What Are You Listening To?

At your very core, is your deepest , truest knowing.

It is your core star, your heart star.  It is your inner radiance that speaks to you in a resounding voice.  Your connection. That Wisdom which offers guidance.

It directs the function of your body.  It gives you instruction about life.

How is it possible to become disconnected from this guidance which you have always had?

The answer is this.  It isn't possible to be disconnected from your deepest Wisdom, because it is a part of you and it is always broadcasting, full on, loud and clear.  But it is possible you have turned off your receiver.  That you have stopped being tuned in to that station.  That you have stopped listening.

If you're not listening to your own inner Wisdom...What are you listening to?

Your Inner Resources and The Fear Factor

It's been a very cold, Winter.  And now transitioning into Spring you can add fluctuating weather patterns to the mix.

Yesterday morning, I bundled up in layers of wool before I left home.  By noon I was removing those layers as I sweated beneath a warm sun in a clear blue sky.  Now today it's pouring rain.  I hear snow is forecast for tomorrow.

This is spring.  Beautiful, blessed spring--bringing motion and change to shake us out of our Winter lethargy. 

If you're feeling the Late Winter/Early Spring Weather Blues this post is dedicated to you.

First of all, it's a good idea to stay warm and cozy.  Those two go hand in hand.  The cozy part is every bit as important as the the warm part of the equation.  Warm foods, warm drinks, warm clothes, warm environments, warm lighting, warm friends, warm laughter, warm thoughts which warm the cockles of your heart...the sun will tease us from time to time, but we are still experiencing the cold and wet of early Spring.

Secondly, I urge you to get away from any device which feels cold to you right now.  And by that, I mean devices which feed you any news or entertainment based in fear and which does not warm the cockles of your heart.  If you're reading or watching anything which causes you to feel fear, depression, disgust or cold fury, put it down and walk away.  Preferably allowing your feet to take you outdoors.

Traditional Chinese Medicine: Fear, Winter/Cold and the Element of Water

In the psychology of the body, based on Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fear is associated with the Bladder and the Kidneys, which are allied with the Element of Water.  Using Traditional Chinese Medicine as a guide to understanding the Element of Water; Water relates to Winter and to Cold.

So being in this season which is moving between Winter and Spring, you want to pay attention to balancing the extremes which cause you discomfort.  Too much Water feeds the Wood Element (which is associated with Anger), and too much Water dowses the Fire Element (which is associated with healthy expressions of both Joy and Sadness).  Using that way of relating to emotions, you can see how too much Fear feeds Anger and how too much Fear leads to Depression and mood swings.

Fear in its healthy state motivates you to activity (Fight or Flight), but an overabundance of fear can be paralyzing.  So if inclement weather is keeping you indoors and inactive, you may be spending more time reading things, or watching things which cause you fear.  Inactivity can lead to a build up of undischarged Fear emotion.  Too much fear in your tissues can lead to weakness and collapse.

Recognizing The Fear Peddlers

It's this simple, Fear Peddlers are people who stand to profit by scaring you.  Either they want to sell you something, or they want to control you.  And fear keeps us divided, feeling isolated and alone.  You know when someone is telling you a story which causes you fear.  Start paying attention, and just notice how many fear messages you see on social media or in the news.

There is another type of Fear peddler, the kind who means well.  This type feel they need to educate you/warn you about how scary the situation really is.  For those of us who are bighearted activist types, we often get subjected to the Well Meaning Fear Peddlers, and we spread it around among our tribe like a virus.  But make no mistake it is still fear.  It is still a type of manipulation.

When your emotions are healthy and balanced, you have more clarity around your emotional perceptions.

Balancing Fear

Your body naturally knows how to balance fear, if you allow it to do its job.  When you experience fear, true fear, your body wants to take some action.  If you are startled, you jump, or you run, or you move in some way, which uses up the adrenaline suddenly coursing through your body.  In our society we often suppress our natural instincts.  If you get a shot of adrenaline because you've just narrowly missed an accident, do you stop the car and get out and move around in order to discharge that chemical in your body?  Most of us keep driving.  The adrenaline may have been used up in avoiding the accident, or maybe not.  

