Alchemica Posted March 31, 2018 (edited) I struggle with an obsessive compulsive aspect and socio-emotional problems. I've been exploring spirituality to buffer that the last few days. "The madness that we encounter in “patients” is a gross travesty, a mockery, a grotesque caricature of what the natural healing of that estranged integration we call sanity might be. True sanity entails in one way or another the dissolution of the normal ego, that false self competently adjusted to our alienated social reality; the emergence of the “inner” archetypal mediators of divine power, and through this death a rebirth, and the eventual reestablishment of a new kind of ego-functioning, the ego now being the servant of the divine, no longer its betrayer." - R. D. Laing "Modern man, is controlled, made dull and obedient, cold and empty" Occasioning a mystical-type experience IN conjunction with utilising spiritual resources may cause enduring positive changes in psychological functioning and in trait measures of prosocial attitudes and behaviours. In one study, it improved measures interpersonal closeness, gratitude, life meaning/purpose, forgiveness, death transcendence, daily spiritual experiences, religious faith and coping Can you bias that towards restoring higher-order 'heart-mind' mediated processes through a bit of shifting attitudes, self-compassion, self-affirmation, modifying beliefs etc? "Various religious practices have the potential to influence our health, in both positive and negative ways. It was noted that religious people, in general, have a lower risk of anxiety and depression. This, in turn, is linked to a stronger immune system. On the other hand, people engaged in religious struggles might experience the opposite effects. " Is it possible to remove dissonance between head and heart? To restore faith based on reason, greater love, compassion, kindness, altruism? To move from lower subcortical “reward” structures and bias towards less hedonistic, eudaimonic PFC mediated goals. There is evidence of hypofrontality and abnormal corticostriatal-limbic functional connectivity in multiple mental disorders. It's easy to get in a state of ego-depletion leading to self-control failures. It has been proposed "social control via conditional regard [causes] curtailment of dopaminergic (and endogenous opioid) expression associated with the sympathetic limbic/OFC circuitry, forming a permanent homeostatic imbalance which restricts empathetic feeling, intelligence, and exploratory interest in the world" "Functional neuroimaging studies of self-regulation and its failures suggest that self-regulation involves a balance between subcortical brain regions representing the reward, salience and emotional value of a stimulus and prefrontal regions associated with self-control. When this balance tips in favor of subcortical regions the likelihood of self-regulatory failure increases." Devotional practice was reproducibly associated with activation in nucleus accumbens, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and frontal attentional regions. It starts simply: By simply using self-affirmations you can restore self-competence by allowing individuals to reflect on sources of self-worth, such as core values. fMRI results showed increased activity in key regions of the brain’s self-processing (medial prefrontal cortex + posterior cingulate cortex) and valuation (ventral striatum + ventral medial prefrontal cortex) systems when reflecting on future-oriented core values (compared with everyday activities). Mentally simulating future events, especially those relevant to personal goals, involves key regions hypothesized to be involved in self-affirmation interventions, including the VMPFC, MPFC and PCC. Future-oriented thought and self-affirmation rely on similar neural mechanisms, they may mutually reinforce one another. Imagining future personally relevant, emotionally positive and rewarding events is associated with changes in VMPFC, striatum, MPFC and PCC ( D’Argembeau et al ., 2008 , 2010 ; Benoit et al. , 2011 , 2014 ). Increased activity in the MPFC has also been shown to positively correlate with imagining positive ( vs negative) future episodes ( D’Argembeau et al ., 2008 ) and such activation is further associated with projected reward value of the imagined future ( Benoit et al ., 2011 , 2014 ). In addition, a recent meta-analysis found that increased activity in the MPFC and PCC, among other regions, was associated with thinking about hypothetical (e.g. future) compared with past episodes ( Benoit and Schacter, 2015 ). What am I looking for? My primary end-point measure for the effectiveness of different spirituality things as a tool will be how this impacts (fairly acutely) self-regulation, emotional regulation, mood/anxiety and in the world engagement. I have to steer clear from some types: orientations that emphasise rational-analytic elements (e.g., extrinsic religion or religious fundamentalism) may be more likely to facilitate explicit self-regulation and potentially even interfere with implicit self-regulation. These tools may promote the acquisition of skills that are conducive to implicit self-regulation. Implicit