Feel Your Body

  Written by Don Shetterly

Okay, the title of that blog post might be raising a few eyebrows and if it is, I'm okay with that.  There is nothing wrong with the statement, and I'm not trying to dupe you into something that is not.  Trust me, the statement "feel your body" is pure, and it is helpful.


Most of us humans go through life not feeling our bodies.  Yes, we think we do, and that we are in touch with it.  Unfortunately, we are very good at fooling ourselves far too often.  I know, no one wants to hear that, but it is true.

There are reasons why we don't completely feel our bodies.  I don't want anyone to be too hard on themselves for not feeling their body because, in many ways, this is part of being human and aware.

Some of the reasons that we do not feel our body include the following:

1. Past experiences.
2. Stress in our lives (whether we create it or it is around us).
3. Physical issues we are struggling with.
4. Diet.
5. The level of exercise and activity.
6. How we learned to deal with stress in life.
7. Trauma.
8. Abuse
9. Rape
10. Childhood Sexual Abuse.
11. Unconsciousness.
12. Numbness.
13. Keeping ourselves busy all the time.
14. Not taking the time to feel.
15. Being afraid to feel.
16. Dealing with an overwhelming life.
17. Dealing with chronic pain.
18. How we connect with the world around us.
19. Immersed in the latest news and issues of the day.
20. Avoidance

These are some of the reasons why we do not feel in our bodies.  With some of these, it is easy to look at and understand.  With some of the other reasons, it may be harder to understand.

When I was working a nonstop schedule of weekly travel and handling 400 to 600 emails a day. plus being the lead tech support person for a project, I found myself feeling almost no pain.  However, even though I didn't feel it, the pain was taking its toll on me through exhaustion.

It was when I finally stopped for a moment that the pain caught up with me, and it was not pretty.  I had suppressed it so much that I didn't feel it.

I'm amazed at what our bodies do to us and for us when we are oblivious to reality.  I saw this play out when Conversion Disorder paralyzed me.  I have observed it play out in other people and at other times in my life.

Recently, I went through some major healing work because anxiety, depression, despair, and pain were getting to be too much for me.  I could hardly go on in life.  I did not realize how painful my hamstring area was until I got in that session and allowed myself to feel.  Of course, the muscles were exhibiting the reactions to trauma from years past, but I was completely oblivious to it.

I see people talk about stress being all in our heads, but that could not be farther from the truth.  Stress is everywhere.  Yes, some don't feel it consciously, but it is there.  Stress impacts us every day, and if we hide from it and ignore it, then it will build up.  As stress continues to build, it will get our attention at some point in life.

If you're going through chronic pain and other conditions, you may be feeling pain but there is so much other stuff that has been blocked. It pushes the limits of pain to levels that are extremely difficult to endure.  It is as if one side of life has been pushed to the max while another side of life has been forgotten and numbed.

Feeling your body can be scary and frightening.  We have plenty of medications and drugs out there to prove this.  There are enough wine, alcohol and OTC pain relievers so help us disconnect and numb from what is going on.

Sometimes past experiences impact us more than we realize, and they start suppressing one side of our body systems while elevating other parts.  The more this happens, the more the fear increases and when it gets to be too much, we are shutting down our connection to what is going on in our bodies.

It is natural for humans to do this.  It is part of our survival mode, but unfortunate the survival mode doesn't get turned off after stress or experiences or past abuse and trauma.  Our brain then gets hijacked by all that happened to us or all that we experience, leaving us as puppets, rather than in control of our lives.

The more we can stop and recognize all of this, the greater the chance we have to overcome so much.  Experiences in life, stress, and trauma that we have endured suppress the healing power we have within us.

Just recognizing this in the mind is not enough.  It is only part of the equation.  We need to go in and feel our bodies.  We need to go in and feel every fiber of every muscle and each cell of every tissue.  It is through that connection to the body that we give ourselves the greatest hope of being more than we are.

The more we feel in the body, the more we can enact change and make better choices for our lives.  If we don't do this, the stress and trauma will take over and leave us as bystanders in our own life.  We have the option to connect more than we do and if we do this, the payoff is far beyond anything you most likely can comprehend in this moment.

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Fear On Autopilot

I see this subject talked about online so much, but yet few too many people fully understand it.  Even,  I consider myself a life long learner when it comes to the subject of fear.  Yet, there is so much more I need to learn to fully understand fear.

We are on autopilot more than we realize with fear.

Fear is insidious.

Fear is clever and crafty.

Fear hides from our awareness and view. 

We may think we see fear and we may connect with some of our fears, but far too much of it goes hidden from our view.  It keeps us blind to that which we cannot see and it keeps us numb and disconnected.

So if fear is on autopilot in our lives, how do we notice it?  How do we go in and deal with it?  How do we become aware of it?

For if you're not aware of something, it is pretty difficult to work on it.  If you're not aware of its existence in your life, why would you even be concerned?

