Living Energy Blog

“Fear constitutes a much larger and more comprehensive presence than has yet been realized. Beginning in the nineteenth century, therapeutic psychology sought to identify the symptoms related to this phenomenon. The types of fear recognized included hysteria, behind which some trauma, real or imaged, was always to be found; shell shock or combat neurosis, now commonly called post-traumatic stress syndrome, which was first investigated after World War I; abuse and domestic violence; fear of natural catastrophes such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, or fire; individual phobias such as panic attacks, anxieties, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. 

The reality of fear is far more wide-ranging, however. Working with victims of trauma does little to impede the larger presence of fear in the world. The goal is to become more conscious of what we are dealing with and to recognize that different fears require different capacity of soul to overcome them. The need is not to remove fear from the world, but instead to develop in ourselves the psychic capacity to confront its destructive power. In this realm, consciousness, coupled with love, is everything. Enlarging consciousness to include an awareness of soul allows a healthy struggle with fear, and love makes possible its transformation, not just within ourselves but also within the world.” Robert Sardello, Freeing the Soul From Fear

Training ourselves to release fear and choosing to feel love more often—instead–helps to attune our energy to more of what we DO want to experience. 

A great take-away message from Carolyn Myss re: not only how to heal but also for how we all can bring more good into our lives:

http://www.thebalancingact.com/story/?id=2075

What is mindfulness? How does a mindful approach help with stress? How do you learn to adopt this method to your circumstances in order to decrease stress and avoid burnout? Living Energy Works presents the Caregiver Corner Radio Show featuring Karen Kallie, Peg Donahue and Tony Pace in an in-depth discussion on aspects concerning the Caregiver and their well being. Join us as we explore the topic of Mindfulness and it’s value in caregiving.

There are many ways to reduce and manage stress. I find it gets exhausting if I am always focused on trying to fight it, or conquor it.  A very powerful approach that has really helped me to have a healthier attitude and approach to stress is to side step the idea of combating it and rather learn ways to open to a fundamental flow of creative energy and develop it. This provides a deep well spring from which to engage and build on practices that are more life enhancing and revitalizing.

The I Ching, the oldest book of China, of the Book of Change gives us some guidance regarding this approach.  The I Ching is an observation of human behavior and the constantly changing structure of the universe.  It is about the way things are at the moment and the way that they tend to change and transform themselves.  A basic premise is that there are no isolated actions.  Every action has a reaction and every thing affects every other thingin a synchronistic manner.  The observation of patterns in nature can help us adopt an attitude of flow in order to move more gracefully, consciously and purposefully through change and challenging times.

 Sixty-four different life situations (also called hexagrams) are highlighted in the I Ching.  The first of these is called The Creative.  It is about how worthwhile goals will meet with success.  When you use your inspiration, energy, will and personal strength — your Creative Power —  you can catapult yourself into new situations and use your opportunities to your best advantage.  The Creative is a time when personal growth is accelerated.  You focus and become aware of the situations around you. You learn when to act and when not to act.  It is a time when people may look to you for leadership.  You act for your highest good and you meet with success.

 You can make room for the energy referred to as The Creativeto develop within you and learn to live more from this place rather than being in a combative relationship with life and its stress.

 How? More on this tomorrow!

Resources:

Crown chakra guided meditation now on YouTube

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As some of you are aware, over the past decade Tony, Peg and I have all been immersed in the experience of being caregivers for aging parents and relatives. These experiences have challenged us,  stretched us to grow in unexpected ways and moved us deeply in terms of what it means to be a spiritual being  living a very human life. We found that the Living Energy approach that we were teaching and writing about helped us navigate the difficult passages with more ease, grace and sanity than otherwise may have been the case. Hence we have turned our focus to bringing the tools and techniques embodied in the Living Energy work to the world of caregiving.

My own personal experience through this life stage (caring for elderly parents) has been long and strange. As a nurse and psychotherapist I had dealt with people facing illness and end of life issues many times. Without consciously thinking about it I had “learned” that there was a pattern–or a few patterns–that the experience tended to follow. But when it came my turn to deal with such an experience personally nothing followed the norm that I had unconsciously come to expect. I wish I had known a lot of things that I did not. I wish there had been guidance and support that would have helped me not get caught in unimportant places. I wish there had been help to point me to the growing edges of consciousness that would have smoothed out the bumps.