self-regulation is optimally suited to maintain the global integrity of the personality system. [1] Positive emotions broaden people’s attention and thinking and set people to trajectories of growth that will build consequential personal resources. By bringing meaning in people's life, religiousness or spirituality (R/S) could be a kind of resource. Induction of positive emotions, in particular self-transcendent ones (awe) lead to higher R/S "Explicit self-regulation is closely associated with analytic processing, a cognitive style that is dependent on linguistic encoding, precise, sequential, rigid, and dissociated from emotional and sensorimotor systems. By contrast, implicit self-regulation is closely associated with integrative processing, a cognitive style that is largely independent of linguistic encoding, impressionistic, parallel, flexibly attuned to multiple meanings, and closely coupled with emotional and sensorimotor systems. Many forms of religion/spirituality may facilitate a self-regulatory mode that is flexible, efficient, and largely unconscious. In this implicit mode of self-regulation, these individuals may be able to strive for high standards and simultaneously maintain high emotional well-being. A review of the empirical literature confirmed that religious stimuli and practices foster implicit self-regulation, particularly among individuals who fully internalized their religion’s standards. The present work suggests that some seemingly irrational aspects of religion may have important psychological benefits by promoting implicit self-regulation. Religiosity may change the very basis of meaning in life, by shifting people’s focus away from hedonic concerns about the pursuit of pleasure toward eudemonic concerns about living according to one’s core values or authentic self Behavioral priming effects appear to be mediated by implicit self-representations and may thus be considered a special form of implicit self-regulation. Primed with Divine concepts such as “spirit,” “divine,” and “God” people behaved more generously in a standardized social interaction task than did unprimed Religious transformation can be seen as a process that allows a person to recognize and integrate experiences. For instance, by breaking with a person’s self-centered view on life, religion may open the person up to other people’s needs and wishes. Religiosity is likely to facilitate implicit self regulation to the extent that (a) it is characterized by an orientation toward the well-being of the whole person, ( it encourages integrative cognitive processing, and © it relies on embodied metaphors and practices to convey the meaning of its teachings. From Implicit self-regulation has been shown to promote volitional efficiency, such that the individual is capable of forming appropriate intentions and translating these into action. Second, implicit self-regulation has been shown to promote flexible and efficient affect regulation, such that the individual can avoid becoming overwhelmed or stuck in emotional or motivational states. Third, implicit self-regulation has been shown to promote an implicit sense of meaning in life, such that the individual is capable of creating meaning out of new experiences and maintaining older networks of meaningful cognitive representations Affect-regulatory function of religious imagery was found in a brain imaging study Subliminally priming self-related stimuli can lead to increased self-regulation of reflexive responses. Likewise, priming individuals with autonomy-related stimuli can promote more intrinsic self-regulation, as evidenced by more voluntary task engagement, reduced self-serving bias, and increased psychological well-being" If we choose higher beliefs such as self love, internal control, etc. our self-esteem grows and we move into more harmony with our selves and environment, moving more towards Self-Actualisation. Six Mental Control Strategies for overcoming anger, anxiety, and depression can be used: Choice, Harmony, Understanding, Goals & Expectations, Optimism, and Focus You shift from conditional self-worth to more unconditional self-worth. You start to love yourself despite past mistakes, deficiencies, and internalised negative subparts. What's your Higher Self encompass? I like these subparts you can tap into - "inner child", " inner professional", "inner counselor", "inner lover", "inner student", "inner parent", "higher self", etc. The higher self learns through EMPATHY to love ourselves and others unconditionally What's the shift from maladaptive to Adaptive-Healthy Values and Lifestyles and Eternal Identity encompass? 