We’re living in a time where evil is no longer hiding in the shadows. It’s being exposed in full view, and it’s overwhelming a lot of us. Some people are bypassing or in denial. Others are obsessing, doom‑scrolling, and/or falling into despair. I’ve been in both places, and I understand why we do what we need to do to cope.
Here’s what I’ve come to after many years of working with my fear and emotional trauma:
My path demanded that I understand the nature of darkness; it didn’t feel like a choice. Fear lived in my body from as far back as I can remember, and it followed me no matter where I lived. Eventually, instead of running from it, I turned toward it. I needed to understand what it was, how it moves, what it feeds on, and how to meet this energy that had rooted itself in my system.
This led me to understand my function in the world and to become really skilled at regulation and healing; and I want to share what I’ve learned because I know I’m not the only one asking these questions.
When I was a child, I was afraid of monsters. I would lie in bed shaking and frozen, sensing something dark hovering around me. Adults would sometimes joke and say, “if you’re bad, the monsters will come get you,” which only reinforced the fear that there was something out there that could hurt me. I also grew up with the fear of God and sin and this looming idea that if I messed up, I’d go to hell. It’s how we are conditioned to keep children obedient, by scaring them.
And granted… I grew up in Syria. The energy was dense, the suffering was palpable. Generational trauma lived in the air, and no one knew how to talk about it, let alone heal it. As a wide‑open, deeply sensitive kid, I felt every nuance directly, like an energetic assault on my nervous system.
This early intimacy with suffering cracked something open in me. Living it, witnessing it, learning to work with it… gave rise to a kind of unexpected love. That’s for another time. But it shaped me.
At 11, I moved to what I was told was “the civilized world,” first Europe, then the U.S. I was grateful. I believed I had finally left the darkness behind. And in many ways, I was much safer. I built a life, healed, became a mother, became a guide, and did years of deep inner work. But deep in my body, the knowing never left: there is evil in this world.
Quick sidenote: back then, I thought “civilized” meant safe, orderly, advanced – all the things I didn’t have growing up. But I’ve come to see that what we call “civilization” is often just trauma in prettier packaging. The systems may look polished, but many are still rooted in fear, control, and disconnection. True civilization isn’t about order. It’s about love. Presence. Reverence for life. That’s the kind of world I want to help build.
So I chose a path that asked me to go all the way in – to study the shadow spiritually, psychologically, and somatically. Eventually, I realized that what I’d been afraid of all along wasn’t monsters or danger. It was fear itself. Over time, I came to understand that fear isn’t the shadow itself, but it lives at the core of it. The shadow is made of the parts of us we’ve rejected, avoided, or split off from because we didn’t have the capacity to hold them at the time. Shadow isn’t bad; it’s simply an unintegrated experience. But because those parts were formed in moments of threat, shame, or overwhelm, fear is often what animates them. When that fear remains unconscious and is reinforced by disconnection or domination, it can move destructively through a person or a system. In its most extreme expression, that’s what we call evil.
Earth is a kind of karmic classroom. It’s not meant to be a utopia. It’s a place where souls come to learn, to wake up, to reclaim their power. And yes, evil exists here. If you’re not seeing that, you’re not paying attention. Human systems are corrupt. Human beings are capable of atrocity. This version of Homo sapiens is still vulnerable to fear, manipulation and domination.
Evil is a real force, but it’s not just one thing. It’s what happens when unintegrated consciousness moves through the world unchecked. When shadow goes unexamined, it leaks. And when it leaks for long enough, it can become evil.
When we witness evil “out there,” it’s not just proof of how dark the world is. It’s also a mirror; it reflects what’s still unintegrated within us. That’s why projection happens. We cast out what we haven’t faced inside – fear, shame, grief, judgment – and pin it on others. It’s collective, unconscious patterning. And if we want to shift the world, we have to start by meeting what we’ve been avoiding inside ourselves.
So how do we do that?
We stop doom-scrolling and spinning in our heads. We bring presence to the body.
We learn to name fear when it shows up and feel how it lives in us. That’s how projection begins to shift and how energy becomes something we can steer, rather than something that controls us.
The nervous system is our most important asset.
If we want to stay awake, loving, and clear in a time like this, we can’t keep spiraling. We have to learn to self‑regulate. That’s spiritual intelligence. It’s protection for you, your loved ones, and the collective.
Everyone’s obsessed with power. But real power isn’t about status, money or how many push ups you can do. It is the capacity to stay present and respond instead of react. Real power is coherence – when your mind, body, and energy are aligned, and you’re not pulled in every direction by fear, impulse or conditioning.
We have to learn how to do two things at once:
- Acknowledge what’s happening without getting consumed. Stay present with your feelings, let the body feel and move.
- Redirect your attention toward what is still good. Beauty. Aliveness. What’s sacred? There’s so much being reclaimed right now. So many of us are remembering who we are and becoming strong enough to meet the moment.
My own path led me to develop practical, body-based tools for working with fear, trauma, and shadow. I’ve created somatic practices that support nervous system regulation and emotional integration. I share these through movement, somatic awareness, and simple techniques people can use in daily life. I offer group classes and work privately as a somatic therapist. Everything I teach comes from direct experience. It’s rooted in the body and designed to help people stay present, clear and connected, especially in times like these.
If this resonates, I’d love to hear from you.