Through much of the deep trauma healing work I've done with Dr. Paul Canali, we've come up on the fear that I often don't realize is there.  It is just too easy to miss it and often like I said, "fear keeps us blind".  Yet, fear controls so much of our lives.

One of the first things we do on the table in a Unified Therapy healing session with Dr. Canali is we are asked to "sense what is going on in our body".  Now, that may sound stupid and simple, but believe me, most of the time we as humans walk our days not fully sensing and feeling - even if we think we do.

When you stop and start to allow your mind to sense, you see so much that you didn't see moments earlier.  Generally, fear will be the next thing you sense, because it wants you to keep your eyes closed to the deeper truths of your life and your own awareness and consciousness.

When you come up on that fear you start to connect with, it almost feels like a gigantic mountain that you can't move.  If you can go into that fear, then you begin to take back its power and see just how much it is physically robbing from you.  Often times, it means doing this with a trusted healer, friend, or therapist that knows how to walk through the fires with you.

If you allow yourself to go through this process of feeling and sensing which leads to discovery, you'll be more amazed at just how much fear takes your life on autopilot without you knowing it is there.  Remember, fear is insidious.  It keeps us blind to that which would take its power away.

The thing is, this is not just a mental exercise.  Yes, you can attempt to program your mind to numb and disconnect from fear, but it only burrows deeper within your mind and body.  It is only when you go in and look at it face to face that you begin the process of reclaiming the power it has stolen from you.

I don't write these things as a mental concept that is unproven.  I write them from my own experiences of healing from trauma.  We are just so alseep in this world and not aware of as much as we think we are.

We have our fears being on autopilot to thank for that.  However, if we choose too, we can go in and take our life back.  It just begins with stopping to sense and feel in our body.

But come here fear.... 

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Dealing With Stress Showing Up In The Body

Note where you may have pain, discomfort or issues happening in the body.  That is the key to dealing with stress showing up in your body along with making the connection to what is happening in life.

The first thing to do when you notice some pain or discomfort is ask this simple question.  What was happening in my life just before this?  Then create a timeline of events.

You don't have to make this a difficult exercise, just go with what comes to your mind in that moment.  Usually the important facts are right on the tip of your tongue.

If you haven't read the other part to this blog post, make sure you read
Where Does Stress Show Up?

If you start to look at what is happening around the time the pain or discomfort is showing up, you might just find a key that helps you interact with your life differently.  Awareness of what is going on helps lead you to the point of making different choices.

Without that knowledge or awareness, you're missing key bits of information that could alter and change your physical reality or even your mental reality.  We can impact our lives so much and our physical bodies even though we forget that we can.

Go in and feel...

When you think you've discovered what the events were that brought on the pain, try to go in and feel that.  Take a look at it.  Is there anything you can change or alter?  Is it trying to show you something?  It it attempting to connect you with something that you need to do differently in life?

Feel and sense the pain in your body while making the connection.  See what movement or connection you can make to help let it go.  Sounds and very slow connected movements can do wonders to help alleviate stress in addition to breath work.

That's the first part and after that, it is up to you in how you proceed with the knowledge and awareness you have.  It is up to you how you find ways to work with letting that physical stress go. We can of course keep beating our head against the proverbial brick wall, but if we understand that we can interact with our own biology, than we're on the road to making positive changes in our life.

Dealing with stress showing up in our body takes us out of numbing and disconnect.  It brings us back into our body where we can interact with it in a much deeper level.  Someone once said, "Know Thyself" and through the body interaction with pain, we will truly begin to know thyself.

Unfortunately most of us go on autopilot every day of our life trying to get from one activity to the next, one job task to the next and ignoring the greater parts of our life.  If we just stop and notice at some point during our day, we could alleviate much of our suffering.  Numbing and disconnect gets us nowhere, but as humans we tend to keep repeating that which does not work.

This is not just a mental exercise of thoughts and thinking positive.  This is learning to interact with not only our thoughts, but their connection in the body.  If you stop and notice and observe, you will see them, but if you only focus on the mental aspect, you will miss half the healing that is readily available.

It is truly up to us what we allow ourselves to do and how we interact with our biology.  We make the choice.  We can choose to avoid it or we can choose to go in and take a look, thereby giving us a greater awareness of the body we inhabit.

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Where Does Your Stress Show Up

We all have stress.  Unless you're superman or Jesus or someone that is no longer alive, we all have stress.  Yes, there can be good and bad stress, but I'm talking about some of the normal stress we experience in our life.

For each of us, stress shows up differently and in different parts of our body.  No two people are alike, although there are similarities between one human to another.

Here's a little secret that you might not be aware of while we're talking about stress showing up in the body.  If you get real busy and have yourself burning the candle at both ends, there's a good chance you won't feel the stress in your body.  Your body just automatically numbs and disconnects from the stress.