1A. Intrinsic Sincere Congruent Lives religion Personal faith 2A. Actualizing Growth-oriented Self-regulated agency Experiential-creative Self-renewing-repentant Integrates ambiguity and paradox 3A. Reforming-renewing Change oriented Benevolent-reforming power Tolerant Egalitarian 4A. Interpersonal-social orientation Networking-familial-kinship Cooperative Open-authentic-integrity Self-sacrificing 5A. Nurturing Tender- protective Warm- faithful- intimate Caring Facilitating growth Empathic 6A. Reconciling Forgiving Humble Appropriately direct Problem solving 7A. Inspiring Attunement to spirit of truth Prophetic Mystical-good reality testing Ref: http://web.csulb.edu/~tstevens/sct-oh.htm From Christ to Urban Shamanism What does Embodying Christ mean to you? I pondered that and came up with .Through the Christ-symbol, man can get to know the real meaning of his suffering: he is on the way towards realizing his wholeness…. To me it is finding Love, ego loss to service. The Urban Shaman "Living in a modern day rat-race of a world deluged by unending data and information streams; a modern world state of being that has resulted in precipitating our current addiction to ‘busyness’ How did we find our meaning, purpose in life, take time to slow down and connect back to nature when we are in a constant technology loop? We are people communing with nature in absolute solitude sitting stationary in self-imposed sacred ritual. We may celebrate cosmic events or other things, while simultaneously giving thanks to mother earth, father sky etc. As modern society evolved, we destroyed our own mythologies and relationships to what we deemed ‘holy’ and ‘sacred’ by supplanting the spiritual with new gods of ‘science’; gods that allowed us to destroy each other by the touch of a button. In essence, we became our own Gods - destroyers of our own world as we filled our days and nights with trivial activities. Our hunger compelled our search for both spiritual and emotional fulfillment. Organized religion attempted to provide us with answers, but doctrine in itself was considered ‘obsolete’ and irrelevant. “Religion” lacked the ability to appeal to a growing number of us who could not relate to religious dogma. Instead of finding solace in ‘official’ houses of worship, we hit the Internet and shared posts from ‘IFLScience‘ and Neil Degrasse Tyson as a way to fill that spiritual and emotional void. Without a need for formal religious practice, the world of organized religion became at least for us, both archaic and obsolete. Nevertheless there were a few key elements that religion served that satisfied our desire for: a sense of community, sacredness, and meaning. It is these fundamental needs that we currently pursue. What is remarkably interesting and poignant about these incidences is the reality that these venues are actively sought, re-constructed, re-imagined and re-enacted by folks in the western world either concretely or symbolically. The question of why this has happened speaks to the need in our modern day world for sacredness and the pursuit of a deeper, richer and more meaningful truth. This search has led many of us including me to seek the truth in age old rituals." God as a Therapist Ref Given the psychological and spiritual aspects of mental illness, an intervention that addresses these using spiritual resources in addition to psychological resources may be particularly effective. It can result in psychological symptoms (eg, shame, guilt, rage) and spiritual symptoms (eg, spiritual struggles, moral concerns, loss of meaning, self-condemnation, difficulty forgiving, loss of faith, loss of hope). Diminishing ego function and "encouraging the emotion of awe has been described by the psychologists Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt as a combination of two elements: a sense of vastness—in terms of size or power or prestige—and a “need for accommodation”—a desire to somehow accommodate the experience into one’s worldview. If awe reduces a sense of certainty, then it should also lead to pattern-finding and thus greater religious belief." In a sense, It allows “imaginal dialogues,” conversations between self and other that happen in the mind. These can be therapeutic because the reality to which someone responds is always partly of their own creation, and an imagined therapist (an immaterial God necessarily must be imagined) can thus re-create that reality as effectively as a human one. When God becomes that therapist, It’s obviously different from ordinary psychotherapy because the “therapist” is more powerful than any human therapist and also more perfect. Individuals higher on Spirituality/religiosity (S/R) also reported less substance use, risky behaviours, and better affect. It is important to target inaccurate or maladaptive beliefs—called stuck points—that result in guilt, shame, and self-blame, rendering individuals stuck. Forgiveness (Recall, Empathize, Altruism, Committing, and Holding on) and possible targets of forgiveness (ie, self, others, God). The impact that trauma and mental illness can have on one’s spiritual well-being is explained and spiritual distress is normalised. Lament is introduced as a formal expression of sorrow and spiritual grief. By focusing on cognitive restructuring using spiritual/religious resources (ie, spiritual beliefs, practices, sacred writings, values, and motivations) it is possible to challenge maladaptive thinking patterns. One can instill spiritual concepts and rituals of compassion, grace, spiritual guided imagery, repentance, confession, forgiveness, atonement, blessing, restitution, and making amends. You can build Forgiveness, Esteem and Trust Address Power, Control, and Spiritual Discrepancies: Spiritual discrepancies