This poignant letter by Nick Cave reminded me, as so many things do, of the chakras. I’ve shared with some of you how I use chakras as a meditation framework. One of the things I learned about the chakras is what blocks them. In the letter, the artist talks about how grief is intertwined with love, which resonates with my understanding of these energy centers. 
Instead of thinking of these shadow as “blockers”, consider perhaps ways you can accept them and move through them as part of the process of being, healing and growing.

Here’s a quick list of the 7 energetic chakras – their light and their shadow.

1. Your ability to lay down roots and grow is supported by your capacity to move through your fear. 
2. Your capacity to create and to savor pleasure is limited by shame and fear of judgment. 
   
3. Your capacity for worthiness is limited by guilt and fear of rejection. 
4. Your capacity for love is limited by grief and a fear of the future. 
5. Your capacity for advocacy is limited by lies, dishonesty and the fear of authenticity. 
6. Your capacity for understanding is limited by illusion and distorted reality.
7. Your capacity for flow and divinity is limited by attachment and fear of losing (the illusion of control). 

Shadows are not good or bad, that is only the quality we give them. Shadows can grant perspective, dimension, depth, focus, and space. They are what we make them, hiding monsters, angels, or nothing.