The dark night of the soul may sound like the name of a movie, but it is a real thing. In fact, it is a terrible experience for anyone who goes through it. As the name might suggest, the dark night of the soul refers to a phase where your very soul enters a depressive state. Yes, it is possible for your soul to experience different states like bliss, joy, depression, and grief.
Often, this phase is mistakenly diagnosed as clinical depression because all the symptoms are the same. However, it goes beyond the realms of your mind. Essentially, it's your soul experiencing an existential crisis. And when that happens, you question everything. Literally everything.
You question why you are alive, what the point of life is, what your purpose is, what would happen if you didn't exist, and so on. Basically, it's a time when you are extremely confused, detached, dispassionate, miserable, and disheartened all at once. Nothing seems to make sense, and you don't see any way out of your predicament.
The dark night of the soul can be triggered by a painful event such as the loss of a loved one, an accident, a natural disaster, a financial crisis, and so on. Usually, these events are outside your control.
But things can get even more confusing when this phase is triggered by something totally unexpected that you just can't explain logically. Something might happen to you that might shatter your beliefs, or someone you trusted more than yourself might turn out to be a fraud. Or it could also be that everything you worked towards for years might crash and amount to nothing. No matter what the trigger is, you are sent into a hellish phase where everywhere you look, you see darkness.
However, even though it might not feel like it at the moment, this phase is temporary. In fact, it can lead to something much more monumental. The dark night of the soul can act like a bridge where you move from a lower state of potential to a much higher state of potential. Often, this phase brings about a spiritual transformation in people, and they come out with a heightened sense of awareness. You could say that they emerge as awakened beings.
So, don't be surprised if you become a totally new person. You might stop doing things just to please people, your appetite may change, sleep patterns may change, you might not find happiness in materialistic things anymore, you might stop fearing any adverse event, you may feel the need to detox more often, and you might want to dive deeper into the world of spirituality.
In the end, as unlikely as it might sound, you will be grateful for having experienced the dark night of the soul. You will realize that without it, you couldn't have been reborn. The new and incredible life you will live after this phase will only be possible because of the horrors and pain you experienced.