In this instance, when I refer to "Darkness", I'm referring to very negative emotions, the kind that can gnaw at you even years after they surfaced. Stir up similar, if not even greater negativity, aggravate and escalate feelings that, if indulged, can drive you to very negative actions.
My intent here is to describe a guided meditation; steps to walk yourselves through if you feel these sorts of things rising up inside you, and hopefully help to maintain control, rather than lose it. I don't know if this would fall under Empty Meditation or Moving Meditation, but either could easy work.
Take a deep breath, counting to 4 as you do. Hold for a count of 4. Exhale for a count of 4. Repeat 3 more times.
Imagine The Force is a river, always flowing. This negative energy that threatens you is a kind of filth, like mud, or muck. How it got on you is irrelevant, what's relevant is that it's there, and it'll spread and consume you if you let it. Don't worry about eliminating it; panic only serves the filth. The stain will likely remain, and that's ok. The stain isn't the filth, and it can't consume you.
Step carefully, and calmly into the river; the current is strong- but not so strong that you'll be swept away, not if you move with certainty.
Once you're in far enough to submerge the filth, brace yourself against current. Lean into it. The filth only has you to brace and secure it; don't. Let it be washed, flaked and peeled off of you. You are not a stone in this river; it doesn't flow around you, but through you. The same cannot be said for the filth.
Stay in the river until it has washed you completely, controlling your breathing the entire time, focused on your goal. Let go of that which would do you harm, or pull you from your path. All that would divert you from peace, or at least, from happiness, is water-soluble, and will be washed away. Let it go.
Emerge from the river. The stains remain, a reminder of what brought you here, not a scar of shame, but a mark of challenges overcome. Your failings do not define you, but instead guide you; what matters is not that you faltered and fell from your path, but that you chose to get back up and continue.
repeat the breathing exercise, and come back from the river, into the warming light.
May the Force be with you all.
