We are all born into the world 'tabala rasa', as a blank slate.
Our template is set up by the earliest messages we receive: both implicitly (through modeling) or explicitly (through language and instruction) Although my childhood was privileged, behind the scenes was ongoing trauma. I was convinced as a child and into my early adult years there must be something wrong with me, that it was somehow ALL my fault. If anything went wrong around me I would immediately blame myself, no questions asked. If I sensed other people were emotionally upset, I would automatically assume it was all my responsibility and would set about doing everything I could to reduce their suffering. Now, even without trauma, our 'tabala rasa' blank slate is programmed by our early childhood experiences. Children up until the age of 7 are in the same brainwave state as someone under a highly suggestible hypnotic state. All inbound information is swallowed whole without question. So our programming is imprinted from ALL of our experiences in combination. What we see, hear and sense in our environment (often subliminally) becomes a belief-determined filter, governing our overall perceptions and choices in life, for good or for bad. So because I believed that there was something wrong with me, my prerogative in life was to prove to the world that I was an OK, acceptable human being, that I was of value and had something useful to offer. And because in the West, we tend to value high achievers, working hard and pushing through, even to the detriment of our own physical bodies, I got sucked into this too. 'Toughen up' and 'Get over it!' became my everyday mantras... We also tend to accolade the self-less: the generous and charitable spirits of our society. Now don't get me wrong, being productive, charitable and generous are all admirable traits! Just NOT when they are taken to the extreme and come at a cost to the human body. And these were the qualities I adopted in extreme to prove my worthiness and receive what all human beings crave at a deep cellular level: love and acceptance from others. These behaviours were what predominantly made up the mask I wore for the world. And the more I wore the mask the more distant I became from my true self. The mask was so stuck-hard to my face for so many years I didn't even know it existed. I had no awareness of the mask, thinking it was the real me but never feeling quite right in myself. Wearing this mask caused my body insurmountable stress. The mask pushed me in a direction that went against who I am and ultimately the person I was ultimately meant to become. But life has a funny way of course-correcting us when we are off track! As a result of this unconscious stress, a very painful wake up call entered my life in my late 20s: a chronic illness fraught with misunderstanding by both the medical profession and general public called Myalgic Encephelomylytis, more commonly known as, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, true to its name, comes with industrial-strength fatigue. It was like someone pulled the plug out and crawling from the bed to the toilet was commonplace in early years of having it. Light, noise and stimulation were unbearable and I found myself predominantly in a darkened room, losing my life as I knew it. My dream job was lost and I could no longer properly take care of my children or continue my studies. Off the back of Glandular Fever, it felt like the virus never left me. I could barely lift my head off the pillow, my flu-like symptoms and systemic muscular pain so excruciating. With my immune system shot to pieces, viral and bacterial infections landed me in hospital a number of times. And my brain turned to mush. The severe cognitive dysfunction made words coming at me sound like gobbledygook and stringing sentences together seemed like an impossible task. Everyday was 'survival'. It was confusing too because the odd day I was semi-functional. At these times I would often think to myself that it must be all in my head, and try to catch up on my 'to do' list, only to crash for days, weeks and sometimes months all over again. 3 years later I received the medical diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia with the proverbial 'sorry, there is nothing we can do for you' spiel from doctors and specialists. My quality of life was so bad at the time that I silently resolved myself to either getting better or ending my life. Keeping my children in the forefront of my mind, I went online to search for recoverees of these conditions. Little did I know at the time, my unraveling health crisis was the gateway to finally making what was unconscious in my life, conscious. It was not only the beginning of a healing journey for my physical health but also a healing journey for the WHOLE of my life. In fact healing means to make whole again, to restore back to wholeness - mind, heart, body and spirit. I learnt that everything is connected: past, present and future and most importantly, that our early programming impacts the choices we make in our lives; for example, the relationships we attract, the environments we choose to put ourselves into, the food we ingest, and the way we operate day to day and treat ourselves and others. I learnt that the way I had been living my life, and the mask I had worn unwittingly all those years, had set up the optimal conditions for me to become very, very unwell. I also had the recognition that if I had the power to create illness, then I also had the power to create wellness. Human belief systems and habitual behaviours, however, don't like change. Its requires a pro-active