As humans, we are good at numbing and disconnecting.  Imagine if a doctor had to work a 48 hour shift in an emergency room, but could not do it because he was feeling stressed out in his body.  In that case, numbing and disconnecting would be a good thing.  Yet, like the doctor, we all do this and when our 48 hours shift is over (if it ever is), we forget that it is time to feel.

Or what if you had to get to your job, take care of your kids and care for someone that is elderly.  Most likely, you wouldn't have time to feel pains and illness in your own body.  You would numb and disconnect from it in order to function.  Yet, when we need to do this we forget to stop and reconnect with the stress in our body to let it go.

When stress in my body kicks up....

For me, I feel stress in a couple of places, but sometimes it shifts to other places in my body.  I'll really feel it in my neck and shoulders at times.  Boy, when that kicks up, I feel like punching things and some days that really gets painful.

I've also had times where it shows up in my low back or comes on as a headache.  There are many different ways it shows up including sometimes causing digestive issues and stomach pain.

Yes, there are some that say if this part of our body hurts, it means x, y, and z.  While it may be connected to that and I don't discount that it is, you have to be careful that as the observer, you don't impact the observation.  Sometimes simplifying life down to these little "facts" becomes more detrimental than helpful.

There are a couple of very good books on the subject.  One is by Dr. John Sarno, The Mind Body Prescription.  The other book is by Dr. Peter Levine, Freedom From Pain.

I remember doing chair massage in an office one time and one of the people would complain of constant low back pain.  Sure, I could have applied the simple truth to why she had backpain because it was something in her life causing it.  However, I would just observe her at her desk.

I noticed that she had the computer monitor to the right on her L-shaped desk and her keyboard to the left.  She was constantly twisting her body all day long, but was not aware of it.  Once I pointed it out, she relocated stuff on her desk.  He body physically changed as a result. Before this, you could physically tell the spine was twisted and after it, the spine straightened out more.

Sometimes we have feet issues and there are many times that when you see feet pain come up, the individual is struggling with where to go in life.  They are having difficulty finding the right steps in their life.  Now, it may not have to mean something as simplified as what I just made it, but I've seen this show up many times.

For me, when frustration hits me and I'm struggling to figure out what is going on, I feel it in my body as if someone was punching me.  Often I've been told that I beat myself up seeking perfection in what I do.  Many times I have to stop and realize that if I just give myself a break and quit beating myself up, my body feels better.

There is a word for converting stress into physical symptoms and that is called somatization.  Yes, you can literally create pain and illness in your body by allowing the stress to continue. We do this to ourselves while hardly recognizing that we are doing it.

So instead of trying to apply facts that other people come up with to explain pain, go in and become acquainted with who you truly are and observe what is going on.  When you feel the pain in your own body and connect to it, you're really given yourself some good information that is very useful in life.

The next blog post on March 16, 2017 will tell you more about how to deal with stress showing up in the body. Make sure you read Dealing With Stress Showing Up In Your Body.

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Tomato Plants Teach About Stress

I've been trying to do something I've never done and finding out this is a learning process.  This is the first time that I've tried to grow tomato seedlings from little seeds.  I really had no clue how to do this and so I just jumped in with both feet.  Of course, the tomato plants are teaching me well!

Since I am growing them close to where I work in my home office, I keep a constant eye on them.  While they were doing quite well, I've been noticing that they aren't able to stand straight up as they grow taller.  At first, I thought they were just stretching for the light, but today I noticed that it was more than that.

Going to google and doing a search, I started to see conversations about plants doing "legging" as they called it.  If a plant was not getting enough sunlight, they would tend to grow taller and move anyway they could towards the light.  I believe that is what is going on with my plants and right now, I've got them outside on the patio getting as much sunlight as they so desire.

It got me thinking though about stress.  Here is an opportunity for me to learn as the tomato plants teach me about stress.

Of course, we may not always recognize how much stress a plant goes through, but in this case, I think not having enough sunshine or light is stressful on the plant.  The plants need water, food, and sunlight to grow.  When one of those is not in enough supply, it creates stress on the plant.

We don't fully see stress...

As I apply this to the mind body, if we have stress in our day which most of us do, it has an impact upon us.  Often we don't fully see the stress and often we are so numb and disconnected that even if the stress is pointed out, we never see it.

To me, at its basic level, stress is the result of not having what you need at that moment even if it is a perceived lack of something.  In this case of the tomato plants, it is the lack of light or sunshine.  I realize, this is greatly simplifying what stress is, but I think it is at the essence of it.  To fully describe it, would take another blog post.

It doesn't necessarily mean someone or something is bad to you, but that in its basic form, what is needed is just not available.

We overcompensate for stress..

In this case, the tomato plants try to overcompensate by growing in different directions and trying to grow taller as if to get more daylight.  We too, as humans, do the same thing.  We overcompensate every day by numbing, disconnecting and doing things that take us away from our mind body connection.