and spiritual issues related to power, such as anger at God, the limited nature of human perspective, free will, and active surrender, are discussed. The theme of intimacy related to self, others, and God can be explored. Spiritual partnerships are discussed, both in terms of how trauma and illness can impact these relationships and how deepening or reengaging in spiritual partnerships/community can help with the healing process. Spiritual Partnerships and Intimacy: The theme of safety related to self, others, and God/divine can be explored Edited March 31, 2018 by Alchemica 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alchemica Posted March 31, 2018 (edited) I like this view: An important part of healing is to repair this sense of separateness within ourselves and from others. How can we regain our “spirituality”, and our deep connection to all life in difficult times? What happens when we open an inner connection to our creative, happy and loving self, Soul? An Evolutionary and Developmental Science Framework for Integrating Attachment, Mentalization, and Mindfulness: Implications for Religious Practice and Moral Development The quality of attachment relations affects the development of an individual’s moral sensibilities and the capacity to experience empathy for others. Positive and loving early experiences cultivate a prosocial morality and empathy. Mentalisation-based therapists seek to increase the client’s mentalisation capacity within a secure and emotionally-attuned relationship. Early attachment relations have a profound effect on the basic cognitive, affective, and social neuro-development, what happens if these don't form properly? What happens if you “keep the mind in mind,” or attune to, reflect upon, and articulate the inner world back to the you? Adequate mentalising of the inner world lays the foundation for the person to understand that our mental experiences of self and others are representations of reality, not reality itself. This is a cornerstone for the development of attentional control, affect regulation, language skills, and, extended autobiographical narratives of self and world. Without this, neural and functional deficits in mentalisation and the re-emergence of “pre-mentalisation” states like “psychic equivalence” (equating internal and external reality) and “pretend mode” (separating internal and external reality), associated with personality and affective disorders The God representation can serve punitive or compensatory functions in the psyche, depending on the dynamics. It continues to evolve and be used as a dynamic construct over the lifespan. Mental representations of the omnipotent and omnipresent God of the Western monotheistic religions serve attachment-related functions It provides a “stronger and wiser” figure that provides devotees with comfort and love during times of stress (safe haven) and with strength and support to deal with life’s challenges (secure base) Edited March 31, 2018 by Alchemica 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alchemica Posted April 1, 2018 Some people may think my approach is 'crazy' but there's method to my madness. I felt so empty, so broken, unwhole. Transmuting through Fire Each step of Fire towards Compassionate Action Burning the Ill Passions, The Inaction, The Stagnation Of the Body, Mind, Heart and Soul Bringing each into Sacred Alignment, with Spirit To Heal the Body To Lift The Heart To Build the Spirit "The emotional body has gone haywire and the health of the body is in dire straits. But, we can change this rotten dynamic, this pervading stench that wreaks with me-ism. Don’t let the voice of crazy penetrate too deeply. Block it with the Heart-Fire of Transformation. Think it. Believe it. Love it. Project it. We better start loving our surroundings like never before. Better start loving our neighbor like never before. Better start loving our community like never before. And we better start loving our humanity like never before. The only values that need be honored are the values that sustain civility and harmony. Without these, we are lost." - Stefan Bright "Shamanic universals involve psychophysiological dynamics of altered states of consciousness (ASCs) and visionary experiences, metaphoric representations produced through integration of innate representational modules, and rituals that produce psychophysiological healing responses. ASCs reflect natural brain processes involving systemic integrative conditions." [1] It is possible through transpersonal experience to affect ego development. It can be things like situating the dream in one’s waking life context, association of dream elements or images, imaginative technique (drawing images or scenes; active imagination); and asking questions about the dream; amplification technique (cultural, archetypal levels); and ritual. "For generations, following a traumatic life event, healers used experiences that engaged more fully the brain’s right hemisphere than the left, including drumming, dance, and the use of symbols that appeared in the person’s dreams, art, and imagery. They used ceremony and sacred rituals to heal the soul pain and call back the spirit energy