conscious effort to shift the broken record of our entrenched conditioning and automatic behaviours. Whats more, if you feel like the 'living dead' experiencing a 'living hell', mustering up your already limited energy to reflect upon unhelpful conditioning, and most importantly, taking action to 're-wire' your life towards wellness can seem like an insurmountable task! This is why what is known as 'Mindfulness' became the most healing medicinal tonic in the early stages of my healing journey. This required only my focused attention: to become present in the moment and observe my thinking patterns, the very thought patterns that had contributed to pushing my body to its limit in the first place. It was horrifying to discover the broken record that was my own dysfunctional thinking. In the background, like a low volume radio station, I realised the songs that had got stuck on replay were my worst enemies. The six inches between my ears, the noise-making machine, as I like to call it, had taken me for a ride in a very misguided direction. I also noticed the direct correlation between the unhealthy, nasty self-talk and how I physically felt. No wonder I had been plagued with migraines, headaches and sore tummies all of my life! The body, I discovered, was talking to me. It had been crying out for my help for so long only to be met by my own personal whipping stick, beating it back into submission as I kept pushing through. With a developing awareness of my unconscious programming, I was able to gift myself the ultimate antidote to the harsh bully tactics I had been forever dishing out to myself. The remedy was simple: kindness, gentleness and a well overdue slower pace of life. This was supported by a gentle curiosity to discover who was sitting beneath the mask and underpinned by an ever-growing acceptance of the different aspects of myself, both negative and positive. It was a heart-rending experience to reconnect with the flame that burnt bright as a child but had become dimmer and dimmer with years gone by. And this was just the beginning of my healing journey. All up, it has taken a good ten years to get my body back to a decent level of health. And it wasn't without a lot of trial and error as I learnt more about the physical body and what it ultimately requires to self-heal including reaching out for support, something my faulty conditioning dictated was not for 'strong, independent and successful people'! Over time, old habits of over-helping and over-achieving slipped into the background as new healthier habits based on a solid sense of self-esteem took their place. From being a ‘yes to everyone’ girl I learnt to navigate relationships in a more healthy, genuine and authentic way. From being a controlled, rational and reasoned thinker, through the conscious changes I was making, I became more creative, trusting my instinct more and acting on inspiration, rather than the unreasonable demands from inside my own head. From a period of chaos, crisis and de-rangement I was able to find a new healthier arrangement that was eventually to become the ideal balanced and sustainable lifestyle long-term. So contrary to the concept of cure, which has a view to eliminating or masking our symptoms, I learnt that healing demands that we re-examine the way we are living our lives. True healing actually insists that we look at every aspect of our lives, reviewing and assessing whether we are on the right track or not. Implementation of mini bite-size palatable actions ultimately led me to increasing levels of health and a better quality of life whereby I am now able to be more real and authentic, without the tiresome mask that had dragged me down for so long. In my work as a counsellor, I notice that people get so busy, so caught up in distractions that they miss the moment and they miss the absolute ultimate: themselves and their reason for being here. They come to me because they find themselves derailed by relationship or health issues, often due to a series of poor unconsciously made choices. And true to the magic of life itself that totally has our back in every way, the body crashes or the emotions become too uncomfortable to ignore anymore. Its life waking us up to the path we are actually meant to be on if we are brave enough to get curious and take a look :) These life relapses, whether relational, emotional, spiritual or physical, usually happen because people have missed the important stuff way way back in time. They lose sight of themselves and may even have a mask on as I did. By taking time to slow down, reflect, and bring some self-compassion into the fold, they find themselves 'landing' back into themselves so they can actually bring the best expression of themselves to the world in a way that allows them to thrive, not continue to sacrifice and bring harm to themselves. The lesson I take from my own personal health crisis is to give myself permission to slow down and be kind to myself. Its from this foundation that we can actually start to make healthier decisions that support the WHOLE of ourselves. From here there is a natural flow on effect to everyone and everything around us. Because your potential to thrive in this lifetime and the legacy you leave depends on you not losing yourself along the way. So here's to creating the space to reconnect with yourself regularly in a kind and compassionate way so you don't lose touch with the best authentic expression of yourself in 2019 and beyond.... Happy New Year Everyone :) Kira :-) Ph. 021 027 18127
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A beautiful thing happened to me this past weekend.