The way for us humans to come back is by stopping and observing the felt sense of our body and where we are.  It is about stopping to feel what we know in our minds with where we feel that sensation within our body.  It is about stopping to feel a sensation in our body and then allow it to connect with our mind through the felt sense.

Make changes to find balance...

I know that stress is often perceived as something that is bad or you are weak if you are stressed.  I've heard all of it in life.  If we look at stress as being something that we either perceive to not have in this moment or are lacking in our life, than the corrective action would be to make changes to balance this back to normal.

I know, it is easier said than done to do this, but I think if we alter how we perceive stress and if we actually recognize it, we've taken major steps to bring our mind and body back into balance.

To live in a day has stress present.  I'm not sure you can get through a day without some type of stressor upon your life.  Even the smallest of stressors still impact us and if we let those continue, the compensation behaviors we do often build up and come back to bite us in the butt!

Work to identify the stressors in your day and allow yourself to recognize them.  Next, stop and observe what you feel in the body and then allow your mind to connect those things together.  The more you can do this, the more your nervous system stays in balance and there is more resiliency in your nervous system for the larger things that show up in a day.

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Are You On Autopilot

Many of us, if not all, go through our days on autopilot.  We function in regards to the tasks we need to do, the stresses we face and all the baggage we lug along with us every moment.  We've got our responsibilities and duties that demand our time and attention.

So, what consumes your thoughts in a day? 

Are you on autopilot?

Unless you live in a situation where all your needs are met 100% of the day and you have no responsibilities, you are living on autopilot at some point during your day.  How much of the day that takes up varies from one person to another and how busy our life gets.

It is human nature to stay on autopilot.  You would not be able to take care of everything in your day if you were thinking how the sun felt upon your face or how pretty the birds and flowers were.  You would fall behind quickly.

We stay on autopilot...

Unfortunately, we stay on autopilot and then autopilot takes over our life.  It consumes us in ways that we don't even see.  We become unconscious to the effects and its control.  We just continue day in and day out, not seeing anything beyond autopilot.

It is helpful if we can stop and take ourselves off of autopilot.  Noticing the things around us, including the sun, clouds, birds, flowers and trees will go a long ways to pulling us back into a grounded life.  If we just stay in the tasks and responsibilities of our day, we're only causing great pain and discomfort in our lives.

Take a moment...

Take a moment right now and walk outside the door.  See if you can hear the birds or maybe the wind flow gently through the trees.  Maybe you can notice the color of the grass and how it changes from place to place on the ground.  Maybe you can notice how the air feels or the sun feels on your skin and body.  The more you can see and observe this, the more you know you're connected to this moment right now.

Take a moment right now and feel how your breath rises and falls or the speed of the inhalation and exhalation.  Can you impact your breath rate?  Can you change the deepness or shallowness of it?  See how much you can feel and know that the more you can feel it, the more grounded you become.

When we can stop and sense or see and feel in our body, it is then that we have come back home.  It is then that we are no longer on autopilot, but secured in the moment of now and the experience of being alive.  It is in this moment that we are one with ours self, not disconnected and distracted by the thoughts and fears of the day.

Stay on autopilot when you need to get the tasks done in your day, but don't forget during the day to come back home in your body and feel alive.  Don't forget to honor and respect yourself by taking care of your life, not just living on autopilot.

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Numbed Pain

If you're one of those people that deal with chronic pain, this post does not necessarily apply to you.  It is something different that I am talking about here than chronic pain where you hurt day in and day out.

What I am talking about is pain that we numb or what I referred to in the title as Numbed Pain. It is the pain that we avoid and disconnect from.  It is our busy days that keep us from feeling the pain in our body.

Yes, we do numb our pain.  We go through our days of stress and nonstop activity, oblivious to the pain and messages that our body is using to get our attention.  We often don't want to face the pain, so we stuff it down and hide it.

When I was traveling every week, my life was on constant go from one city to the next with very little rest or downtime.  When my head hit the pillow in a hotel room of a strange city, that's when I had the chance to rest.   Crossing one time zone after another and sleeping in one strange place to another, I didn't know what rest was.

In addition, I spent most of my waking hours either on the phone being the main support contact or answering emails or planning the next training session.  There was no downtime.  My body didn't have time to feel all the pains and stresses and issues in the tissues.  I automatically and subconsciously avoided it.  I numbed out to the pain.  I disconnected from it.

Avoided the pain but it impacted my body...

The thing is, even though I was avoiding and numbing the pain, it was still impacting my body.  I just didn't realize it nor could I see it.  It wasn't until after I quit the job and had massive amounts of downtime that I really started to see just how much of a toll it took on my body.

It is human to numb and avoid, but the more we do this, the more we miss critical notices from our body of what is truly happening in the body and the mind.  The more we don't feel what is happening, the more stress and issues we are storing within the cellular components of our body.  These things rob us of precious energy and strength.  These things rob us of peace in our life.

Oblivious to numbed pain...

