April 2018 - Carol Holland March

April 25, 2018

What You Need is Within You

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The roadmap to emotional health hides without our own bodies. The clues that something is wrong may take the form of pain, symptoms that appear without cause, even illness.

When we don’t deal with difficult situations and the emotions they evoke, those emotions find their way down into our bodies where they may hide out for years without making a peep. Or, they may cause a gradual sense of depression, stagnation, not being as alert as before.

As we encounter more challenges, we stir up those old emotions. They may cause unease, anxiety, difficulty in concentrating or deciding. The more we ignore the messages from our body, the more we invalidate our physical self. The split widens between our physical and mental realities.

Healing in its broadest sense means more than stopping the pain in an aching back or reducing the symptoms of a cold. It is opening a line of communication with our bodies and asking

What do you need?
What are you trying to tell me?
How can I help?

Now, this takes practice. Also, persistence. An open mind. Willingness to change. Most people decide it’s easier to take a pill for pain or get an allergy shot.

Now, I’m not advocating refusing medical treatment for an illness, physical or emotional. The medical profession is unsurpassed at treating acute illnesses and injuries and many diseases.

But you can enhance the efficacy of any treatment with the use of “complementary therapies” such as massage, acupuncture, herbs, energy healing, etc. One result of these therapies is they help you move what is stuck in your body, physically and emotionally. Releasing old emotions, old ideas, and outmoded beliefs will help open the lines of communication between your mental awareness and your physical awareness.

Another strategy that works wonders is to increase your self-compassion. Instead of criticizing yourself if you fail to meet a goal or don’t perform to expectations, step back and give yourself some slack.

Our high-strung society rewards competition, conflict, and winning. It results in people who suffer from stress-related illnesses, cannot relax, and who judge others and themselves

Alternatives to self-criticism

We can recognize the signals from our bodies that we are stressed, overworked or struggling, without judgment.
Instead of getting out the whip and urging ourselves on to greater effort, we can be kind and let ourselves rest. After periods of rest and play, solutions to problems often appear with no effort.
Remind ourselves that everyone experiences difficulties and setbacks. The person in the next office may not admit they are behind on their projects, but the tight jaw and frown lines, the clipped tones and impatient voice tell us what is going on. We are not the only ones overwhelmed.
No one is perfect, no matter what your parents or your internal programming insist. Perfectionism is the surest road to chronic stress. Do your best. If you always do the best you can, you have nothing to feel guilty about.

If we practice self-compassion, it is easier to have compassion for others. After all, we’re all in this life together. If we don’t see the world in dog eat dog, win/lose terms, we’ll attract others into our life who are more loving and forgiving.

Noticing how we respond to our own “negative” thoughts and feelings are one clue. Another is what our body has to say through our feelings, our moods, our aches and pains.

The next time your back acts up, try breathing through your heart and from that neutral space, ask yourself, What’s wrong? What do I need to do?

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April 20, 2018

Why You Feel the Way You Do

Do you ever wonder why you feel like you do?

If you’re happy and satisfied with your life, the question may not come up.

But what about when you feel:

anxious
depressed
sluggish
out of sorts
stuck?

Or maybe you can’t pinpoint why you can’t get going on that creative project, stick to your exercise or diet plan, or start looking for a better job.

It could be that you’re ignoring the messages from your own body.

If you’re a creative type, things can get more complicated. Creative people often live in their heads. Exciting ideas drop in and swirl around, but they have a hard time devoting the time and energy to produce their art, writing, or music. They wander in circles, not sure how to begin, or where to find resources. They think about the future (Who would buy my book?) and don’t finish writing it.

We have ready excuses for not moving on. “I’m stressed! I don’t have time. I’ll feel better after the holidays when the weather’s warmer, when my mother-in-law goes home.”

All these may be true, but they don’t answer the question, Why do you feel the way you do?

The eastern metaphysical traditions don’t perceive the mind and body as separate systems. Healing modalities like yoga, acupuncture, t’ai chi and meditation assume that mind affects body and body affects mind. A two-way street.

