Seeing The Good In Mental Health Issues

By Don Shetterly

One of the things that I think depression and trauma do is alter the reality of how we perceive life.  Seeing the bad and the horror becomes commonplace.  Only seeing the struggle is what many do every day.

There are many that will sing the praises of happy thoughts or religious beliefs hoping to delay the what their mind tries to shove in front of them.  It is almost as if they have become so numb and disconnected, but have done so without authenticity.

No, I'm not saying that happy thoughts or religious beliefs don't have their place.  They are one thing that we turn to because the going has gotten so rough.  Sometimes they are the lifeline from one moment to the next.

However, if we're not careful, these thoughts and beliefs will do as much damage as the horror negative attacks we place on our lives.  They don't bring us into the body or the mind.  Instead, they keep us as far away as they can.

When the good stuff actually happens, we're so accustomed to feeling the negative and the horror, that we barely see the positive.  Sometimes we've got our mind set on happy thoughts and religious beliefs, that we still miss the positive impacting us.

It is too easy to slip right by the good happening in our life, and that's sad because after a life of depression, anxiety, horror and trauma, we need to see some silver linings.  If our mind and the body is stuck in neutral or in reverse, how will we ever travel the miles through the good that lies before us?

I believe from my own experiences and what I have seen in others, that we need to learn how to experience the full breadth of our emotional existence.  Whether it is negative thoughts, criticism, anger or happiness, love, and peace, we need the full range.

Without the full range, we're not fully human.  We are disconnecting and numbing parts of our life.  Without sadness, can you understand happy?  If you aren't in touch with anger, can you truly experience peace?  If you don't know what criticism is, does love fully make sense?

I'm not saying we stay in any one of these emotions, but we recognize them for what they are.  We look at them as having a place to help bring us further into awareness and consciousness, not remain disconnected and numb.

Finding our way through depression and mental health issues is challenging at best.  However, let us make sure we don't keep ourselves from seeing the good, not just the bad.  It is there if we allow ourselves to see it.  Closing our eyes will not make it appear.

Try to not forget the good with the bad.  You may need to consciously remind yourself to look for the good, but it is there.  Sometimes, it does take some effort to not let the negative completely take over our lives.

Coping With Stress

Ok, here's a question asking for a show of hands.

How many of us know how to effectively cope with stress?

I see a few hands go up, but for the most part many are avoiding eye contact with me.  I know... I know...  it isn't always easy coping with stress.

For most of us, we weren't taught how to cope with stress that well.  Our dearly beloved parents often didn't know how to cope with stress in their own lives and that's what they taught us.  It isn't that we should blame them for anything because they did the best with what they had (ok, maybe not all parents did the best, but I'm sure some did).

All too often, we deal with stress by acting as if it is not there.  We avoid it, numb it and disconnect from it.  We look at anyone who acknowledges it with raised eye brows as if they are doing something wrong in life.

We keep ourselves so busy...

Sometimes we keep ourselves so busy that we don't have to acknowledge its presence in our lives.  Sometimes we have a few extra numbing and mind altering substances just so we can continue on separating ourselves from what is going on.

Some of us do very well at shoving it deep down inside of us so we just don't have to look at it.  Humans are pretty good at that.  Yeah, there are days when we need to do that, but so often we forget to flip the switch back the other way and deal with the stress.

Often we avoid and disconnect and numb stress in such an unconscious way that we're oblivious to its effects upon our body ... and our mind.  It is there, but we're in such a busy mode and disconnected mode that we don't see it.

When I've gone into some deep healing moments on the table, one of the first things we do is observe what is there in that moment - what we feel in our body.  There are many times that I don't feel anything until I stop and start to ask the question and notice it.  Then, it intensifies and that is the launching pad for the deep healing work.

Numbing and disconnecting...

Regardless of how you deal with stress, coping with it by numbing and disconnecting is not the best way.  It may be necessary in the moment, but if this continues, it starts to have major impacts on the different systems in the body.  It opens the door for illness and dis-ease.

Learning to be aware of its presence and learning to cope with stress is key to finding a more happier and healthier life.  It may not happen all at once and some of us may require much more difficulty to learning how to do this, but you mind and body will thank you.

If you do nothing and just let it build, at some point it will try to get your attention.  The daily buildup of stress can be just as harmful as traumatic experiences.  Trust me - and I share this from my own personal life - you don't want to go down the road of letting it build and not finding a way to let it go.