All too often we are oblivious to numbed pain.  We have been successful at avoiding it and now it is like we are complete strangers speaking two different languages.  All the while, it is impacting us in very real biological ways.

If we continue down this road, it will get our attention at some point.  We may be able to hide from it, evade it and ignore it.  Sooner or later, it will catch up to us and the likes of it will not be pretty.

I'm not speaking from some new age concept here.  I'm speaking from experience because I almost lost my life many years ago from numbing the pain.  I ignored it and didn't deal with the stresses and trauma I had experienced in life.  It showed up as Conversion Disorder after some other events became the catalyst that formed paralysis and a near death experience.

I'm not saying that I'm perfect and have learned my lesson well on avoiding and disconnecting from numbed pain.  However, I have done a tremendous amount of work on myself to free myself from the chains of trauma and stress.  It is through this physical and biological healing work that I've learned how to transform this into a life I never thought possible.

The thing is that any of us can keep avoiding the pain and not feeling it.  The more we do of it, the more chronic it becomes.  The more we continue to avoid it, the more it begins to work harder to get our attention.  If we continue down this path, the brain will do all it can to keep us alive but other physical realities of our bodies and minds may become nothing more than dead weight.

It is up to each one of us how we choose our life and what we allow ourselves to become aware of each day.  If we allow pain to be numbed, we will be sentencing our life to great difficulty.  You may be getting away with it at the moment, but just how much longer before your luck runs out and you pass the point of no return?

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Connect To The Subconscious Mind

This is something that crosses all paths in life.  It is not just one concept, but a foundational concept on which it can be used and applied in many different ways.  Connecting to the subconscious mind is something that the body and the mind can be trained to do.

In the early days of healing when you have a great amount of stress and past experiences or trauma built up, connecting with the subconscious mind may not be easy.  It may very likely a big challenge to do this.  After being put under great duress for long periods of time, the mind and body don't trust anything you would do to upset the delicate balance these struggles have created.

Be patient with yourself if you are attempting to do this for the first time.  It may take some time of working with it and it may take someone that is trained in this area to help. If you've been running from the tiger in the jungle, it isn't going to be easy to convince yourself that you are no longer running.  This is at the heart of connecting to the subconscious mind.

Connecting to the subconscious mind is allowing yourself a safe place without distraction to just stop.  Stopping from the hustle of your day and allowing yourself to go in and feel.  Allowing yourself to go in and sense.  Allowing yourself to just be in that moment with nothing else that matters.

While you  may think that this is meditation, it is similar but different.  Meditation helps you to turn off your mind and just be in the moment.  However, what I am discussing is that when you do this, you do it through your senses.

What do I mean, do it through your senses?

As you begin to just stop and be in the moment, ponder or ask yourself,

• What do I notice in my body?  
• What do I sense?  
• What do I feel?"  

You are focusing on what you sense and feel, but you're not trying to make sense of it.  You're just observing it.  You are noticing it.  You are inviting it in and asking what is there.

Senses can be anywhere from what you feel in your skin, muscles, or tissues to noticing a smell or a feeling of warmth or coldness.  It can be noticing how much your breath is holding back or how shallow it may to even how deep it is.  Anything you can sense is valid here.  There is no right and no wrong observations.

Observe and Stay with your senses...

The more you observe the sensations, the more they may intensify.  This may be the point where you need a safe person trained in these concepts to help be there with you, holding the space and safety for you to explore these new things.

The more you can stay with these sensations and just observe them, the more they have the potential to physically change in that moment.  Allowing and surrendering to these things, gives you the power to connect and reclaim the parts that have become disconnected.  As you do this, you reclaim the energy that is stored up in these areas which is robbing you of much needed daily strength and a deep sense of peace.

Use breath, sound, movement

Often, it helps to use your breath to work through these moments, along with sounds and movements.  These aren't wild movements or sounds or breaths, but connected where it is like you are using them to observe that which you are feeling.  I always look at it as if I am using a magnifying glass to observe and the way I do this is through connected movement, sounds, and breathing.

The process is more involved then the simplistic way I am describing it.  I'm just trying to lay the foundation to more fully understand that there is a way to connect with your subconscious mind.  The more you do it, the more you reclaim the disconnected parts of your life.

Not just a mental exercise...

This is not just a mental exercise.  It is an exercise that is very body oriented where you connected with the subconscious mind.  It is very physical, but not in the sense that we normally understand.  It is physical because you are using your senses and observation to connect with something much deeper and greater within your mind and body.

You are not trying to put the reason you think these sensations show up.  Don't make the mistake of thinking that if you pain in one area it means x,y,z because you will limit this experience.  You will be connected to your thoughts rather to the felt sense within you.  It will not get you to the point you need to go in order to connect with the subconscious. There may be a story that evolves from this experience, but it is not the focus of what you are trying to do.  You're trying to step out of your logical mind and feel and sense.

A very powerful healing concept...

