Monday Moment The Darkest Hour and The Dark Horse

The darkest hour is just before the dawn so the saying goes. Over the last year or so, I've had many dark hours and I should have learnt by now that those moments when I really think I am on the brink of hitting the Prozac, are the moments that precipitate breakthroughs.

Usually when I'm in the depths of despair I turn to a book and the answers I need are right there. This weekend was one of those times. After a fairly crappy three weeks of making very little progress on anything - in fact being stopped in my tracks literally three times on consecutive Fridays, I gave in and read a book: Dancing with Your Dark Horse by Chris Irwin. It's about learning a better way of horsemanship, but it's also about finding and most importantly, embracing your dark shadow side: the side we prefer to keep hidden from the world.

Our dark side - the dark horse in all of us - is part of who we are, and in fact is often the part that gives us our energy, our drive and our passion. It might be our anger, our pride, our fear, our stubbornness. We usually think of it as a negative trait that needs to be harnessed, controlled, hobbled and hidden. But what if we were to ride with this dark horse? What if we used its power to move us forward rather than hold us back?

This is my challenge for all of use this week, Divas. How can our dark horses take us forward? How can we use this inner power as a strength rather than a perceived weakness?

I don't think it is any coincidence that I have a very real dark horse in my life: Penny from Heaven. She is my teacher and my guide; she also carries many of the traits of the dark horse in me (stubbornness being one)! I'm intrigued to see what she has to teach me this week!