Coping with stress is about letting go, but doing so on a daily basis.  We have to find ways to stop and "smell the roses" or life will takeover and we'll be left wishing we had.  There are simple ways and more profound ways to cope with stress, but it all starts by stopping and observing and feeling in  your body.

After that, your body and  your mind will guide the way if you allow them.  They will show you things that you may not have realized, but it all starts with observing and feeling the stress within your body.

I leave you with this question - what will you do today in learning to cope with stress and letting go?  How will you allow yourself to feel it in your body, so you can let it go from the cellular level?

#stress

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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.  

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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.

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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.  

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Subconscious Disconnected By Numbing

Connecting is not as difficult as it sounds, but in many ways it is difficult.  In fact, most of our lives, we have been living a disconnected life and our subconscious mind is now a foreigner within us.

Yes, there are certain activities that help take us out of being disconnected, but often we have not passed the threshold we need to obtain and so even with these activities, we stay disconnected.  The fullness of our life is hidden and silent.  We get to the point that our subconscious mind is anything but something we are connected to in our life.

I say it is difficult to connect because we all have lived a life of numbing and avoidance.  Many of the experiences we had early on in life were more than our young minds could handle and so numbing and avoidance became the norm.  Even the daily build up of stress acts in much the same way as traumatic events upon the body.  Traumatic scenes and images we view can also bring on the numbing and avoidance.

Numbing and Avoiding...

When we numb and avoid, we are not feeling.  We are not connected to our body or our mind.  We are not present in life to the degree we may think we are.  In fact, most of the time when you are numbing and avoiding, you're not even aware that you are doing it.  If someone tried to convince you otherwise, you would have great difficulty comprehending what they were saying and questioning strongly how it applies to you and your life.

Numbing and avoiding can be in so many ways.  It can be as simple as using food and alcohol or as complex as using drugs and sex.  Numbing and avoidance can show up through religious practices, constantly buying stuff you don't need, living in fantasy more than in reality or just keeping yourself constantly busy.  There are many ways of numbing and these are just a few, but if you want to read a more exhaustive list that I've put together, check this page out, The Ways We Numb The Body.

We are not feeling everything...

When we are numb, we aren't feeling the full breadth of our physical body.  We may not be and most likely are not aware that we are not feeling everything.  If you are trying to get 100 tasks completed by the end of the day that the boss is demanding you finish, do you think that you would feel all the pains in your body or how the stress is impacting you?  More likely than not, you would not feel these things.  They would get in the way of you performing the tasks you need to complete.  You would be numb to the subconscious mind.

Sometimes we need to numb our body to handle the current moments, but it is when we don't shut off the numbing in our subconscious mind that it becomes a problem  Temporary numbing is one thing, but long term causes great damage to our mind and body.  The more we numb, the more long term damage we do and the harder it is to recover.
 

If we can just begin to understand how much we numb and avoid the hard parts of our life, we will be on the uphill climb to a much greater awareness filled with peace beyond comprehension.  Numbing and avoidance take us away from the subconscious mind where we are empowered and filled with all that we need to take on the challenges of our lives.

We must first begin to understand that numbness and avoidance are two of our greatest enemies in our life.  For the more we choose to not see how we numb and avoid, the more we are robbing ourselves of all the potential for our life.  Numbing and avoidance are negative pleasures.  They help us disconnect, but at the same time, they rob us of our energy and essence of life.  Numbing and avoidance keep us from the deep peace within our lives.

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)

The Crutches Don't Heal You

Writing this blog post, I realize that most likely we all know what it is I am saying.  However, it is worth repeating because too often we don't see healing in the best possible way.  We tend to look at the crutches as if this is what heals our broken leg.  The crutches are there to help, but they don't heal you.

Now, I'm really not talking about broken legs and crutches.  These are just the metaphors that I'm using to illustrate the point that the crutches don't heal you.  What you do and allow and surrender to is what heals you.

Crutches can be a label for your condition, a medication you are taking or a procedure that you are going through.  Crutches can be a belief system that does not advance your healing.  Crutches can be a new age alternative approach that is more feeling and belief than results.  Crutches are anything that keeps you thinking that whatever it is will make you better when in fact, it is taking you away from feeling in your body.

We go to doctors and healers and we take medications and supplements.  We participate in various activities and practices that are designed to take us out of our suffering and pain.  While many of these things are good and grounded in reality, there are plenty that are not.  Today is not a discussion about that part of the healing process.

The thing we do as humans is we tend to think the doctor, the healer, the medication or the supplement have the answers to end our suffering.  We think if we take part in this practice or activity, it heals us.  Unfortunately, it is not any one of these things that heal us.