The past couple of months have been hectic and I have missed my weekly visits to my grandmother, much loved and known by her many grandchildren as 'Mutti'. Mutti is in a resthome now and her quality of life is not the best. She feels sick a lot and lacks the energy she would like to have, spending much of her time on her bed watching TV. Today when I arrived to spend some time with her, she tells me she would prefer to close her eyes. This gives me permission to tell the truth too. I tell her I don't feel the best either and would love to join her in a 'closing eyes' visit. Well, low and behold, as we both close our eyes, her on her bed and me next to her in a chair, I begin to verbally purge everything stuck in my heart. Before I know it all my troubles and woes; my grief, my confusion, my despair and my disappointments.......and following this, my heartfelt gratitudes for everything wonderful in my life were spewed out on to my beloved Mutti. Relentlessly. Barely a breath taken in between. With both with our eyes closed. Tears streaming down my face as I did this, I felt Mutti's undivided attention as a safe haven, her loving presence was deeply felt, listening patiently and reverently as I continued to pour my heart out to her. The awe-inspiring power of unconditional love and listening with the heart, not just the brain, hit me like a ton of bricks through this unexpected, yet treasured encounter with my grandmother. I left my visit with Mutti feeling cleansed and regenerated, no longer lugging the weight of the world around, the weight that had unwittingly crept up on me due to an imbalance of 'doing' more than 'being' in the world. When we get busy we don't notice the important stuff. And that stuff gets stuck. We need to release it, otherwise it turns into symptoms and behaviours we often regret. I am so grateful for this one person in my life who I feel so accepted and loved by, to the degree that I can spill out the content of my heart, to my hearts content, and feel reborn all over again. And I hope you all have a very special person in your life like this too. If not, please find one because they are an invaluable and necessary support, helping you travel the sometimes very tricky tightrope of life in a conscious and intelligent way. Here's to the power of listening with the WHOLE of ourselves; mind, heart, body and spirit. What a true gift of healing that really is. Kira :) Ph. 021 027 18127 PS. The image below is the Chinese Character for the verb 'to listen'. Wellness in every area of our life requires a life in BALANCE.
If you are extreme in your behavior and patterns in your life in any way – overly messy, overly clean, overly attached, overly busy, overly self-critical or critical of others, overly body-conscious, health conscious, money conscious, overly controlling or even overly introverted or extraverted, this can create stress which leads to an IMBALANCE in your body and your life on the whole. Your body has a remarkable capacity to communicate with you and it does so through unwanted symptoms, habits and emotional states. If we don’t listen to its whimpers, its going to start to cry. And if we don’t listen to its cry, its going to start to scream. And if we fail to hear its screams we are likely to be looking at a full scale physical crisis of some sort :( Tracking back to when the body started to whimper can be very enlightening indeed as to what may have precipitated the imbalance in your body and life in the first place. If you notice you have some extreme or excessive patterns in your life I would suggest asking yourself ‘How can I become less extreme in my behaviours and habits?’ and take some small steps to break excessive patterns. For example if you are overly controlling, try sitting back and watching; staying connected with your breath as you observe situations rather than rush in and interfere. If you are overly messy, try de-cluttering one small area at a time and celebrate each time you do so. If you are overly money conscious, try leaving a tip (even if it’s the smallest tip) or buy yourself something small, but of value to you, that lets you know you can spend money on yourself and you are worth it. If you are overly busy, it’s a no-brainer! Slow down, take in your surroundings and connect with the moment. Human beings are literally walking unconscious patterns. As famous psychologist Karl Jung said ‘until you make the unconscious conscious, it will control your life and you will call it fate’. If we can start to notice our unhelpful patterns – that is bring them into the light of day – and start to de-escalate their charge and hold over us, something quite magical can start to happen. And that, my friends, is a greater sense of balance in our bodies and our lives. So as you go about your day today I encourage you to notice your patterns of excess, without judgment, and then take a small step to reverse any patterns of excess. Take the charge out of your extremes, develop new and more sustainable, health-promoting patterns in your life and watch the potential beauty of your life unfold. You might just be pleasantly surprised at what you discover! PS. If you start to make small shifts and changes in this way and you experience high degrees of stress and anxiety please contact myself or another professional. Patterns of excess often indicate there is something deeper going on and this CAN be healed. You will be doing your body and your life a massive favour by getting appropriate support for yourself and learning skills for life :) Kira :) Ph 021 027 18127 I love authentic, genuine conversations.
