Polarizing differently in different areas of your life?

[artandstuff]

I recently listened to Steve Pavlina's podcast, Beyond Religion, where he talks about being more productive (and having a richer life experience) by not identifying with any particular religion, to the exclusion of other viewpoints.

And then I came across the lightworking/darkworking articles.

Do you think it's possible or productive to polarize differently in different areas of life?

I can see in my own life how this might work. In my career/my passion I want my art to serve the community. I want people to feel uplifted and benefit from seeing the images I create. In this area I want to commit to lightworking.

But in my personal life I have had a lot of trouble with "boundaries". I get excited at the thought of choosing darkwork in making and defending my personal choices. It would be such a huge change to not be so wimpy, saying yes to everything, trying to be so helpful and "loving" when really it's draining me. (I know that lightwork involves protecting the self in order to keep serving, but I'm attracted to the idea of being downright *menacing* or cutthroat [not literally] in protecting and building my own personal power.)

I realize that at the end of the day, it's best if both the individual and the community thrive. And for me personally, I think I could benefit from polarizing differently in different areas. And I don't mean staying in the middle (being an "NPC"), I mean making a conscious commitment to the 2 philosophies in different areas.

Know what I mean? What do you think?

[CroMagna]

Which is more important to you? Providing a service or building personal power?

[artandstuff]

Both are equally important to me. Am I being stubborn?

I'm determined to have a win-win situation. Win for me, win for others. And for whatever reason, I feel that if I take a win for me, personally (and I'm talking really basic stuff here, like when I choose to go to bed or when I choose to eat), that I have to have a very Machiavellian mindset about it (or I'll dissolve into pleasing others).

But also true for me is that there is no reason to get up out of bed unless I can genuinely connect with other people. Making this place better for me and for you, as much as I can, is important to me.

Isn't light/darkworking a competitive framework? Do they *have* to be binary opposites and mutually exclusive? I'm determined to have both paths in my life.

I want the whole coin.

Thanks for asking!

[NexusOfCompletion]

Yes you can be parts of both, but you will never experience the power of truly becoming one or the other. However, there is a point where becoming totally on the path of darkwork leads to an apex of destruction much how a lightworker will end up totally drained after only focusing on helping others.

[Logan Kost]

You need to polarize one way or the other. Just know that polarizing to a lightworker will make you never need to be menacing in order to protect your own values. Eventually, people wont even question them. I think you should re-read the articles because I think you missed the point that polarizing produces huge benefits in your life. The problem of defending your personal choices would be non-existent after awhile on each sides of the polarization spectrum.

[Eric Revelin]

I'm incredibly self-focused. I pursue my own advancement over everything else. I am relentless in fulfilling my desire for strength and power. I do this through determination, wit, and willpower. (Read: Deciding on a course of action, acting intelligently, seeing it through.)

Do I harm anyone? No. Harming others compromises my mental stability and it risks my reputation. Do I love? Deeply and sincerely. I enjoy that sense of connecting with another person. I cherish my lover and my friends alike. Do I serve others? Yes. I love seeing the positive impact of my actions. Furthermore, by doing good things for others they revere me, respect me, trust me... That greatly expands my influence, and I don't have to play any games to stay on top of things.

So does that make me a lightworker or a darkworker? I don't give a damn. The fact that I say that probably puts me in the darkworker category, but here's my point: this is a concept, not the gospel truth. The idea is to become undivided.

Thus to answer the original question, no. You can't polarize one way in some areas and not in others. You need to establish total consistency between your beliefs, your thoughts, and your actions. You have to know what you're doing and why nearly 100% of the time.

If you can take care of yourself, and you can still serve mankind, and there's no internal contradiction, great. That's what you wanna do. And if it goes against what Steve says, so what? You've got to do what works for you. -You- are the master, not him, not us. So get to work. You're not going to know what suits you best until you've done some experimenting.

[wolfgang]

There's something seducing about the polarizing ideas - the promise of better something or another if you do polarize. You will be more effective. You want to be more effective and you believe Steve has this key figured out so then you try to polarize. I think trying to polarize creates more confusion. That's because if you aren't a darkworker you'd die.

Everyone is a darkworker or a deluded lightworker.

The idea that a lightworker is more motivated to serve others over self doesn't hold up because the antidote to the lightworker syndrome is to care for the self. To care for the self is darkworking. Any lightworker must care for the individual self to be able to give to others.

I think it's possible to have different spheres on your sense of self and everyone is darkworking at some version of a self. These spheres on self are like, you, your family, your community, the world...

To me, it's easier to not worry about the polarity - it's always darkworking when you look at it in terms of the sense of self as an expanding or contracting sphere. And it's kind of easy to expand and contract the sense of self. And any expanded sense of self still includes the more contracted versions of self.

Of coarse this way of thinking is not what Steve wrote. So what, darkworking is what everyone is and to be effective means recognizing that. Recognize that you are motivated to take care of a self. The self may be the community or maybe just your individual self.

[Brutha]

There a cost that you have to pay if you want to see your private life and your working life as two completely separate areas.
That makes it harder to find solutions that both improve your private life and your working life.

[artandstuff]

Interesting thoughts, thanks for the responses.

My faves are:

"So does that make me a lightworker or a darkworker? I don't give a damn. [...] The idea is to become undivided." - Eric Revelin

It reminds me of my response to people when I'm asked if I believe in god. (I don't know, and I'm not interested in finding the answer because I don't care and don't want to waste my time.)

and

"There's something seducing about the polarizing ideas - the promise of better something or another if you do polarize. [...] I think trying to polarize creates more confusion. [...] Everyone is a darkworker or a deluded lightworker. " - wolfgang

The last sentence made me laugh. And as far as the seduction goes, it's something I've been thinking about... how personal development can sometimes plug into "shame issues" - feeling that one is not good enough. A line has to be drawn between improving because you feel you suck, and improving because you simply would like better things for yourself. (Meaning me, of course)