Now, you may be saying, but when I went and did this thing or went to that person, I got better.  Yes, you did!  I'm not disputing that.  However, it was not the person, thing, or practice that did the healing.   They just helped you find that healing in yourself.  Again, some do a much better job of this than others.

Healing comes from source energy and it comes from within us.  There may be people along the way that help lift us from despair and find a different world.  If we use these people and see them as a crutch that does the healing, then we have not learned that crutches don't heal you.  Crutches help you find the healing.

I know in the early days, it may be our complete capacity to just surrender into the person, thing, or procedure, not even beginning to see that we can heal, let alone heal ourselves.  As we progress, we should begin to see that we have much more within us.  We should be able to see that our crutches are there to support the healing, not be the healing.

There are some groups and individuals out there that are truly supportive and do help people to heal, but there are many that offer you services and products that take you away from the power you have inside.  They take you out of your body and place that power upon someone or something.  In those cases, the crutches have taken over your life.

I do realize that if you have faced insurmountable odds throughout your life, that seeing yourself as holding any power to change anything is often too great.  It takes the crutches to help you support your life enough to being seeing this.

Just don't continue to believe that the crutches are what heals you.  Learn to find that place within yourself that brings you to the point of power and sensing your innermost self.  It is in that place, where you will find true healing.  The healing power comes from within your ability to feel your internal body.  Feeling is healing and healing is feeling.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 12/18/15 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.  

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Finding Balance Once Again

Not long ago, I quit my job.  I walked away from something that was bringing in a nice income because the stress level had become to great and my exhaustion was almost not manageable. A job that I had grown to love and enjoyed had become toxic and so it was time to move on.

Finding balance once again after going through the nonstop stress and rigors of the past few years without a rest, is difficult to say the least.  Even after many days since I quit, my body and mind are still in that revved up mode feeling like I have to be getting this task done or taking a call or preparing for a meeting.  It just isn't easy to stop and walk away from it.

My body was so struck in the rut of letting this job consume me, that to find balance is as difficult as trying to get me to sky dive out of a plane.  Yet, I know that as the days go and as I seek rest and relaxation, I will find balance once again.  I know that as I catch up on my sleep, my mind will once again see possibility, rather than the dread of going another day.

Letting Go In Life

We all hold on to so much in our day, in our lives and in our bodies.  We carry this through each moment as tension, pain, numbness, fatigue and various other ways.  Letting go in life is not easy.  It is difficult for most people to do.

We are all masters at holding on to things in life, but letting go is much more difficult.  Have you felt the tension in your back by carrying too great of a load in life?  Has your life become tiring because you felt like you had to keep plugging away and not stop or let up?  Do you just not feel life fully because you've carried so much around your neck for so many years?

Holding on in our life shows up in many ways and it usually shows up in the body.  If we are attentive and conscious, we will see it.  If not, we will hide it through numbness.  Even if we smile a lot and recite mantras all day long, it does not mean we have this under control.  In fact, it might most likely be the opposite.  Again, letting go in life is difficult but holding on is the norm.

Physical Body Issues

We need to have a chat about this topic.  I mean, while most of us truly understand this, somehow it has been hidden from our consciousness and so its like we don't understand much about physical body issues.

Everyone wants to blame physical body issues on some "name" or "condition" or "health condition".  While they may be the result of this and you might be able to prove that it is true, you're missing half the equation of healing.

Its like having a hole in the bottom of your rowboat and you think that the only way to keep sailing is to take a paper cup and empty out the water.  You only focus on the paper cup (i.e. the name or condition or health situation) and focusing on it to take care of the issue which is water coming into your rowboat.

Feeling The Brain's Potential

I'm always amazed at how much and how little we humans use our brain.  Its a major organ in our body and one that we can't do without, but yet so often we treat it as if it is nothing more than a collection of cells and tissues.  Of course, I'm sure one could insert all kinds of jokes here about how people use their brains, but that's not the point of this blog post.

I would like to have everyone reading this just take a moment and say hello to your brain.  OK, if that didn't feel awkward, then maybe you want to repeat that one again (or maybe you don't).  You see, most of us just aren't in touch with our brains, although we depend upon them to get through our day.

One of the ways we fail to connect with our brain is by not seeing the potential we have in our life.  We have so much power within the cells that make up our brain and we only tap into a very little part of it each day.  Most of the time this is because we are running too hard and too busy to stop a moment and connect with it.  If you ignore it, you won't grasp the full potential of it.

Why Do You Do What You Do?

Why Do You Do What
You Do?

