The Law of Polarity – My Dark Side

I remember in seventh grade my science teacher reading to us that “every action in the universe has an equal and opposite reaction.” This is the way scientists describe the Law of Polarity. My Sunday school teacher taught me the same truth in a slightly different way. She said that in the Scriptures we are taught that there is good and evil, good and evil, heaven and hell, or in other words, the opposition in all things. Through more than fifty years of practical life experience, I have learned to avoid one condition while looking for the other.

However, there is much more to the law of polarity than what science, religion, and life teach in their simple descriptions. Chuck Danes taught that the Law of Polarity teaches that “within life’s darkest perceived trials and difficulties lies the medium, as well as the ability to find and experience the light.”

Napoleon Hill, author of The Laws of Success, taught that every cloud of adversity contains the seeds for finding and exploiting your silver lining. He also taught

“If you tried and met defeat, if you planned and watched your plans as they were crushed before your eyes, just remember that the greatest men in all of history were the product of courage, and courage, you know, is born in the cradle. of adversity.”

Learning to fully understand, comprehend, and master the Law of Polarity does not require you to look at the world through some sort of Pollyanna lens, it requires you to see only the good in everything. Rather, it is necessary for me to understand and cultivate this sense of opposites in order to achieve the sense of harmony, contentment, and well-being that I consciously desire and have the potential and ability to fully explore and experience in my life.

I have participated in many job interviews in the last 30 years. In some, I was the interviewee and in most, I have been the interviewer. I have noticed and even used myself, which has become a very common line of questioning during these job interviews in recent years. The questions focus on asking the interviewee what their greatest strengths are. After listening carefully to his answers, I often ask, “Now please share with me your biggest weaknesses.”

When I ask that question, most of the time, I can guess the applicant’s answer before they give it, assuming they are telling the truth. Why? Because my greatest strength and my greatest weakness are opposite sides of the same coin. Also, my greatest weakness is often my strength taken to unhealthy extremes. Can you begin to see the Law of Polarity in this case?

Let me tell myself for a minute. For me, one of my greatest strengths is honesty and integrity. I am a man who says what I mean, and I mean what I say. I constantly check to make sure what I say and what I do is consistent. For me, integrity is also about keeping my word when I make a deal. For me, a contract serves to remind me of what I agree to, while my handshake is only as strong as my signature.

So what is my weakness in this case? I expect the same standards from others and I tend to get very angry when others do not measure up to the standard I have set for myself. It is true that it has cost me personal and professional relationships when I have taken someone too far. But why would I attract dishonest people with no integrity into my life if this is such a big part of who I am?

There is still a deeper and darker side to this personality that characterizes me. The Law of Attraction teaches that “like attracts like”, so despite my strength, why do I “attract” liars and promise breakers into my personal and professional life? Another facet of my weakness is that, somewhere deep inside, I struggle with the fear of my own lack of credibility. I am afraid that I may be considered a hypocrite, incompetent to do what I do, thus attracting people with these character defects.

So the Law of Polarity literally exists within each and every one of us. We have our gifts and talents and light that we share with the world, while at the same time fearfully guarding our innermost shadows. These are manifested in our strengths and weaknesses.

I have learned that the law of Polarity exists as a means to empower me to explore and experience life to the fullest. I have learned through personal experience that if poverty did not exist, how would I know what it is like to experience wealth? If my “failures” didn’t exist, how would I know what it’s like to experience success? If you didn’t experience pain, both physical and emotional, you wouldn’t be able to fully enjoy and appreciate what it means to experience joy.

The Law of Polarity exists as a means to enable me to learn and discover that within each perceived problem lies its solution, within each perceived failure also lies the seeds or solution to success.