Don't wait to regain the Good Qualities of Babies

"So if, before the end, you can regain that same state of babyhood that was in you at birth, if you can regain those same qualities, then you will commune once again with God. You will embrace everyone, as a baby does, showing the same love for all without any differences. Only that infant state will earn you the right to speak with God. That is the quality we start off with, and we must end up with the same quality."
--Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, Sufi Sheikh

 I read the following quote on Facebook and was moved to reply:

One doesn't have to wait til the end their days to regain the good qualities of babyhood such as the ability to embrace everyone joyously and show the same love for all without any differences and to commune and speak with God, as the honored Sufi speaks of in his quote above.

I recommend that my clients recall or watch a sleeping infant and remind them that babies breathe with their entire body, and that they can regain that ability; with it comes a centeredness and a willing to experience, and an increasing ability to be in the now.
I recommend that my clients recall or watch a sleeping infant and remind them that babies breathe with their entire body, and that they can regain that ability; with it comes a centeredness and a willing to experience, and an increasing ability to be in the now.
--Ayleyaell

The Violet Hour - Conscious Transformation

"There are only two symptoms of enlightenment, just two indications that a transformation is taking place within you toward a higher consciousness. The first symptom is that you stop worrying. Things don't bother you anymore. You become light-hearted and full of joy. The second symptom is that you encounter more and more meaningful coincidences in your life, more and more synchronicities. And this accelerates to the point where you actually experience the miraculous." ~ Deepak Chopra 


Twilight is a peaceful time of day, and for a short time, the world turns Violet as the old day transforms into the new day. Judaism celebrates the new day at sunset, and when I was training in the Arica Institute, we would chant two bijas (sounds) specific to the ending day and the dawning day to be conscious and welcome the transformation that takes place at the 'Violet Hour.'  

Jody Bergsma's beautiful painting, Amethyst Sunrise, above, captures both the magic of transformation and light of both the Violet Hour. To the Native America Sioux Indians, the dragonfly is one of the keepers of the Dreamtime. One of the challenges some of my  clients have trouble sleeping, and I ask them to meditate on Dragonfly. I will be sharing Jody's image with them, and there is a link below where you can purchase prints. 

I don't know if there are ONLY two symptoms of enlightenment; I would describe Dr. Chopra "symptoms" as states of consciousness, what Re-Evaluation counseling calls living in "Benign Reality."  The two states of consciousness Dr. Chopra mentions can be experienced separately or simultaneously - I've done both. Both states are joyous and pleasurable and uplifting for the sensitive soul.  I've also had clients realize those states  during or immediately following a SHEN session, when the client glowingly describes the synchronicities in their life, or how they've just had a transformative insight and found value and meaning in their (sometimes horrific) history, and the perpetrator ceases to be an object for their terror or anger.  Whether on the table, or after the session, when they become light-hearted and full of joy, the client just lights up the room!  ~Ayleyaell




Art by Jody Bergsma: Amethyst Sunrise...A New Day Awakens  
http://www.bergsma.com/amethyst-sunrisea-new-day-awakens-prints-c-392-p-1-pr-4625.html —

The Knots Prayer

Emotions have a Life-span

Fritz Perls

Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt therapy, said, "Emotions have a life-span that includes a birth and a death, a beginning and an ending."

We each carry within us all the unfinished emotions from all the traumas we have ever had. We may no longer be mentally conscious of these submerged, unfinished emotions, but they are still inside, playing a silent part in our day-to-day reactions to life.  What we present to the world, and those around us, is the accumulation of these unfinished aches and pains that subtly or not so subtly, direct our actions and reactions to today's events…


The residue of painful emotions from incidents in the past congregate into a tangled mass of emotional pain held deep in the body, lying there in wait to re-activate at the nearest sign of an emotionally charged event that feels similar. Each new painful event instantly connects with the bundle of pain inside and starts the reactivation. Since the pain being evoked is usually considered by society (and usually by ourselves) to be harmful, we try to suppress it mentally all the while our bodies are reacting to pain as they always do, by contracting, so the contraction continues to trap the pain inside.


Painful emotions provoke an involuntary bodily response [known as] ACPR, or Auto Contractile Pain Reflex, which squeezes the organs and glands in the bodily region where the emotion is being experienced.  


SHEN Therapists use the chi from between their hands to relax tissue, releasing the contractions to allow the emotion to lift and finally dissolve.