One such convo that has been coming up in recent times is this issue of boredom. Boredom of the ‘same old same old' grindstone of habitual routine. This feeling of stuck-ness can lead to physical symptoms of lethargy and lack of motivation, emotions from sadness to irritability, and a general spiritual malaise of ‘what’s the point?’. The point is boredom is the messenger. Its one of those uncomfortable, yet temporary visitations making us more alert to our life hunger, as Marc David calls it. Just like real-life food hunger, life hunger is a primal driving force built into our genetic coding. It’s like a personal growth programme wired in at the deepest level of our DNA calling us to grow and transform into the very best versions of our selves. Life hunger encompasses the multitude of unique yearnings we have for novelty, meaning, purpose, connection, growth, learning or creativity, and much much more. As the unrepeatable miracle that you are (NOBODY has the same fingerprint as you!) there is no one else in this world who carries exactly the same life hunger. So its stands to reason that we need to start expressing this unique yet hugely important part of ourselves in the very best way we know how. So get connected to what is truly important to you no matter how crazy or unconventional it may feel. And if there has been something you have been hankering for, be curious about how you can start to reach out, touch, feel and begin to breath life into it. Even with physical limitations we can make things happen that satisfy our life hunger and align us with our life purpose. A gorgeous local woman with chronic illness decided to write letters of support (‘love letters’, as she called them) to people around the world who were suffering from physical disabilities. Her life became purposeful by virtue of engaging in these meaningful activities, her illness coming second to the rich life she had created for herself despite her limitations. Focus on what you love, and if you don't know what that is, your assignment is to get curious about what peaks your interest, make contact with it, and let the rest unfold from there.... Here's to happy ‘life hunger’ satisfaction at every level of your life, Kira :) Ph. 021 027 108127 Being connected to our values helps to set up healthy boundaries. Values connect us with how we want to behave and the qualities we want to bring to our behaviour, such as kindness, connection, honesty, integrity etc.
However our values can get confused when they are overshadowed by emotions created by our conditioned rules, or brules (bullcrap rules), as I prefer to call them. Here are some examples of brules that we pick up from the likes of parents, society, culture, religion and educational training throughout our lives.