that had left at the time of trauma In Shamanic belief, when the mind separates from the body, as happens during dissociation, the human soul can fracture. When this happens, a part or parts of the soul can remain at the scene of the trauma, as thought frozen there in that space and time. Dissociation is viewed as an opportunity for the traumatized person to reclaim the soul parts and to experience a tremendous feeling of healing and wholeness. In Shamanic cultures, it is believed that during dissociation the spirit helpers place the traumatized person in an altered state. In this trance-like state, the person witnesses the soul part or parts in their frozen state. With the assistance of spiritual guides and helpers, the soul parts are removed from the trauma scene, taken to a safe place, offered a healing, and then reintegrated back into the larger and now more complete and whole soul. The first step: safety and healing The second step: updating and encouraging return The third step: soul and body integration and welcoming The fourth step: Processing and mental integration Illness points to a fragmentation, disconnection or imbalance that results in a loss of power of the individual; power refers to the power of Spirit that is present in all things, whether animate or inanimate. Psychologically speaking, loss of power can result from negative life experiences (e.g., trauma, addiction, poor self-esteem, etc.). Health is about wholeness, connection and balance; thus, the restoration of power to the individual From a shamanistic perspective, individuals can experience a psychological loss of power through negative life experiences or wounding, disconnection to self, others, spirit or higher power and culture. Healing from this process results in the emergence of a new self, which is, psychologically and spiritually, a deeply connected self. This is a therapeutic work that is done outside of the conventional psychotherapy but nonetheless can have a powerful effect on different areas of an individual’s life. Wooten (2007) speaks of this healing in terms of connection and health: “This reconnection is reparation of relatedness to self, to others, and to a presence greater than the isolated ego.” During trauma/high intensity illness, the amygdala records the highly charged emotions and sensations but if the exposure is severe enough the hippocampus can become overcharged and shut down. The traumatic event is then not recorded as explicit memory but is instead only recorded as implicit memory, and in the form of highly charged emotions and sensations Questions of meaning and purpose, symbolic expressions of soul brokenness, and dreams of searching, are of an existential nature, begging for a spiritual exploration. Yet numerous approaches to trauma care in use today do not address the spiritual aspects of trauma whereas in most societies, previous to the past five decades, those who attended to the ill, regardless of the causes of the illness, were spiritual specialists. In these cultures, the healer most often held a Shamanic view of reality. From this perspective, illness is viewed as a disharmony between the ill person’s body, mind, emotion and spirit and between the ill person and the larger environment. Healing requires a restoration of the harmonies of body, mind, emotion and spirit and includes a rebuilding of relationships with the Creator, the ancestors, other human beings and with all aspects of the environment" [2] [1] https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/…/2a1724969134aab523c02af5… [2] https://www.omicsonline.org/trauma-and-dissociation-neurolo… "Shamanic healing is an art form. There are no "right" way to perform a shamanic ritual or ceremony. While there may be similar elements each shaman's direction from their own Spirit Allies ultimately shapes the session." Three-dimensional reality of time and space is not the only way of seeing reality; it is not the only perspective. We are locked into an ego-state, which sees everything as solid, the universe is real, it’s here, and it’s tangible. But when we move out of that three-dimensional view we move into another reality. "Due to the age of rationalism and the Cartesian world view, what has happened is that all we recognise is the three-dimensional world view of time and space. We have lost contact with the imaginal realms, with the enchantment and magic of everyday life. If we look around what we see is soul loss at a personal and social level because we no longer trust our imagination. It’s seen as something that is suspect. It has led to “psychophobia” as I call it, fear of our own psyche and fear of going into those realms." The more I move myself (and my ego) out of the way, the more powerful the healing flows through me. In working in such close communion with Spirit, co-creation, manifestation, and true miracles are within grasp. The world around us feels different—magical, even—when we see ourselves as a contributing force within creation. "[we see] in recent times, is the whole area of psychoneuro-immunology [allows us] the use of the imaginal realm to influence physical healing. We find that the immune system responds to visualisation