More information here: How SHEN works


And here: Emotions, Pain and Your Body


Note:  Text above partially excerpted from the chapter The Dynamics of Emotion, in the   Notebook given to students taking the SHEN Therapy Personal Empowerment Workshops.
Copyright Richard Pavek, SHEN Therapy Institute.
 

Prayer to the Directions

Here is a prayer I wrote when I was studying with a Lakota Sioux medicine woman grandmother: 

 Invocation to the Directions

Spirit of the East, Wabun, I call you 

Air and Breeze help breathe me 

Eagle and all wind riders 

Please help me walk the Sacred Way.

Spirit of the South, Shawnodese, I call you 

Fire flower please blossom in my soul 

Cougar, Wolf, Coyote, Mouse, 

Please help me walk the Sacred Way.

Spirit of the West, Mudjekeewis, 

And element of Water, I call you

My heart aches and tears fall for what has been. 

I ask to feel all that has been and all that there is. 

Whale and Bear, I ask you, 

Please help me walk the Sacred Way.

Spirit of the North, Waboose, 

And element of Earth, I call you 

Please help me stand and deeply listen 

Great Ones, White Buffalo, Elk, please aid me 

Help me walk the Sacred Way.

Spirit Above, Father Sky, I feel you 

Your sunlight warms and lightens me. 

Thank you for your blessings 

Please help me walk the Sacred Way.

Spirit Below, Mother Earth, I come to you

With all my heart I ask to receive you 

Please take me into the Quiet and help me Walk the Sacred Way.

Spirit Within, I AM, I call you 

Please merge me with Great Spirit's intention 

Deeply and buoyantly let us travel 

Please remind me that I AM the Sacred Way

O Great Masters I invoke you 

Christed friends and spirit allies I honor you 

Thank you for loving me and reminding me of the Sacred Way.

—Ayleyaell Kinder “TurtleDove,” October 1996

Download The Invocation to the Directions as a .pdf here

Being Present to One's Heart

"The most important therapeutic ability is the capacity to be present with the heart and to be grounded in our inner being, in the authentic self, in the meditative quality within, in the inner source of love and truth, through which we can meet another person." says Dhyan Giten, from his new book “Presence - Working from Within.”

I agree with Dhyan, and I would say, in addition to being present in the heart and grounded in our inner being - a part of the work I do in SHEN Therapy-  be present to the "Now" (a/k/a mindfulness, what's objectively happening, "what's so"), and be aware of one's physical and emotional sensations. Have whatever comes up be ok (and in fact, these sensations are valuable teachers, as they can clue you to your authentic feelings).

I work with trauma survivors as well as highly sensitives. Some of my clients come to me habitually disassociating from their bodies, with panic attacks, and/or feelings of frequent overwhelm.  I've facilitated clients who were traversing a dark night of their soul and those in the midst of struggling to emerge from a history severe abuse. Some come to me out of touch with value in themselves and/or meaning in their life.

An insight I've received and shared is that those who have survived traumatic experiences bring an authenticity to their communication which is reassuring to others who have similar experiences  This authenticity is unmistakeable, and it can help other survivors of trauma to come to listen and to trust, and to realize recovery and healing is possible for them as well,  because someone else has been through it and understands. If it's their heart's desire, my clients can reach those who perhaps would not let themselves be reached a therapist who comes from academic theory only.

And at the very least, the experience of surviving incest, distorted caregiving, etc. can teach you what you don't like, and how you don't want to be. I tell my clients that now they have the glorious, gorgeous opportunity to discover for themselves what they do like, and what does nourish them. My clients start to do just that: in their exploration, they discover what their authentic self enjoys and what their heart enjoys doing. Some have gone on to become therapists, others have become speakers,  writers, artists, advocates and nurturing parents.

We can bloom out of a history of suffering and defilement, just as a Lotus grows out of rich muck, its blossoms, fragrance, and beauty inspiring all.

From Dhyan Gitan's Facebook page:  Swami Dhyan Gitan was trained in modern psychology at the University of Stockholm, and in Eastern methods for awareness in USA, Sweden and India. He has 22 years of experience in individual counseling and teaching awareness.

"Walk as if you are Kissing the Earth with Your Feet" - Thich Naht Hahn

Photo from: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Sunshine-Page/117136288381773