The power of this concept once you learn and understand it is beyond comprehension.  I've seen very physical issues in my own body change and heal right before my eyes.  I have seen this happen in other people in some very real ways that would almost be too hard to believe if you had not seen them.

The subconscious mind is a powerful force that tries to keep us operating in life even when we throw so much stress and trauma at it.  However, if we avoid and disconnect from it and numb our self to it, we make it that much harder to connect to it.  By avoidance and disconnection, we sentence our life to struggles that work hard to take us under.  The more you avoid something, the stronger that reaction becomes in your mind and body.

I'm not sharing pie-in-the-sky concepts.  These are truths that I have discovered through the work of Dr. Paul Canali and Unified Therapy.  I have seen how these things have impacted me in some very powerful and life-changing ways.

If we all can begin to understand just how much we avoid and numb and disconnect in our day, we have the possibility to make a different choice of what we do.  It is through the felt sense and stopping to notice and observe that we offer ourselves the greatest healing power.  This is not new age mumbo jumbo.  This is real healing work that makes a difference.

Further Reading:

1. When A Subconscious Mind Is Exposed (Sep 13, 2016)
2. Subconscious Mind Impacted By Past Experiences (Sep 14, 2016)
3. Subconscious Disconnected By Numbing (Sep 15, 2016)
4. Connect To The Subconscious Mind (Sep 16, 2016)

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Being Highly Sensitive and Energetic Boundaries

A friend of mine on twitter asked me a question today and I thought it was something worthy of a blog post.  Sometimes on twitter, 140 characters is not enough to even begin answering anything.

The question was:  "Do you find energetic boundary setting helps with the amount of energy you receive?"

@mindbodythought nice post! Do you find energetic boundary setting helps with the amount of energy you receive (bubble meditation etc)?

— Metaphysicalmusings (@talking2spirits) July 9, 2016

I know many people promote the idea of bathing yourself in white light and making a bubble that surrounds you to keep out unwanted energy.  I believe that is essentially what my friend is asking and so I'll share with you what I do.  By no means am I a master of this because I still struggle with it just like everyone else does.

A very wise teacher once cautioned me against trying to limit the energy I picked up or wrapping myself in a bubble or a white light.  Now, I'm sure for those who have been taught to do this, I'm probably contradicting your beliefs and insights.  That's okay with me if you think my way is incorrect.  I have to do what works for me.

For me, I pick up a ton of stuff when I'm around people.  Granted, I try to throttle this down a little, because I don't need to be inundated with things that I can do nothing about or have no way to impact.  For a long time I didn't understand how to do this and I still struggle a little with it, but it is kind of like turning down the volume knob on a radio.  You can still hear the radio, but it is a much lower volume.

When I'm working with someone, I turn it all the way up using my mind to do this.  I want to sense and see and feel everything I can with someone because those inputs usually are my guiding lights to see where I need to go.  Without these inputs, I would be dead in the water.

Often if I'm working on people or with people, its almost like I feel their pain in my body.  I've had countless people surprised and shocked that somehow I know their pain in an area is gone.  It is because I literally feel that pain in my own body and so when it goes away, I know it is gone.  Again, it guides me into the areas I need to focus on.

If I tried to dial all that back and block it by wrapping myself in white light or using a bubble concept, I don't think I would feel and sense all that I needed to in order to help others.  I think it would diminish this greatly.  In fact, I don't just think - I know from experience it does diminish what I sense and feel.

Yes, I know there is negative and bad energy out there.  It is everywhere and these days, you can find it online through social media as much as you can by interacting physically with someone.  The way I deal with this is that I know I am protected and guided by something much greater than myself or the negative energy that is around me.  I feel secure with that knowledge and I always ask for help and guidance.

A very important part of this is that I've done a tremendous amount of work on myself and I continue to do this every day.  I do not settle for where I'm at, but where I can go.  As a result, I've managed to connect with a high vibration that sort of keeps me above the fray, especially when I'm working with others.  It is this intense deep work that has helped me unshackle some of the things that normally hold us down and diminish our vibration.

I just want to be there for all people in the best way that I can and for me, if I hold back or filter out all that could come my way, then I feel like I'm not doing what I need to do.  I personally feel from what I've seen that if I filter things out, I miss some of the clues I need.  I know I'm protected and I embrace this part of me.

If I find I've been triggered or I pick something up, then I have people that I go to who can help balance that back out so I can let it go.  Triggers are a good way for me to go deeper into my own healing and awareness, even if they make things uncomfortable at times.  In these moments, I see opportunities with people because I believe the things we need to grow in life from, are often introduced by the people we come in contact with every day.

A good video on Emotional Fitness is an interview that Jim Fazio did with Dr. Paul Canali.  It is up on YouTube and you can click on the image below to view it.

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Feel To Heal

So often we do exactly the opposite of what we need to do to heal our body and our mind.  We shut down and numb to everything going on.  In order to heal, we must feel.  When you feel, you heal.