Many of us have adopted this belief because we got positive results when we tried them. But the medical establishment did not give up its insistence on the separation of mind and body until Candace Pert, a molecular biologist, discovered how peptides, a protein found in every cell of the body, carry information from and to all our organs including the brain.

Her research showed that the body works more like an information processing system than a clockwork. The peptides which carry glucose to our organs, are biochemicals which Pert called the molecules of emotion. They form a network of communication, the means by which thoughts affect the chemistry of the body. As the chemistry changes, so do our feelings.

It turns out that the mystics were right. The mind of the body is in every organ and every cell. The seat of emotion is not in the brain or the heart. It is in our cells, each and every one.

Like information, emotions travel physically between body and mind as the peptides and their receptors. In the subjective realm, we experience changes in feelings and emotions.

Pert agrees with Carl Jung’s intuition that the physical body itself is the unconscious mind. Which is why we often don’t know why we feel as we do. When we repress or discard uncomfortable feelings, we literally push them into our bodies. Held long enough, they eventually produce stress and illness.

If we want to feel better, we can start by acknowledging and releasing our emotions from the bondage of the body. Energy therapies, yoga, acupuncture, any healing modality that involves therapeutic touch, and learning to clear the mind through meditation or prayer establish new pathways so our bodies can let our minds know what they need.

Expressing emotions in a safe environment results in more glucose being available to all the organs. The peptides spread the word, and emotional blocks that have formed into physical blocks begin to dissolve.

Another way to open the lines of communication with your body is very simple. Journaling about what’s going on in your life and how you feel about it is a powerful tool. It can help you get unstuck, boost your immune system, and improve your ability to make decisions and act.

All you need is a notebook and a pen!

April 12, 2018

Reconciliation: Shake Hands With Yourself

Shaking hands with ourselves can calm our emotions and reduce stress, but how do we do that?

Last week I talked about Themis, the ancient goddess of reconciliation. When she was a member of the Greek pantheon, there were two words for soul.

Psyche, the soul of the breath, has come down to us in the concept of spirit. Thymos is the second soul, of the body, the blood, the emotions.

In the west, we have lost the concept of the body having soul. When we think of intelligence, we focus on the upper realms of mind. But for the Greeks, wisdom also emanated from the emotions or instincts. It is called the “blood-soul,” the mind of the body and is associated with the heart. We experience how our body speaks to us differently than the voice of transcendence from above.

The idea of two souls was known in Egypt, the individual ba and the ka or universal soul. The Chinese have the concept of yin and yang. Western antiquity had the Eros and Logos. These traditions honored the balance of complementary energies, male and female, electric and magnetic.

In the west, though, body and spirit became antagonists. (The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.) As reason dominated emotion, we lost the intelligence of the body. We disregarded messages from our bodies as “unscientific,” “illogical,” and the purview of fringe thinkers. Many suffer a mind/body split which contributes to the depression, anxiety, and stress illnesses so prevalent today.

Current physiological research is bridging the gap. Neurocardiology reveals that the heart is a vital organ of sensation. It codes and processes information within the autonomic nervous system. And it’s not alone.

There are many “little brains” in the body, clusters of neurons that regulate the functioning of the liver, stomach, kidneys, and intestines. Many correspond to the ancient eastern knowledge of the chakras, the energy centers of the light body.

When we express emotions, the heart has clear, rhythmic patterns. The experience of anger, frustration, and anxiety produces heart rhythms that are erratic and disordered. With emotions like appreciation, joy, love, compassion, the heart expresses an orderly or coherent pattern.

We experience subjective coherence when we are in positive emotional states. We feel “together,” “in the flow,” “integrated.” This could be the working of Themis energy.

From this research, I learned that if we can appreciate the “negative” emotions and listen to their messages, the act of appreciation helps heal the mind/body split and allows the heart to serve its natural function of reconciliation.

In my life, I noticed that even though I accept the information my body offers, I often feel annoyed. Here we go again, is the thought that streaks through my mind.