When we can stay connected with our values then the brules tend to fall to the wayside. We are better able to make good choices and communicate our needs and desires, without any undue anxiety. Easier said than done? Sure is! But if we can become more aware of and connected with our values, aligning our actions with them gets easier overtime. And the added bonus of this is that we get to live life more authentically and with more integrity. My own personal values were a confusion to me for many years. I had been taught to 'toughen up and get over it' so when my body hurt, I ignored it. I believe that this, in part, contributed to a major health crisis that hit me in my late twenties. But after battling with my health year upon year it became clear I needed to change. And my health became, out of necessity, my number one priority. With my focus now rightfully on supporting the body to heal I naturally aligned my actions to make this happen. So when I was asked to do things I couldn't during those years here are some of the ways I learnt to say 'no'..... 'I am not up to doing that yet but please don't stop inviting me. And thanks for thinking of me.' 'I am unavailable on those days. Best wishes with finding someone who can.' 'Thanks for inviting me but I have something else scheduled' 'Thanks for the compliment. It's a big job and not one I want to be involved in so the answer is no' If we have been a 'yes to everyone' person we need to practice these scripts so that they fluently roll off our tongue every time we are requested to do something we can't or do not want to do.... And remember any guilt that accompanies your 'no' is 'false guilt'. If we can stay connected with the why driving our no, we can more easily recognise it as 'false guilt'. And if people make us feel sad or bad for saying no, we need to remind ourselves that their response is NOT our responsibility. We are responsible for ourselves and they are responsible for themselves. So get aligned with your values. Write them down on a piece of paper. Eyeball them on a regular basis and set yourself up to consistently bring healthy boundaries into your life because we can only give from a cup that overfloweth. I give thanks to the wonderful Liz Garbutt who taught me everything I know about boundary setting and was a key player in helping me to reintegrate back into the world without hurting myself after many years of un-wellness. Thank you Lovely Liz. Kira :-) Ph. 021 027 18127 To turn the field of genetics completely on its head, a groundbreaking area of scientific inquiry called Epigenetics, has revealed that gene expression can actually be altered by the way we perceive our environment.
Instead of regarding genetics as eternal and unchangeable, as in ‘I have the alcoholic gene so I am destined to be an alcoholic’, we have recognized that our genes, like our neural pathways, are in a constantly evolving process of change through the interplay with everything in our lives. Which means we can literally switch on and off our genetic coding for better or for worse :) In other words, our genes load the gun but it’s our perception of our environment that pulls the trigger. EVERYTHING in our lives is impacting and influencing our DNA moment by moment from the nutrition we ingest, the air we breath, the environments we spend time in, the activities we engage in, the people we mix with to the way we approach ourselves, others and the world around us. Epigenetics declares that we actually have power and control to some degree over our gene expression. It puts the responsibility of our health and happiness back on us, restoring a healthy balance to a historical over-reliance on the medical profession to perform miracles with a little white pill. With the onus returning to us to some extent we need to start to do the things that we know work, to treat the body in a way that supports our health and wellbeing, to live our lives engaging in things that make us feel uplifted, to nurture the dreams and hopes that we deeply desire, and to back ourselves 100% and trust that WE KNOW what is true and right for us. As we start to understand that our genes are engaged in this magical dance between what’s happening 'inside' of us and what’s happening 'outside' of us, we recognize that we have the power to talk to every cell in our body, determining the trajectory of our lives. In my own personal experience of being limited to a darkened room for 3 years, with my mobility reduced to crawling between my bedroom and the toilet some days, this was one of the most profound learnings I was to gain from my wellness journey. It wasn’t until I seriously looked at the way I was living my life, at various levels of my life, that I began the very slow yet incremental journey towards wellness, today now having full flexibility in my body again and thankfully discovering it is possible to live a quality and meaningful life, one that is a true and right fit for me. I know now that the way I had been leading my life prior to becoming chronically ill switched ON the cellular coding for the many complex chronic health conditions I suffered from for years. As I changed my life to accommodate the healing process, I was able to literally switch off this cellular coding and reclaim a quality, meaningful and joy-filled life slowly over time. And when I say slowly, I mean at a glacially slow pace as oftentimes it would feel like there was no progress of all. Change in our well-being takes time and our job is to create a foundation for our body to self-heal. This requires an in-depth understanding of ourselves at every level our life and committing to making the necessary needlepoint changes in our day to day lives in the spirit of willingness and self-compassion along the way. And even if it feels like there is sometimes no progress, we need to keep going. So here are some important questions for those of us who may feel challenged by life in some way...
The power of our questions determine the quality of our answers so today give yourself the gift of a few silent moments to take a breath, be present and reflect on what is working in your life and what is not, and begin to take some micro steps to support the process of change that will ultimately help your body, mind and spirit to heal from the inside out. Kira Ph. 021 027 18127 Is it possible that unwanted symptoms, emotions and habits could be faithful messengers batting for our higher growth and enhanced health and wellbeing?