Honestly, that's one of the major truths in life and it isn't because I'm writing a fancy slogan.  Numbing out is a way of disconnecting from all that is going on.  Feeling is a way of listening to the messages of your body and your mind.

Numbing takes you further into despair and pain and illness.  Feeling takes you out of those things.  Yes, I know that in order to feel, you will need to go in and confront the ugliest parts of life.  Its a built in biological mechanism that is truly there for us.

If we were feeling, we would see that there is so much that we have numbed in our body.  In fact, most of the time we are so numb, we can't even being to see this.  It is when you stop and listen and sense, that you will be able to see this.

Observing Stress In My Body

If you sit back and see the bigger picture, it is amazing sometimes what you see and observe.  Observing stress in my body is an eye opening practice.  If you look closely at it from the eye of an observer, you'll see things in ways that you have never seen.

As I write this, I've been under tremendous amounts of stress almost every hour of the day and its gone on for some time.  It isn't easy.  I'm trying to deal with it and cope with it.  I'm trying to find an exit strategy that allows me to be okay with it or make an exit from it.

Observing stress in my body allows me to not only see how it impacts tension in my body, but every cell and fiber.  In fact, the other day I had a wake-up call because as I was experiencing an extremely difficult moment of stress, I could feel something in my body unlike anything I have before.  It was a rare moment and I could feel it all the way to my core.

Feeling Overwhelming Stress In The Body

Yep, its there!  Yep, I can feel it.  Sure, we all think we can really feel what is going on in the body at times, but most of the time were actually pretty numb.  I've been doing some special therapy to help me get through this overwhelming stressful moments in life right now, and believe me I'm really feeling it in my body.

Feeling the stress in my body isn't easy.  It is intense.  It is overwhelming at times.  It is more than I care to experience some days.  There is no mistaking it.  There is no escaping it.  I really feel it.

Today as the chaos struck and went on for hour after hour in a nonstop fashion, I felt my breathing change. I felt my body tense up.  I felt the exhaustion and fatigue set in.  There were moments where every fiber of my being was withdrawn and trying to survive.  I literally felt all of this in the most magnified way I ever have.

Overwhelmed By All That I Sense

Some days I get really tired of it.  I pick up way too much from others whether it is reading words online or being in close proximity to another person.  I see what isn't written, and I feel what they are feeling.  I see what lies behind the body expressions or the words that are spoken and the sounds I hear.  To me, it is all just a normal part of life I deal with and often exhausts me.

Yes, I'm learning how to dial it down, but I still feel the energy and feelings that surround me.  It is like everyone walks around with this big bubble of stuff on the outside and in that it is filled with so much information about them.  That's the part I pick up constantly.  It is no different for me, then looking at someone and seeing what color hair they have, or the colors they are wearing or any other thing you may notice in someone.

Living As A Highly Sensitive Person

For those who aren't in touch with their emotions, this may or may not mean much to you.  However, I would hope that you will read this so you can understand more what highly sensitive people deal with in a day.  Everyone interacts with sensitive people each day of their life.  The more you know about how they operate, the more you can function more effectively in this world.

As I have written before, I am one of these highly sensitive people.  I sense, pick up, and connect with so much that I even have a difficult time making sense of it.  In fact, I am sometimes not even aware of all that I pick up, but I feel it all the way to my bone.  Some days it helps me greatly and other days it is pure hell to deal with in life.

For instance, when I walk into a building and/or office, I can sense an energy or a feel to the place.  Within moments, I get a generalized sense of many characteristics of that building and/or office.  It isn't just the decor or interior decorating.  It isn't just the pleasantness of the receptionist or the cold hard stares.  It is much more than that and I base all of my reactions in regards to what my senses tell me.

Another case where this comes into play is in a sense of knowing that certain events may take place.  I'm not talking about being psychic here, although many may claim it is and they may be right.  I'm talking about a sense of knowing that things aren't going to go the way everyone intends or that things aren't quite right.  Recently, I went to a potential job site the night before so I could make sure I would be able to find the building.  When I arrived at the building, I instantly knew that this was not the place for the job, but had no way to verify it.  Sure enough, the next day my intuition and gut sense feeling was spot on.

Just Get Over It

I'm sure we have heard the following phrase at some point in our life whether it was at home in our family growing up, or in society through our job or social contacts.  If you haven't heard the phrase, "Just get over it", then you're one of the lucky few.

All too often when people go through extraordinary circumstances that are challenging, it isn't easy to move past those moments.  It takes time and it takes a lot of courage to get your life back.  Unfortunately people who are triggered by the stories of others or are just oblivious to what another person is going through, comes out in the way of this very insensitive remark, just get over it!

