Originally published as part of an Anchor4Me series on overcoming worry.
Some movies latch onto your memory for a long time. One that haunts me is Jack Nicholson as the Joker in Batman when he asks Vicky Vale (Kim Basinger), “Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight?”
Nicholson’s imprints can be found on many of my brain synapses, “Here’s Johnny,” (The Shining) and “You can’t handle the truth,” (A Few Good Men) are just a few. But there’s something about the idea of shimmying with Satan that makes this scene extra sticky.
Maybe because it’s a positive invitation masquerading as a threatening, terrifying menace. Maybe because at some point all of us should accept the invitation to boogie with Beelzebub.
Why? Because what that line really means to me is that all of us at some time have to face our fears, pains and worries. And, when we do, we should not run from our dark angels or, like Jacob in the Bible story, wrestle them to a standstill.
Instead, let’s throw our arms around the scary stuff, stare it in the face, and go with the flow.
Everyone has bad experiences. Everyone has made bad choices. And they stay with us. No amount of drugs or alcohol keep them from our mirror. They’re still there the next time we wake up – only worse as we’ve now made another set of bad, self-defeating choices because of them.
So, instead of trying to erase, let’s embrace the dark parts of our hearts. Trauma, tragedy, heartbreak – these can be life-transforming experiences. They force us to re-examine how we want to live and why we’re here in the first place. We question our assumptions, while we long for our redemption.
When we created the Virtual Reality meditations in Anchor4Me, we wanted to give you a safe place to dance with your devils, understand the truths that lie beneath, and then gently release them – mentally, physically, and spiritually.
No devil thrives in the fierce love light.
Please contact us if you would like to experience VR in our tech platform, Anchor4Me.