and guided imagery and this is the area where I see the connection between shamanism, physical health and psychotherapy. Shamanism, in fact, forms the core of all we do today in terms of medicine and psychology, because if you look at what the traditional shamans did and still do, they used art therapy, psychodrama, dance, gestalt, visualisation and music to promote healing. If you look at the practices of any shaman and you analyse it from a psychoanalytic or psychotherapeutic point of view you will find that much of what we think we have invented in the twentieth century has always traditionally been done by the shaman. Psychotherapy has limited itself to the emotional and psychological realm, but I think we need to move into what James Hillman and Thomas Moore term soul-work, re-souling the world in community, bringing people together to tell their story." http://iahip.org/inside-out/issue-35-winter-1998/shamanism-and-the-imaginal-realms Purifying and soothing the spirit through ritual, mending the gap between body-mind-spirit, finding heart empowerment again, evoking protection, evolving Love and Spirit. The psychological motifs are venting, cleansing, purifying, transforming the participants’ negative emotions and trauma into more meaningful experience by going through symbolic death and rebirth. We transform the Dark energies to Positive energy which promotes growth, action, innovation, renewal and optimism. It inspires equality between people, strengthened community and shared responsibilities. We participate in cleansing things such as anger, regret, sadness, and desperation. We try to ameliorate the wounds made by tragic events, serious illnesses and sudden deaths of beloved people. “Negative energy means heavy energy. It wants to slow things down and bring them to a stop. When the negative energy penetrates someone’s body it is hard to detect. If not addressed, it seeps through [us] Its purpose is to promote suffering and destruction in return for temporary power. It lives on fear, separation, revenge, and differences. It creates depression mentally and economically, and ultimately destroys individuals, society and the environment. It is our role ... to clear negative energies and replace them with positive energies that restore health and balance" Great Spirit: I call upon the white light of protection to come forth from the golden orb above my head, covering my entire body from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, through each chakra extending through my entire aura. This light surrounds, protects, heals and guides me, going within to further protect, cleanse, purify and heal, totally permeating my entire being. I ask that any and all negative, sickly, jealous, evil, or mean energies, entities, spirits, guides, or vibrations that have attached themselves to me be sent back to their source, never to return. I ask this blessing with neither love nor hate, but for sake of the greatest good. I thank you. "It helps us feel less burdened, to reconnect to inner power and overcome bereavement process. It eventually facilitates participants to go back to their daily routines. Spiritual healing does not exist far away from their lives, but within the embodying experience of physical death and spiritual rebirth through rituals. Encountering spirits, especially in deep distress, may help people contact their unconscious to overcome their suffering, not only in the primitive cultures but also in the modern era, if it is well contained in sophisticated ritual and psychologically healthy frame." "If shamanic rites help the suffering people to contact with numinous entities and experience an in-depth journey, they may make spiritual temenos for healing and individuation process probably far better than modernized collective activities like watching TV, smartphone and internet. Modern people using technological devices seem to have become alienated from their own emotion. Meanwhile, shamanic rituals force people to show their affection and response" Motif of cleansing, purifying, venting and relieving one’s negative emotion or experience is observed in many religions, myths and cultures 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alchemica Posted April 1, 2018 How do you like to integrate a journey? How did I feel about being there? Was there confusion, fear, pain, joy, excitement, bliss? It's was an experience of Divine love, connection and re-finding pieces of my Soul, nourishing Spirit. Letting go of struggles in life, ingraining positive views when I was drowning in bleakness, and seeing more to who I can be. An experience of reconnecting to my Heart, To God, to Life, to Spirit How do I feel about it now, as I recall my experience? It was a pleasant, malleable friendly transpersonal state that I could use to empower myself to be a better me and to have greater compassion. What was the purpose to the journey? How does it relate to my life? What is my own sense of purpose? The Journey was to die to a loop of pathological Mind, to break free of a time in my life that was become stagnant with suffering. How do I view the collective human experience? How do I view my own human experience? Whereas