When confronted with threats and traumatic experiences, animals have the ability to fight back or escape whereas humans usually cannot do this.  In our civilized society, we are taught that we just move on in life after some experience has taken place and stuff our feelings and emotions deep inside of us.  If you're a male in our society, I think it is more difficult because men are supposed to be in control, show little emotion and just be strong.  To be seen in any other way is to be considered weak.  I'm sure females have similar experiences, but since I'm not female I cannot speak to that consideration.

How You Make The Horse Feel

From Buck's Facebook Page: 

The horse is a great equalizer, he doesn't care how good looking you are, or how rich you are or how powerful you are-- he takes you for how you make him feel. - Buck Brannaman

Stop, Sense and Feel

One of the most healthiest things we can do for our mind and body is very simple.  It doesn't take more than a minute to do and you can do it at any time, any place or in a crowd of people.  Here's the phrase to help you.  Stop, Sense and Feel.  Yes, that's it!

If you take a moment in your busy day and just stop, allowing yourself to sense and feel, you will be amazed at just how much more healthy your mind and body can become.  It really isn't that hard.  It seems simple, but yet it is profound.

Of course, don't take my word for it.  Try it in your day and see what happens!

Do Plants See, Feel, Smell And Think

Everyone thinks of animals and humans as being the highest of life forms.  We often see them as the only entities in our world that can see, feel, smell and think.  However, according to researcher and author, Daniel Chamovitz, plants are much more than we currently realize.

Daniel is the author of the book, What A Plant Knows.

Through his initial work he discovered that an unique group of genes in plants also could be found in the animal world.  This group of genes had much to do with how plants grow and determine lightness or darkness.  The same set of genes is also a part of human DNA.

Daniel Chamovitz goes on to share how plants have a sense of smell, but not necessarily in the same function as humans or animals do.  It is more like a receptivity to chemicals or pheromone, rather than as something we react to as humans.

Wake Up Documentary And My Experiences

Wake Up - The Film
Jonas Elrod

A new documentary hitting the TV was on the OWN network recently.  Oprah interviewed the creator of the film, Jonas Elrod, about his experiences before allowing everyone to view the film on the Super Soul Sunday program.  This is a real life documentary of Jonas Elrod regarding an experience that happened to him and still continues to this day.  While I'm sure there are many that would look at this film with complete skepticism, I would urge everyone to keep an open mind and see what you can learn.

There are things out there that exist and take place which we may not be able to see at this point in our life or in our day.  We often live in our own little world, oblivious to what is around us.  Sometimes our awareness and consciousness is so limited that it could be contained in a small storage jar.  Just because we cannot see something or we don't think it exists, gives no credible evidence that we are correct.

In this movie, Wake Up, Jonas Elrod recounts and shows his experience of going from an every day person to one seeing auras, shapes, demonic type things, angels, spirits, etc.  Jonas was not a spiritual and religious person, but just a regular guy working in a regular job trying to make his way in life.  To view more information about the movie, click this link.

The movie really resonates with me because I've had similar experiences.  It is important to note, that I do not get the full detail like Jonas does, but I have seen and sensed some of these things in dramatic ways.  I'm sure if I saw all of these things at once, I'd probably freak out and hide, much like Jonas most likely wanted to do.

Letting Go Of Painful Moments

It seems like there are so many times in our life where we suffer through loss, disappointment, neglect and hurt at the hands of other people. If you are highly sensitive like I am, these moments can almost be devastating to deal with. I wish I was like others at times that seem to just let these moments wash off their back. Unfortunately, my highly sensitive nature makes it much more difficult.

Recently, I've felt the neglect and hurt in my life as some either seemed to have abused and used me or they just felt that I wasn't worth their time anymore. Talk about a knife being stabbed into the heart, that is what it felt like. It hurts more than I want to let on at times and there are moments where I just want to cry forever.

Through all of this, I've dealt with anxiety, nervousness, tension and depression. I don't let go easily and when the pain comes along, I hurt all the way through every muscle fiber of my body. Yet, somehow, I keep going. I don't know how, but I do. That is most likely a good thing because if I acted upon the despair, it would not be pretty.

The one thing I have learned though, is to just let myself feel the pain, the hurt, and all the other emotions that are coming up. If I try to stop them or alter them in any way, they just find another way to show up. The more I just allow myself to be in the moment, feeling all that is going on in my heart, the more I know I'll come through this. Yes, it gets dicey at times to feel this, but somehow, I seem to find the strength to go on.

While forgiveness is not an easy concept for me, I do find that the more I focus on forgiving the person(s) for what they did to me, the more I can let go. Yet, to let go, I have to feel all the emotions and that is the difficult part. I wish it was easier but then if I felt nothing in all of this, would I be human?

I can't help but think of Oriah Mountain Dreamer's poem, "The Invitation" which means so much to me. The following part of her poem is the one that speaks the loudest right now during this time. I'll leave you with this quote from her book.

From Page 2, The Invitation (by Oriah Mountain Dreamer)
It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

Further Reading:
1) Holding On And Not Letting Go
2) Get Over It


Blog Post & Images (c) 4/24/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com