively take the lead. Flight, fight, or freeze responses emerge. Because this happens instinctively, it usually goes unnoticed.
AT THE
heart of it
We are here to support you in connecting in the most direct way that you can to your authentic embodied experience.
take notice of the underlying sensations
THAT ACTUALLY INFORM YOU ABOUT HOW YOU FEEL"
~ Peter Levine
In the vast unknown of the darkness, we invite you to use your body as an anchor.
To settle into a simple and intimate relating with what you're feeling in their body.
To nurture and tend to your hearts.
To receive care.
To discover the depths, richness and subtleties in nothing special - in the utter simplicity of your being
"TO EXPERIENCE EMBODIED AWARENESS,
take notice of the underlying sensations
THAT ACTUALLY INFORM YOU ABOUT HOW YOU FEEL"
“The body has been designed to move us from stress to equilibrium, from fragmentation back to wholeness.
The body always leads us home, if we can simply learn to trust its sensations.”
~ Peter Levine
THE DARKNESS REVEALS YOU TO YOU
safety & threat
Our animal body, the part of our nervous system wired for instinctive survival, perceives darkness as a potential threat.
In the absence of light, our survival circuits awaken more fully. The same parts of us come online that scan for movement in the night, sense someone walking too closely behind us, or react to a sudden sound that makes the whole body tighten before thought can catch up.
Even when our rational mind knows we are safe and secure in the dark, our autonomic nervous system receives a different signal: the unknown is near, stay vigilant.
This is not a psychological story. It is the body’s intelligence, wired to keep us alive. Alone in darkness — exposure, isolation, disorientation, and the unknown register as possible threats, often beneath conscious awareness. This quietly stirs in the background, giving rise to a subtle but growing sense of pressure and unease, even when we logically know we are safe.
In a stark, empty, and unfamiliar space, with nothing to do and nowhere to go, the building blocks of your nervous system, your survival patterns, and your safety strategies show themselves more clearly.
The darkness often reveals you to you.
" No pratices are even necessary
for this quest"
- Ramana Maharshi