before, I was jaded with humanity, I now see in new light. I see the good in life again, choose to live life as a gift, and pay forward that gift How do I see myself as part of society/the collective? I sense a deep connection to humanity. The blindness of judging others disappeared. I see the judgement I had towards others was a reflection of how I was judging myself. I see myself as having a role to play in the collective, whereas before I couldn't find a sustainable sense of meaning and purpose What is my role in the world? My role is to continue to make small steps to progress in health. To find small contributions to make to others along the journey. To enjoy life for once. How do I feel about the concept of God/Singularity now? How did I feel about it before the journey? Whereas before I had an anger towards concepts of God, which was holding me in anger against myself, I accept the concept as a personal concept that can evolve and bring a connection to people's lives, a relationship. I see deep connections to a collective point. What is my level of trust, in others, in life? What is the level of trust in myself? I had severe trust issues. I was struggling to regulate my emotions and as such couldn't attribute trust to anything. I was doubting myself, falling into self-denigration. I now feel trusting in myself and others that is good in me and good in the World. I now trust in a goodness to life, a Divine aspect of life. How do I feel about nature? I feel a deep connection to nature, as a nourishing influence in my life. As a place I can express love through nurturing nature and life in that aspect. What did I learn learn about my spirit? I wanted to learn to maintain a growing loving spiritual aspect in my life away from the rational-analytical obsessive. I found that positive upward emotional-spiritual spiral and see how I have to take action to maintain that in my life Why do I wish to explore consciousness? I wish to evolve in consciousness, in love, in connection with myself and others. Questions Ref 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tøn Posted April 2, 2018 On 31/03/2018 at 8:26 PM, Alchemica said: In Shamanic belief, when the mind separates from the body, as happens during dissociation, the human soul can fracture. When this happens, a part or parts of the soul can remain at the scene of the trauma, as thought frozen there in that space and time. Dissociation is viewed as an opportunity for the traumatized person to reclaim the soul parts and to experience a tremendous feeling of healing and wholeness. In Shamanic cultures, it is believed that during dissociation the spirit helpers place the traumatized person in an altered state. In this trance-like state, the person witnesses the soul part or parts in their frozen state. With the assistance of spiritual guides and helpers, the soul parts are removed from the trauma scene, taken to a safe place, offered a healing, and then reintegrated back into the larger and now more complete and whole soul. The first step: safety and healing The second step: updating and encouraging return The third step: soul and body integration and welcoming The fourth step: Processing and mental integration As usual, your posts are incredible. I didn't make my way through all of what's above, but that passage and those following it caught my eye. I'm taking a similar approach to my own adventures in recovery/re-integration. Thankfully my psychologist works in a similar manner; in our last session we discussed step three, more specifically, learning to identify when I'm living from one of those fractured parts, trying to ascertain what triggers what and working towards complete inegration of my mind and body. The challenge for me lies in doing this work whilst holding a full-time job; I really wanted to slow down a bit and be closer to nature for this process but I've found myself guided again and again to working 'in the world,' in an industrial estate no less, as a basis for learning I guess, to be able to hold onto my core values and live through the changes of personality whilst being engaged with society. As it stands, spirituality has definitely been an unexpected ally in the process of withdrawing, and remaining abstinent from alcohol and chemicals- and then being able to work with what was left over from that, being core trauma and all the stuff I simply couldn't go near beforehand. I'm having more and more memories which used to be disturbing, but are now just helpful. 'Ahh yeah, I remember that. That's why this happens. You are safe now-' employing visualisations, direct requests of spirit to dissolve the psychic bile that arises when I hit something particularly nasty. Interestingly enough, I've been instructed to temper that side of my being at times as it tends to become all-encompassing, draws me into one of those splinter-aspects of my being and becomes destructive. Admittedly that's resulted in a bit of a void for me, trying to figure out what constitutes healthy spirituality and what constitutes religious obsession. Anyway, just rambling. Thanks for posting this stuff, as I say it's pretty heavy (sometimes I'm too fatigued to get it to make sense,) but very welcome. It's good to know someone else is out there tearing through this shit as well. