Eight ways to explore your dark side (and tap into insane energy)

I’ve been called intense for as long as I can remember. There have been multiple occasions where within 10 minutes of meeting me, someone has told me “you’re the most intense person I’ve ever met.” Is there something wrong with me? Probably. But I have grown to love my intensity—it’s what makes me me. I figure: we’re all going to die one day,

In the process, we’ve turned something that was beautiful—the inner self—into something we despise: the Shadow. It may seem like the worst part of us, but really, it’s the doorway to the inner self. Only when that doorway is open can we truly express ourselves.

a lot of people around the world deliberately choose to engage in painful experiences—flogging, bondage, having hot wax dripped on them—and derive pleasure and satisfaction from those experiences.

So I invite you to consider the idea that any current situations in your life, especially those situations that tend to recur over and over again in an annoying pattern (i.e., you can only seem to bring in a certain amount of money each month, you can only seem to attract the same kind of less-than-awesome partner, you feel repeatedly betrayed by f

If I could go anywhere right now and do anything that I wanted, where would I go? How would I spend my days if I didn’t have to worry about anyone watching and judging me? Which important values that I hold dear have I been neglecting? Who do I miss spending time with? What possibilities feel forbidden yet exciting to me? What do I really like? Wha