How to go about exploring ego and/or dark emotions/experiences in a healthy way?

[Louisabell]

This also looks good: http://thework.com/en/do-work

http://thework.com/en/about-byron-katie

I have found The Work by Byron Katie to be excellent, especially the Judge Your Neighbor worksheet! I've thought for a while it would be good to do this work through this forum.

When it comes to nightmares, I have found that while trauma/abuse originates from how others have treated us, usually when we were a child, the continuous torment we experience is self-perpetuated (not intentionally, but subconsciously), whether it's from replaying the situation over and over, not forgiving the self for having "allowed" it to happen, or maintaining self-limiting belief structures like "I'm not good enough", "the only thing that matters is status", etc. So I find those taunting figures or terrorising situations experienced in nightmares to be external representations of those self-harming thought/belief structures that you hold within.

I agree that creative endeavours (like starting a heavy metal band) can be an excellent way of processing heavy emotions, and I believe something that can never be under-estimated is the shedding of tears of futility - the final resting place of difficult catalyst.