Do you ever stop to really think about life? Do you ever stop to wonder why you do what you do in life? I know philosophers ponder these things.  All too often everyone tries to avoid these type of people because the concepts are not what they wish to embrace. It is easier to not think about such things in life, rather than to dig deeper into our humanness.

So much of what we do in a day or in a moment was formed early on in life. In fact, some research suggests that it may have started in the womb. We learn so much from our caretakers and their messages in life become our messages that we live by in our own life. No one stops to think of just how much we were influenced by those early days and what we found comforting versus what we learned to fear.

We carry our early days on into our school days and as we grow, we learn to follow additional unwritten rules of society. Our minds are taught things to embrace and things to fear. As each of us wonders why you do what you do, we realize that our teachers have taught us good and bad, according to their own level of consciousness and growth in this world.

Healing The Itchy Hand Rash, Day 2

Healing The Itchy
Hand Rash, Day 2

For background on this post, please begin at the blog post on November 6, 2011 (Healing The Itchy Hand Rash, Intro).

From My Personal Journal on October 11, 2011

Suspended In Flight


I feel as if I opened up the proverbial can of worms yesterday.  It seems as if I'm afraid of being judged childish and selfish.  Yet, I struggle to understand where it is that I am in this moment.


I feel as if I am suspended in flight.  Right now, I am not moving forward, nor am I moving backwards.  In fact, it feels like I am stationary and suspended in flight.


So where do I go?  What do I do?  Do I just sit here waiting for something of substance to come along so that I can latch on to it as a propellant?  

Overcome Fear By Facing It

Overcome Fear By
Facing It

One of the things that is the hardest for me in life and that it seems like I need to continue to learn over and over again is facing fears.  Learning to overcome fears by facing them is like asking a brick wall to get up and move.  I know I am not the only one that struggles with this in life.

In the days when I was suffering from anxiety attacks, I kept getting told that I needed to face my fears.  When you do that, the power of them is taken away.  However, when life is nothing but one big fear, it feels like you will surely die if you do this.

It took me a long time to begin to understand what facing fears was all about and how to go about it.  The more we learn to do this, the more we find freedom in life.

I was happy to find this mind body wellness tip by Dr. Nima about this very subject.  He talked on this page about how he tells his clients to face their fears.  One day it dawned on him that maybe he needed to practice what he preached to his clients.  The following video is about that experience and showing how he went into his fears.

Feeling In A Body

There is a field of thought that once you encounter a feeling in a body and if you stay with this feeling, it will give rise to the sensation beneath that feeling. And if you stay with that sensation, you will reach the chemical reactions that produce the sensation. Staying with the chemical reactions, you will reach the molecules that make up these reactions. With enough time, the molecules can be divided and broken down into the smallest particles of living substance within our body where they can no longer be divided. (From Page 43, Compassionate Touch by Dr. Clyde W. Ford)

Suppress Feelings And Emotions

We all learn to do it! In fact, we’re taught from a baby on, how to suppress our feelings. Whether it is in the parent that tells the baby, oh please don’t cry or worse yet, the child abuser who beats the baby for crying! Of course, there are also the people who give the infants opium or alcohol to get the baby to be quiet.

As we get older, little boys are told phrases such as “big boys don’t cry” and “grow up”. Mommy generally gives the little child attention and affection if they get an ouchy while the father presents the more manly approach to the little boy and acts as if it is no big deal.

Take it one step further and in some cases when a child is spanked, but then told not to cry or they will be given something to cry about. There are numerous ways in which we teach our young how to suppress feelings and emotions.

As get older, we learn that we just have to suck it up in life and move on. There’s no time to feel any emotions. Sometimes in our jobs, we watch as our coworker friends are fired or laid off, only to be told to go on with business as usual. Some vocations require us to turn off the emotions because objectivity is needed.

Throughout our life, we usually run into medical conditions, pains that make it difficult for us to know how to feel. Since we are accustomed to not feeling emotions of pain, we look substances to numb ourselves

Biologically, we are wired to have feelings and emotions as part of our daily life. We are taught to ignore or suppress them but with time, they do catch up with us. You may feel like you can escape them and out run them, but at some point, they will quit knocking on the door and bust it down!