Also we have a lot of manufactured fears.  We may not have to avoid death or injury every day, but we have many learned fears.  Whether real or imagined, fear can still contribute to adrenal fatigue.

Some good ways to balance fear, is first to understand what causes you fear.  To get to know what motivates your perception and your response.

A BodyTalk session can help identify fears and phobias and their root causes while allowing you to release that fear, restoring you to a state of balance and clarity.

Another thing, since fear and stress go hand in hand, physical activity is a real good way to balance fear.  Anything from strenuous out door activity to creative endeavors such as moving a paintbrush around a canvas, or a pen on paper.  Engage with the activity.  Be very present with it, so you train yourself away from the habit of allowing your mind to manufacture and/or dwell on fears.

Here's one you probably haven't thought of.  Since your body is an emotion processor, a balance of energies also helps keep your fear level healthy, rather than extreme.  Bladder and Kidneys help process fear in the body to move it through.  This keeps the emotional energy from taking up residence in your tissues causing stuck energy or repeating patterns which may lead to illness or personal problems later on.

BodyTalk sessions can balance organ energies like Bladder and Kidneys to keep them fully functioning physiologically, energetically, and as emotional processors.

You are an holistic, integrated Being.  Body, Mind, and Spirit all flow together as One.  An imbalance anywhere within the Body/Mind complex eventually will affect your whole Being on some level, whether you experience other symptoms or not.  BodyTalk does not aim to treat symptoms.  It aims to restore balance to your whole Being.

I hope this article gave you some new ways to relate to the season, to the emotion of fear, to the body, and to Your Self.

Enjoy the fluid motion of this season as we move out of Winter and into Spring.

You are Loved

Breathing Space

Have you ever noticed that when you stop obsessing about a problem, it usually sorts itself out?

"What do I mean by that?" you may well ask.

You have a problem.  It occupies your thoughts.  It fills your attention.  You experience anxiety over it.  You concentrate on the "fixing" of this problem.

OK, now you've done all that.  Now check in with yourself and ask this question. "Am I getting anywhere with this?"

If the answer is yes, then that's amazing and wonderful.

If the answer is no, then consider this.

Consider allowing it to be alright.  Give yourself permission to allow this problem to solve itself.  Stop allowing it to occupy you.  Stop allowing it to "Take" from you, your energy and your time and attention.

I know, I know.  Your problem is serious business.  Your problem Needs your attention.  You Must devote yourself to the fixing of this thing…even if now you're stuck. Stuck in a loop, or an energy holding pattern.

So shake yourself loose from it for a moment, and try to understand what I'm offering as an alternative.  This is not an easy concept to grasp, especially if the problem is really serious to you, but try because it may really help.

I'm going to tell you a story to illustrate what I mean.  First I must say that I am telling a true story, but it does not belong to any one person, because I have seen this over and over again.  So if you think that I'm talking about you, I am--but not exclusively you.  This story comes from many people I know personally, including myself.

You have a loved one who is seriously ill.  It may be a pet, a family member, or a friend.  You don't know what to do.  You are involved because you love this one.  You are extremely invested in the out come of the loved one getting well…or ending their life peacefully…or what ever it is you think needs to happen in this particular case.

Take a deep breath.  Now allow yourself to let go of what you think needs to happen.  This is not your burden to bear.  This is not your journey to  take.  Your job is simply to allow your dear one to make the choice.  And trust that they are experiencing life to their full potential.

Your job is to stand aside in a place of love and non judgment to give them the breathing room they need to either heal, or move on.  It's really that simple.

If you don't think you can do that, then please consider examining your motives. Be gentle with yourself, but be honest.

Spoiler alert:  If you can give this "breathing room" to your loved one, you will see something quite miraculous…and you will be forever changed by the experience.

This method works for all problems.  It really does.  Whether the problem is your health, your relationships, your job, etc.