With appreciation, I can release my judgment of emotions that are inconvenient or unpleasant and bring myself into a state of greater coherence, which feels a lot better.

So, the next time, you’re upset, angry, or frightened:

Sit down in a quiet place
Calm your mind
Focus on your physical heart
Gently breathe in and out as if the air is moving through your chest
Imagine something you appreciate having—a person, an object, a state of being
For a few minutes, breathe through your heart, staying focused on what you appreciate

This simple exercise will calm you, help you come out of judgment, and bring your disparate parts into resonance. From that place, you can decide what action, if any, is appropriate.

It’s simple. Shake hands with yourself in your heart.

Accessing our heart’s natural intelligence can create an energetic field of unconditional love and harmonious interactions – helping humanity to realize we are one Earth, one yard, one people.

Doc Childre, HeartMath Founder

–

April 5, 2018

Healing Broken Hearts

Our hearts are amazing organs of light and matter. On one level they pump blood to keep us alive. On another, they are the seat of empathy, of love for self and others. On a third, they bridge the gap between thoughts and emotions. The heart mediates conflicts and allows us to find the middle ground.

When a heart is open and free, it reconciles disparate energies from our bodies and spirits. An open heart feels soft and powerful. It is willing to trust and can make appropriate boundaries.

When judgment, fear, trauma, or over-reliance on rationality interferes with the free flow of energy in the heart, it starts to close. It can’t fulfill its function and loses flexibility. A heart of stone is not just a metaphor. A closed heart is judgmental, unforgiving, jealous, and often gives itself up for crumbs.

Most people living in our fast-paced, confusing world experience some level of heartbreak. Some symptoms are:

Depression
Anxiety
Compulsive behavior
Fixated on the future or past
Eating disorders
Abuse of drugs/alcohol
Physical symptoms of stress like worry, problems sleeping, unable to focus, hopelessness, low energy, headaches, frequent colds, muscle tension.

We know we’re supposed to eat right, exercise, control our emotions and not get caught up in the daily drama, but it’s hard. One reason is that our minds and emotions are not communicating with each other. The body is not getting the mental message that this difficult situation will pass, and the mind is not hearing the body say it’s scared and needs reassurance. Without healing, the broken heart cannot bridge the gap between what we think and how we feel.

In ancient Greece, the goddess Themis served as a bridge between the older Titans, who were all sound and fury, and the more rational Olympians. The child of Ouranos and Gaia, she represented the heart between spirit and earth, and her ancient function is being remembered today as a symbol of inner healing.

Her image is used as a symbol for justice and appears on the buildings of many courts. She carries the scale of justice and a sword, which reminds us that when justice is not served, there is a price to pay.

To reconcile opposites is to gain wisdom and consciousness. On a conscious level, this means we search for what connects the opposites. Subjectively, we allow ourselves to perceive, without judgment, the feelings and emotions that arise in response to our thoughts and actions.

Instead of listening to the culture or the common wisdom of family, clan, and country, Themis energy points to another way. We can make our own decisions based on discrimination informed by our feelings. Instead of bouncing from mind to emotion, from reason to gut, we can marry these aspects in the heart. We can learn to listen to Psyche, the spirit soul, and to Thymos, the passionate life of the body.

In the west, we have lost the idea of the body having intelligence and the ability to communicate, but new research in neurophysiology presents us with information that echoes the wisdom of Themis.

The Heart Math Institute offers research on how the heart mediates between our minds and emotions and how to reduce stress, gain balance and feel more at one with ourselves.

A great way to start on this journey is to practice a simple technique you can download at Heartmath.org. The Quick Coherence technique for adults is free at this link:

https://www.heartmath.org/resources/heartmath-tools/quick-coherence-technique-for-adults/

In future posts, I’ll be talking about how to make friends with the mind of the body and the practical things you can do to find heart balance. I teach a simple method of using journaling to reach heart integration in my Writing for Healing course which starts on April 18.