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tøn Posted April 2, 2018 I've been waiting for this to become available at the library; my interest has been piqued suitably. It seems like a decent, non-dogmatic approach to connecting with the earth, without cultural appropriation or that nauseating New-Age gloss: https://www.amazon.com/Ecomysticism-Profound-Experience-Nature-Spiritual/dp/1591431182 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alchemica Posted April 2, 2018 Thanks @Tøn for the encouraging words and sharing your story and pain, agree it can become an addictive high bordering on delusional and dysfunctional initially in itself finding that spirited connection, and a chase that's counterproductive. I hope you find enough time to continue your healing, some connecting time with nature and continue your healthy growth, well done for your current efforts. Best wishes on your journey, keep us updated. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mysubtleascention Posted April 2, 2018 (edited) in a universe of heart - embracing every drop .. is kissing it goodbye ! Edited April 2, 2018 by mysubtleascention 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alchemica Posted April 3, 2018 (edited) "We get so obsessed with the outward details that we forget the most important thing, which is to intuitively feel the essence of what we’re doing." I write a poem Cradled by the Divine Gaia Mother, in the afterglow of Moonlight Life sometimes comes with a bit of Hellish bite The Heavens open towards the Sunlight, quite a sight Maintaining balance between yin and a yang that's got more healthy actioned might As we head into another night, the energies balance in an emotional fight between the brain's hemispheres of left and right But the goal is to transcend that struggle to reach greater frontal cortical height Focusing on the positive sublimes the night, making things feel a bit more alright. Neurotically tight consciousness expands towards levels of Light Lately the Self energies for me have been to dissolve the crippling loop of mind "balance and bring to better harmony" and strengthening Heart. For me, that's also trying to find a Healthy Masculine in goal-directed doing but also balance with Healthy Feminine, rekindle receptivity, attune to hearty emotions, Presence, Being. What have they been for you? On cultivating deeper feeling and receptivity - It's quite a paradox I find, in order to feel receptivity to the world, tap into a feeling emotional space of deeper heart, I have to actively engage more with it. Socially, without much happening, it's like the brain generates it's own representations of the world pathologically which over-ride the Heart, to make up for the social lack. But when you engage actively, bring the Yang, the Yin flows back in balance? If there's one thing I've been good at manifesting, it's suffering in my life on all levels emotional, mental, physical, social, and spiritual. It's been kind of solve et coagula lately to dissolve all aspects and try to bring them back to a better balance My mind particularly has this amazing ability to latch onto everything but what really matters. We insist on learning through cold harsh intellect, but we neglect the need to purify our hearts and act from our hearts In a world busy of aimless doing, I've tried so hard to attune to that present moment feeling away from rigid analysis, receptivity and Being. I could never strengthen that aspect through trying structured mindfulness etc, focusing on breath etc just didn't work, I was too broken and dissociated, even my walks were losing receptive presence. I totally lost the ability to watch a movie etc, watch TV shows, not that I enjoy such but anyway, just seeking that being Present to Receive I always thought I would dive into an enhancing spiritual states through spiritual pursuit, but I've more recently discovered some spiritual experience through grounded action instead and want to pursue that. Sounds paradoxical to become more receptive to the world by seeking receptivity... Likewise I sometimes question if you get more spiritual by seeking spirituality? I found my most spiritual times have not been through active seeking but caused by breaking through hellish suffering, something like there being an equilibrium trying to restore. I couldn't find that day to day being present receptivity since I got ill. I've been finding it sometimes comes from action, in throwing yourself more at the world, with a bit of Yang, the Yin of present receptivity flows back at you. I go for my runs and find I'm more receptive etc. Anyone else find something like that? I don't seem to be the only person who finds this, “It came from action, through which I began discovering moments of presence in that state where the distinction between action and presence disappears.” Edited April 3, 2018 by Alchemica 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mysubtleascention Posted April 4, 2018 becoming - every sound is dancing .. being merging notes ! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