All those things were available in some ways but I had to search. Fortunately it is one of my coping mechanism to search! So it has actually turned into a  deeply expansive time for my entire being. I suspect this process could have been more graceful with fewer bumps if there had been a different kind of preparation and expectation, if there had been a different kind of guidance available when it got weird, surprising and unpredictable! But ultimately that is okay because it led me to a commitment to helping others learn as much as they could about this time of life –practically, emotionally and spiritually—to help them learn to dive deep to find the inner resources to strengthen and support them so that it could become a life enhancing (although often painful) experience rather than a soul deadening one.

So with all that in  mind…here is an excellent article on conversations that it is important to have when aging, serious illness and death edge more fully into your life. There are so many more details and nuances to these conversations than the ultimate one of whether someone wants to be kept alive by mechanical means. These things are difficult to address upfront but in the long run they smooth out the bumps so you can manage this journey a bit more easily.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/02/100802fa_fact_gawande

The key to living well through times of change and uncertainty is to take personal responsibility for your “self” care.

Prolonged stress leads to anger, depression, anxiety and illness.  The more responsibility you take for yourself, the more easily you are able to navigate the roads of change.

  What is optimal “self” care and how can you practice it?

Self care requires truly understanding yourself from the inside out and balancing the needs of your body, mind and spirit.   It involves taking time to nourish yourself every day and knowing your trigger points.  Once you are aware of different stressors that impact you, you can learn tools, techniques and resources to draw on whenever needed.

Monday, July 19, 2010 at 10 A.M. on Caregiver Corner we will be talking about how to manage the negative emotions that can arise during the caregiver experience. What are these emotions, where do they come from and what can you do about them?

Researchers are reporting that it seems that the heart has a mind of its own and is a major factor in how we perceive and respond to the world. The heart has been found to be a very complex processing center that doesn’t just receive information from the brain…it is often the originator of information with the brain being the second responder! In any case it is clear that these two are in a very intricate two way conversation and we can benefit from knowing how to participate!

 Everyone knows that when they are in love their basic immunity is enhanced and they seem to be able to handle life with more grace and self-confidence. Research is documenting the why and how of this which is fascinating but there is even better news…we do not have to wait for these experiences to hit us out of the blue. We can create the feelings from within with the choice to let go of negativity and replace it with the feelings that we do want. We have within us the power to create profound change from deep within ourselves with some very simple techniques.

 Emotional Self Mastery

Our emotions are very real energies that move through us. If we do not manage them, they will manage us. They do not disappear if we ignore them…they merely go underground to erode our systems and wreak havoc with our health at a later time. Time only heals if we engage in a process that helps heal within that time. We are human and so hardwired to feel. The point is to have methods that allow us to be in charge and able to transform our emotions so we do not become helpless victims of them.

A very helpful process is to notice when you are focused on a negative feeling. Stop the action in whatever way you can…imagine a huge red stop sign in your head, imagine hitting the pause button on your remote control, say ‘stop’ to yourself. Then use a memory or your imagination to get in touch with feelings of appreciation, gratitude or unconditional love. Feel as though you can breathe those feelings in and out through your heart. Keep doing this until you have shifted your emotional focus. Then see if you can adopt a feeling of ease in maintaining it. Remember this is a skill, so practice is the key.

 Conscious ‘control’ of your breath can help no matter what tools you are using to transform emotional states. Conscious breathing can help you to create new patterns and healthier ways of thinking and feeling.  Breathing deeply and fully begins to put you in touch with deeper levels, your core, your “self,” your inner being.  It strengthens your center of personal power.  It helps to slow you down and makes you aware of what is occurring both within and around you.  It tunes you in to your environment and your internal processes and places you in a position to make conscious choices … choices that support your efforts in life.

 All of these suggestions will help to boost your vitality, help you create more inner ease, feel less stress, and positively affect your energy field by bringing it into a more coherent state. A coherent energy field is associated with greater ability to create, improved health, reduced stress, enhanced ability to concentrate, and greater access to intuitive and spiritual experiences.