The ability to take yourself out of judgment about what you think Needs to happen, will allow space for the miraculous to occur.

Are you brave enough to try?  It takes absolute faith and trust to pull it off.

Neutralizing Stress

We live in a very high stress environment, and most people feel the affects of that.  There is so much going on in the world to divide attention and to distract.  A divided attention adds mental and emotional stress.

Add to that the physical stress caused to the body either from trauma or environmental factors as your immune system is taxed and your digestion is asked to compensate for processed foods and toxins.

And to top it off, there is the stress caused by trying to figure it all out.

This is the prescription I try always to remember to use.  When I feel overwhelmed, I have learned to remind myself  to stay in my heart field.  To stay present with my heart.

But how to do this?  I admit it takes practice and focus, but like any discipline it becomes automatic the more this practice is engaged in.

This is the exercise I use:

1.  Take a deep breath and bring full awareness into your body.  Just notice for a moment being present with your body.  What are you feeling within? What are you noticing? Notice the contact with the surface you're sitting or standing on.  Notice your clothes against  your skin.  Notice the air temperature, etc. But also notice your inner sensations, like any aches or subtle sensations, and how you're feeling emotionally.

2.  You can take as long as you like with this.  And when you're ready, shift your focus to your heart field, which is the electromagnetic field generated by your heart. 

Just spend a little time focusing your awareness on your heart field.  Don't think about it, but feel it, if you can.  Just noticing it, is enough. 

I picture it as warm soft golden light radiating out from my heart.  I  allow my focus to be as soft and diffused as the golden light I am seeing.  Just a soft awareness mingling with my heart field.  Just allowing myself to be present with that energy.

I invite you to practice doing this at least twice a day.  It only takes a few minutes.  You can do it as often as you think of it.

The reason this is important is because when you have trained your awareness to go automatically and easily into your heart field, you have amazing medicine at your disposal.   You have an amazing tool for changing your experience.  You have powerful protection from negative influences which you may feel are threatening your well being.  Because this excericise changes your perception of your experience.

Here are some variations on this exercise which may benefit and serve you.

1.     The next time you are reading an article, or you are watching or listening to a program which causes you to become agitated or angry or sad or overwhelmed or any emotion which does not feel good to you, take a moment to notice how it is making you feel.  Then allow your awareness to shift to your heart field.  Keep your attention there.  Now how are you feeling?  Which would you rather experience?  Which do you think is doing more harm to you?  And which is healing you?

For people who want to stay informed, without experiencing the negative effects of doing so…(remember the information we get is not coming to us first hand, but being reported through the perspective of the person writing or speaking the information)…being present in your heart field will keep you from dwelling in the perspective which would have a negative impact on your body, mind and spirit.

2.     The next time you are having an angry interaction with another person, rather than letting it escalate into a barrage of hostility with toxic words and feelings, go immediately to your heart field.  Stay there and watch the encounter change miraculously before your eyes.

This exercise takes a lot of practice and the ability to remain calm and focused when faced with hostile emotions. It also requires a willingness to surrender your investment in needing to be "right" or "win" an argument.

Anger is a natural emotion, and expressed in a healthy, non toxic way, can move you forward.  Interacting with people while being present in your heart field allows you to maintain your emotional equilibrium, keeping emotions non toxic.

3.     Being fearful, can also keep us in a state of overwhelm and keep us frozen and stuck.  In that state we are not fully living.  We are not realizing our potential.  We are instead, using up our precious internal energy resources dealing with distractions not worthy of us.

So what are some of the things that cause you fear or cause you worry?  Sit with one of your worst fears for a moment and tune into what that does to your body.  How does it feel --in your body?

Now put your awareness on your heart field.  How does that change your perception of that thing you fear?  Are you getting any insights about it?  Is that fear maybe softening it's hold on you a little bit?

Try using these exercises to engage your heart field awareness with your daily life.  Allow yourself to find ways to stay present in your heart field as much as you can.