What we tend to do in the West is push the uncomfortable bits of ourselves to the side, pretending they are not there, ignoring and denying them, or medicating them away. But what if these uncomfortable bits of ourselves were actually saying to us is ‘wake up’ ‘listen’ ‘I need your help’. As contemporary science and commonsense tell us, our body’s ability to be healthy relies on the harmonious balance of the all facets in our lives. Our symptoms, for example, could be directly related to a toxic relationship or environment, without any conscious awareness on our part. Hence, the importance of awareness. If we can create a safe space to be with our uncomfortable bits, whether that space be with a trusted confidente, a professional, by journaling, or just learning to sit with and observe ourselves from the stance of a curious objective onlooker, we create an opportunity to connect with and understand ourselves at a deeper level. This opens the door to discover what we may need to course correct in our lives and begins the real journey of health and wholeness in every area of our lives; mind heart body and spirit. -------------------------------------------------- PAUSE ---------------------------------------------------- I invite you to close your eyes for minute and connect with your breath and your body. Allow yourself to drop from you head into your body. Become aware of any sensations and feelings without judgment, instead holding a kind and compassionate space for ALL of who you are in this moment. Now very gently allow a picture of yourself to come into your minds eye, amidst a typical daily routine..... how you operate from the morning until evening..….Just allow yourself to see yourself in action….….. Notice how you are feeling as you do what you do throughout your day. Are you happy, light and carefree?….. or are you feeling stressed, overwhelmed and pressured? What is it like to be you? Notice and take a mental note of how you are feeling on a daily basis, connecting it to the lifestyle that you live, without judgment. And gently yet curiously ask yourself, 'is the way I am living my life sustainable and balanced for me? Does my current lifestyle give me a sense of joy, purpose, connection and contentment?' As you reflect upon this ask yourself 'do I have enough things in my day that uplift my spirit and energise my body?' If not, what’s a small change you could make today that could make a difference to your overall sense of wellbeing…...just something seemingly insignificant that could have the potential to create a powerful health-promoting, joy-enhancing ripple effect overtime if done regularly? -------------------------------------------------- PAUSE ---------------------------------------------------- Your life loves movement – physically, intellectually, emotionally, socially, creatively and spiritually. Just as our body doesn’t like to feel stuck, nor does our psyche. We need a sense of hope and purpose, especially in the more difficult times. Regaining our equilibrium when we come up against challenges, requires us to lean into the hard stuff and start to become more consciously aware of why the challenge has arrived. And once we turn the light on, we then need to gently carry out what we know to be true and right for us moving forward. If you are feeling stuck, get curious, recruit support, and start the process of moving towards greater levels of health and wholeness in the spirit of self-love. Be open to this journey of being fully human in every which way. Don’t shy away from the uncomfortable bits for they are your teachers. Get engaged and immersed in the one and only life you have been assigned which is an enormous yet exciting mystery busting to unfold your potential every moment of everyday simply through the conscious choices you make moment by moment. And trust that it’s actually those uncomfortable grueling bits in our lives that tend to break us open to possibilities and our potential. If it feels a bit too scary to lean in, remember love melts fear. Bring your warmth and kindness to any area of your life that scares you and let it melt and dissolve the fear away. What may appear scary on the surface will likely hold the key to improved health and wholeness. Kira :-) Ph. 021 027 18127 I was largely unaware of the importance of my emotional self until I got really unwell a decade ago. It wasn’t until I came face to face with myself in a darkened room for many years that I had to get curious about what had pushed my body so far out of balance! And suppression of emotions, I discovered, was one of the contributing factors!
