A guiding premise of my work is that we do not need to look to others for happiness and contentment.
We may need guidance to help us come back to center and the richness within, but the truth about what is loving for us resides within our hearts and our connection to Spirit/God/Love.
Initially, when people are practicing a connection to their spiritual guidance there is a tendency for it to be a mental process. This is okay at first because when we reach out or up to our guidance with the question, “What is truly loving for me?” essentially we are stepping into our Loving Adult self, shifting into the prefrontal cortex that supports clearer thinking and rational problem solving. So it is helpful, but not the whole picture.
When we drop down into the gut, our feeling self, and ask the same question, the answers are often deeper, more solid and grounded as we connect to our primal knowing and uniqueness.
And yet there is more. There is the fact that God is within and all around us, and we are supported by this life force in every moment and in every thing.
This is why meditation typically begins with the place of our divinity and aliveness, the breath. Why we feel good surrounded by the high vibration of the natural world. And why gratitude lists help us feel better. They are reminding us of the essential reality that in the midst of the challenges, there is so much resource, so much divinity, so much grace.
For example, when I am supporting someone to face their deepest challenge, together we explore what it would look like to bring our guidance in and we notice ways that our guidance is/was already there as a resource. Not to negate the grief or pain that needs expression, but to balance it even as we hold space for the pain. We then move beyond the thinking about it, to the feeling of it in our bones, remembering that within each one of us there is a well of strength and resilience.
In each moment, we have our breath, we are alive, the biggest miracle. Then there is the air to breathe, so amazing. Our body carefully integrated tissues, organs, bones, working together to support our participation in this life, wow. The earth to walk upon. A seat to rest on. A bed to lie in. A friend or animal to confide in. The strong tree to take refuge in. And so on.
Even in cases of trauma, when often the only resource is your breath and your body’s amazing ability to dissociate to survive, this natural instinct is a supreme expression of divine power.
There is always God/Love/Life. It is so important to remember this because it is only in connecting to our aliveness and connection to Love that we can keep nurturing it and feeling it in our lives.
Dr. David Berceli found in his work with trauma survivors that psychological processes alone were less effective in treating suicidal tendencies, than when integrated with bodywork. The mind can swirl around in all that is negative and confuse us into believing a distorted pessimistic view of reality, but when the body is nurtured and supported there is a feeling of aliveness. And this feeling of aliveness begets a palpable desire to be alive. He states, the person “is able to increase internal sensation and feel the natural pulsation to live, thereby decreasing the thoughts of dying.”
I like to build even further upon the mind/body approach, to reconnecting to the aliveness and wholeness within and around us, reminding us that we are steeped in Love.
This is why for me, healing is a conversation that goes beyond mental processes, and asks, “How many ways are you touching the God that is all around and within you?”
Are you touching vibrant healthy food that is alive and free of toxins? Are you enjoying in-person connections? Are you feeling into and moving your amazing body? Are you breathing, really breathing? Are you feeling the earth hold you? Are you taking in the natural world around you humming with life and beauty to inspire and awaken you?
Are you marveling at this precious miracle that you are?