When ever you are noticing anything which doesn’t make you feel good, go to your heart field.  See if it makes a difference for you.

Are You Listening To Your Body Or Are You Telling It?

Recently I worked with a client with chronic pain who was telling me that she was OK as long as she was "careful and didn't over-do."  I could see the energy around that belief had crystallized into a very hard rigid rock like energy and was keeping her frozen and restricted.

By restricting her activities to avoid pain like how she walked and for how long; how she sat, and the kind of work she would do-- had added a restriction which was interrupting the fluid flow of information, and of energy, and had the potential to affect  motion on many levels within her physiology, for instance, lymph, blood, cellular function…

Her focus had been for a long time, on how Fragile her body potentially was.  Her focus was on if I do such and such I will suffer for it.

But what happens if we remove the belief, (remember this was very solid, rigid, crystallized energy which was running like a program within her body)?  So what happens if we remove the belief?  Or what happens if we just soften it a bit, and allow it to relax?

For this particular client, removing the energy behind the belief, i.e. the belief itself, resulted in a different experience.  She told me that she moved in a more natural and relaxed way.  She wasn't so focused on being careful.  She did what she could and when she felt like she was ready to rest, she stopped.

OK now, this is important.  Pay attention to this next part and really let it sink in for a moment.

She Listened to her body, rather than making it listen to her belief about what would affect it.

This is a real paradigm shift.

This is where you choose between Potentials.

She allowed her body to relax, by not being so much on guard.  And for her, a relaxed body is a body which doesn't hold on so tightly to it's pain. 

Have you ever noticed how you move when you're restricting yourself?  Do you notice that you're in a state of tension when you're trying to be really careful? 

Maybe your muscles are clenched, and maybe your ankles are kind of locked and your legs are stiff when you walk because maybe you're just trying to maintain your balance so you won't fall down.

Or maybe because everything hurts you've decided that if you make little tiny movements maybe it won't hurt so badly.  Or you don't bend, or don't stoop, or don't walk, or don't reach.  And pretty soon you're sitting a whole lot more than you'd like to be.  And that isn't really making you feel any better.

I've had mystery pain.  Excruciating mystery pain.  Saw doctors, had tests, it remained a mystery, and I still had pain.  I had my own shift in perspective.  I let some things go, and I let the pain go.  That was about 25 years ago.

There is just so much more to see than just anatomy, you know? 

Just think about seeing yourself as more than a body.  And think about seeing your body as more than a material vehicle which conveys your spirit around Planet Earth.  There is so much more to BEing than most of us know, and I'm sure you already sense the truth in that.

Peering Inside

I wrote this a year ago, and thought I'd share it here.  Some of you may be able to relate to this post.  Especially if you have unresolved issues--and who doesn't have those?

I'm takin' a squint right now at my innards. Peering inside at the inner workings of the Rita. It's amazing in there. Oh yeah. Really messy. It looks like Chaos, but it's so very synchronized. Quite a thing of beauty.

Over there is the place where I harbor my fugitive emotions. The ones that never got expressed because I was too Busy, or too Bad Ass, or too Frozen. They're all over actually, just waiting to wreak havoc in tissues throughout my body. A sore muscle here, a tight tendon there. Scars and so on.

All the experiences, the good and the bad are jumbled in together, building my inner landscape. 

Peering deeper I see the faceless ones that want to remain hidden. They burrow down, not wanting to be seen. They keep me hidden, and invisible. They keep me from seeing myself. They keep me from feeding myself, from expressing myself, from contributing anything of value, lest it draw attention to me. They keep me anonymous and "safe". They would be happiest if I would just stay asleep.

Now that I know they're there, I wonder what they fear. In spite of their best efforts I have outgrown them. I look at them and they cringe away into the dark shadows, trying to blend into the back ground. I turn away from them and look out into the infinite within my borders. I see galaxies forming and stars being born. I see a landscape of amazing light and color. This is what I am now. I begin to move into that landscape, and the small ones clutch at me. I turn back to face them, and hold out my hand. "Come on", I say. "We'll go together".