Growing up I had been taught to disconnect from my body and my emotions. So learning to understand my emotional self was an integral part of my wellness journey. And I continue to use these learned skills in my current everyday experience to keep my physical vessel healthy and well :-) It became clear to me through my healing journey that healthy navigation through our emotional landscape keeps our physical vessel clear and healthy. Healthy expression of our emotions clears and releases the old, allowing space for the new to come in. Sometimes that process (such as the process of grief, loss and trauma) can take time so please be patient and kind with yourself if you know you are dealing with some sort of loss or trauma in your life. One interesting thing I learned from my own emotions is that in my case ‘anger is often sad’s bodyguard’. If I feel anger, I ensure I take time to process at my next convenient moment. If I don't process the anger, I can sense a discomfort simmering in the background affecting my perception, mood, behaviour, choices and physical symptoms. As I express my anger through journaling (my preferred creative expression) I often begin to feel sadness over an injustice, wrongdoing, a violation of my standards or perhaps even someone trespassing my boundaries. My surface emotion of anger has led me to my deeper emotion of sadness giving me clear messages that I would have otherwise missed. Anger leads me to blame others but sadness healthily leads me to actions to take care of myself moving forward. You can feel a tangible physical healing shift in yourself as you make sense of why you feel as you do and what to do next. Processing emotions is not an intellectual pursuit but more of a matter of the heart. Many of us are not taught to express our emotions healthily, let alone understand that they could hold the very wisdom we need to lead us to our next steps in life :-) So instead of shying away from scary or uncomfortable emotions, I encourage you to get curious about what messages your emotions may hold for you. We all have our individual preferences in how we process our emotions and our preferred creative outlet can be a excellent way to support emotional expression. Creativity is a brilliant vessel for allowing the energy of our emotions to flow, release and transform. We can connect with our feelings through our breath, slowing down and connecting with our body, creating, meditating, mindfulness practices, writing, drawing, or talking it out with a safe person. Just the simple act of taking space everyday to check in with yourself can be the first step in acknowledging this very important side of yourself. By the way, no emotion is negative. Emotions can be instead regarded to be 'action signals' to our next steps and the sooner we can acknowledge and allow them their expression, the clearer we become as a whole person, mind, heart, body and soul. If your emotions are on-goingly overwhelming and difficult to cope with, please do not hesitate to reach out for professional support. Professional support offers you the opportunity to learn skills to interpret and manage your emotions so you are able to healthily navigate yourself moving forward. Kira :-) Ph. 021 027 18127 The word “trauma” originates from the Greek word traumatica, which means wound. And that is exactly what it is – it is a wound; unseen, invisible, yet painful to touch. Even when we feel like it has healed over we can be retriggered, taking our physical body straight back to that traumatic moment of time, feeling powerless and helpless all over again.
Feeling the echoes of past trauma feels like a raw pure overwhelming full-blown stress response in the body as opposed to being more of a head-driven anxiety. When retriggered, it bypasses the thinking part of the brain, and the body re-experiences the trauma as though it is happening all over again in the here and now. It can leave us feeling dazed and confused as to why we are feeling this way, almost like we are lost in a forest with no beaten path to follow, no guidelines to find our way through and out to the other side. It is scary but what is scary needs to be faced. It is only then that we can truly start to heal our wounds. The power of trauma is far-reaching. Its narrows our awareness, squews our perception of events and people, and if not properly treated strangulates the natural evolutionary growth of our potential as a human being. What gets repressed becomes stress, hence the very clear correlation in research between childhood trauma and health issues in later life. To course correct the trauma trance we need to have awareness; an understanding that overwhelming raw pure unruly uncontrollable emotions arriving out of nowhere are there for a reason. Its like the circuitry in our human organism is shattered and fragmented. And only WE can help this circuitry to rewire in a strong and healthy way. Remembering that trauma is an ailment based in isolation, it naturally draws us into a disconnective process due to shame and overwhelm. The antidote therefore is to connect with a professional and good support systems to help see ourselves back onto solid ground. Engage in activities that help you to feel grounded and safe, making space for and acknowledging