What Can You Do When Your Dark Side Rears Its Ugly Head?

We all have darkness and lightness within us. A big part of living authentically is accepting and embracing the good, bad, and ugly parts of who we are. But being authentic also means taking responsibility for our choices and behaviors — especially when it comes to those moments when our ugly side causes us to behave badly.

When your dark or ugly side shows up — whether it’s at work, with your family, or in your romantic relationships — it can be so easy to become cranky, difficult, or even mean. For example, my dark side shows up when I’m stressed, which causes me to lose patience with everyone from my partner to an Uber driver, sigh.

Fortunately, there are ways to prevent this by planning in advance how you’ll calm yourself down when moments like this arise. It can also be incredibly helpful to plan what you’ll do to improve the situation for yourself and others when you do have a moment of being difficult/mean/however your ugly side comes out. (Because we all have them — nobody’s perfect!)

In this video, I share a story about when my ugly/dark side showed up recently and how I made it up to the person I’d let down and committed to doing better going forward.

Watch now!