This is what I am building now. This creation of me. As I tell this story, it becomes what I am. All the darkness and chaos is every bit as beautiful as the light and color of new forming suns. Even the small faceless ones are evolving. They know they must come along. They must transform to survive. It is inevitable. We cannot help it.

I often use this inner landscape to work something out. It's a natural process for me, and happens spontaneously. In it my emotions become characters in the story with personalities of their own.

I had a small scream one time. It belonged to a foolish memory that I allowed to torment me. It would lay hidden and then it would creep up on me when I least expected, and jump out and scream at me. I tried to ignore it for years upon years. One day when it snuck up on me and screamed it's scream, I realized it was like a small child trying to get my attention, by misbehaving. So I turned around in my inner landscape, and looked it in the face and said in a rather exasperated voice, "What?! What do you want, for heaven's sake?!" It looked at me with big eyes and said in a voice I could barely hear, "Nothing". And then it turned and ran away, and I haven't seen or heard from it since. 

In fact after that, a lot of my more tiresome memories stopped gnawing at me, grew up and moved out. And high time, too. How long can you be expected to support a house full of emotions and memories all feeding on your energy and draining your resources--raising a rumpus and generally just messin' up the place? I ask you.

Their contribution is that I learn from them. I find creative solutions to grow beyond them. And when my perception changes, so do they. They grow up and move on. The result is that I am no longer afraid to look into the shadowy landscape of my inner world.

So now I want to ask you to consider this option the next time one of your unresolved issues won't stay tucked away in it's carefully packed box.  The next time you are wasting your energy trying not to see what is tormenting you, I'd like to invite you to look your tormentor in the face.  See it for what it is.  Maybe the only way to end your struggle with this thing and to heal the wound is just to acknowledge it.  See if it has anything to say to you.  And if not, then allow it to go.

Sometimes when you stop struggling against something, it softens.  Sometimes the only reason you hang onto something is because you haven't heard the message you were meant to learn.  If you can sit with this thing and truly put your attention on it and acknowledge it--letting it have its say, then maybe you can be done with it.

I wish you well on your journey.

Equilibrium

The Summer holiday is over and we're at that in between season where the weather is still mostly fine.  In the Pacific North West we have misty mornings and mellow sunshine afternoons, with spectacular sunsets.

Let's take a moment to reflect.  I invite you to take a breath with me and  bring your awareness into your body. 

What is the very first thing you notice? 

Is it a sensation, or a pain, or an emotion?  Or are you deeply relaxed?

Acknowledge what you're feeling and then take a deep, full, relaxed breath.

So how was your Summer?  Was it restful?  Was it busy?  Did you have some fun?  Take a few moments to breath in the scents and memories of what Summer means to you.

And now come fully into the present moment.  How does that feel?  What sensations are you feeling in your body, when your awareness is fully in this present moment?  Is it different than when you were reflecting upon your memory of Summer?  And if so, in what way?

That short exercise was meant to bring you into an awareness of your Experience of Yourself.  How did you do?  Did you get any insights?  Were you made aware of anything you may not have been noticing?  If nothing else, you just meditated for a few minutes…and that in itself is very rejuvenating.

During this Season consider taking the opportunity to realign yourself.  To come into balance and find center.  Equilibrium.  Stability.

In Chinese Medicine, the Summer season is affiliated with the Fire Element and the Earth Element is aligned with this in-between season.  The season known as Late Summer.  This season of harvest, and abundance.  Still productive. Not quite Autumn.  This allows the opportunity to Earth the energy of the Fire Element, storing it to see you through the colder seasons.

This is a great time to align yourself seasonally with the Earth, and follow Her example as She comes into balance.  To Ground the Creative Fire Energy and bring it to Earth within yourself.  So you may be productive and create a state of balance and stability within yourself.

In that state of Balance you have clarity.  You have breathing space.  You have deep reserves from which to draw upon.  There you will find wisdom and peace.

Enjoy Your Quest.