your feelings as they come up; letting feelings flow through you rather than fighting, resisting or ignoring them. Take exceptionally good care of your health – diet, movement, relaxation and sleep. These factors will all contribute to a strong and healthy rewiring of the affected circuitry in your body. Our mind and body are like our guardians. They are here to protect us. When we have been heartbroken for example they take on the role of guardsmen at the gateway of our hearts, checking rigorously the intentions and motives of any future potential suitors. When we make a normal mistake in the process of learning, mind and body ensure you never do it again by drilling you on the consequences. And when we experience trauma in our life, these guardians can transport us outside of our body, relocating us to what it believes to be a safe place away from the pain, the hurt and the betrayal. Our mind does not forget, nor does the body. It contracts when it is hurt and just when it starts to soften and unfurl, if it is reminded of a past hurt, it tightens again and withdraws, becoming numb or lashing out. This signifies the importance of processing trauma. Your body deserves to heard, your experience deserves to be heard, you deserve to be heard. Through the healing proces, and with the help of caring support, you will be able to safely express and unpack the heavy load carried in your heart. What seems impossibly scary and foreboding, what you regard to be your weakness, your raw spot and your shame, can transform from what feels like a prison cell to a liberation of your senses as you emerge stronger, healthier, energized and radiant, sharing your beauty and gifts with all those who wish to behold them. We are cradled in the West by a ‘pill for the ill’ mentality. We expect that a prescription from the experts will be the cure-all remedy. For those of us dealing with ongoing health and life challenges, who have already trod the offices of dozens of practitioners and constantly searching and striving to find the magic pill, we tend to find ourselves on a treadmill of perpetual disappointment.
If this commonplace approach is failing us perhaps we are being beckoned to take a different approach? Perhaps we are being invited to delve deeper into a more expansive mode of inquiry whereby we learn to let go, and occupy and navigate the unfamiliar territory of what we call the unconscious, the birthplace of our innate wisdom. To orient you with this territory I invite you to drop your shoulders, slow your breath, and gently unfurl your mind, heart and spirit. Why? Because due to our conditioning we tend to contract, force and push to find the solutions to our problems. When we have spent our life conditioned by culture, receiving the marching orders from our unquestioned beliefs and conditioning, could it be possible that our life issues may in fact be slowing us down to reflect, ponder, wonder, let go, explore, think possibilities, and trust what we inherently know to be true and right for us beyond the ‘shoulds’ and the ‘shouldn’ts’ of our conditioning. Even the late great physicist and mathematician, Albert Einstein, relied heavily on what he referred to as intuition as he felt his way to new ideas and insights. He states that he never made any one of his great discoveries through the process of rational thinking but instead ‘a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will and the solution comes to you and you don’t know how or why’. This indicates a different way of approaching our challenges. It suggests that by releasing control we may in fact be preparing the turf for a creative response from our whole self: mind, heart, body and spirit. There is enormous untapped potential that lies within each and everyone of us. Health and life issues, which we have no obvious practical solutions for, invite us to knock on the door of possibilities that lie beneath the black and white, rational thinking processes. Instead of focusing intently on a question to find the answer, what if we lived the question and became the answer, taking those small steps that we know in our heart of hearts to be the right action for us in the here and now? When we can finally let go of what we think we should be doing, and lean into our current experience, without judgment or fight, fully embracing all of who we are in this moment, connecting with our body, our breath and our experience of life in the here and now, what is it that we feel called to do next? What 'next step' would help heal in this moment which will ultimately nourish the direction of our future? Let your mind wander, don’t force, push, contract or narrow your perception down but instead expand, get curious, and be open to the realm of remarkable wisdom that lies within you. Your life is calling you to become all of who you were meant to be; our body, the messenger; our life, the canvas; our connections, our lifeline. Trust your life. Your life is your medicine. Kira :-) Ph. 021 027 18127 |
AuthorKira Follas is a qualified counsellor and works as Wellness Practitioner and Group Facilitator in New Zealand. She is also a survivor and thriver of multiple physical and mental-emotional adversities and is a Mum to two awesome teenage lads :) ArchivesCategories |