Further Reading:
1) Why Is My Pulse High? (Blog Post 4/1/10)
2) The Emotion Of Triggers (Blog Post 4/25/09


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Blog Post & Images (c) 5/13/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

If any part of this post is used or shared, a link back to this site is required.
http://mindbodythoughts.blogspot.com/
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Clutter In Our Life, Part 10

Clutter #10 - We Fail To Evolve
Part 10 of 10

All too often, we settle for what is expected of us in a day as dictated by what we were taught growing up, by what society emphasizes and what we allow our minds to focus on. If your life is not changing constantly for the better and if you are not getting those ahh haa moments frequently in your week, than you might just be standing at the edge of the mud puddle rather than wading through it.

All too often, we focus on treating the symptoms of life and engaging in things that have no bearing upon us becoming all we can be as humans. We settle for second best and we continue to search for answers when in fact, what we need is located within us.

The problem is that we don't go inside and become completely acquainted with every part of our being. The things that scare us or trip us up become bad parts that we lock up in cages. The things that make us uncomfortable, we try to avoid. The feelings that frighten us or the pains that haunt us are ones that we run to others asking that they explain and take them away.

Evolving as humans and becoming all we can be is about going deep inside and discovering every part of yourself that you can. It is about connecting the thoughts, feelings, emotions and fears to the places they reside in the body so that you will be able to let them go.

Many people try to fool themselves in many ways but in the end, if you don't deal with these things in your life, they will deal with you. You can wrap them in fancy religious or new age terms all you want but at the end of your days, you will find you just lived life as an illusion.

The more we feel, sense and become aware of in our body, the more we live life to the fullest. When we live life to the fullest, it is then that we are becoming more conscious and evolving into the next phase of our life.

Come back tomorrow for the 30 day challenge of this series, Clutter In Our Life. Below are the various parts to this series that you can read as well.

Clutter In Our Life Series
- Introduction
Part 1: Spending our hours watching TV news
Part 2: Keeping Ourselves Constantly Busy
Part 3: Numbing Ourselves
Part 4: Following Blindly
Part 5: Food Choices
Part 6: Health care, Doctors, and Medicine
Part 7: Hydrating Our Bodies
Part 8: Thinking We Have The Answers
Part 9: Exercise Is For Another Day
Part 10: We Fail To Evolve
- The 30 Day Challenge


Blog Post & Images (c) 3/20/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

Trust That Which You Know

An inspirational thought for your day

Trust That Which You Know

Trust that which already is unfolding for you. Trust that which you already know in your heart and your mind. The impressions, visions, thoughts, feelings, emotions are already in your possession and your consciousness.







Blog Post & Images (c) 3/17/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

Heal Trauma Internally

One of my all time favorite books about healing trauma is "Waking The Tiger" by Peter Levine. If you want to really begin understanding just how trauma affects the body and how we need to go within to heal it, this is an excellent book. All too often, we try to treat the symptoms that are left behind after the trauma has taken place. In all reality, if we do not go within to the source of the where we were impacted by the trauma, the effects will linger for years to come.

On Page 188, Peter states in "Waking The Tiger" that,

"Arousal becomes chronic as a result of overwhelming sensations and emotions that have an internal source. This is the reason that trauma can and must be transformed by working with it internally. In re-enactment the world may be our stage. In remaining external, it also remains unchanged. Hence, re-enactment rarely accomplishes its intended task.

There is definitely a place for the external work and dealing with the emotions and sensations that arise from points of trauma in our life. However, if we stay in this mode, we will be losing out on very deep healing that goes to the core connection of where the trauma impacted us. Just being in an experience where we release emotions is not necessarily an indicator that deep healing is taking place. Please do not get me wrong as I am not saying deep release cannot come from moments of emotional cleansing. What I am saying is that there is much more than these moments.

When we continue to ignore that which is within us and is trying to get our attention (the internal), we get into chronic situations with pain, anxiety, depression and other health conditions. Our experiences in life are dulled and lack meaning to carry us through our day. Our life feels hopeless, out of control and as if nothing is going to ever change. Senses in our body such as touch, taste, smell, feeling and connecting with others will become something we long for and hope for but struggle to obtain. It is in these moments that we are living on the external side of life apart from truly knowing who we are.

I believe from what I have experienced in my own life and observed in many other people, that true healing is when we stop, go within and sense all that is in our body. In no way will I sit here and tell you that this is an easy, pleasant journey but I will tell you that the awakening within that can take place by going deep inside one's self would amaze and surprise the greatest magician, the most creative person, or the biggest skeptic.

Awakening from within is the way we truly claim and recover the energy and power that we were born with. While we often attempt to take short cuts into this process, we will soon realize that anything but going within is an illusion. It may be our journey to simply understand that this happens but the moment the light bulb kicks on, our bodies become potential energy with the possibility greater than most men know.


Further Reading
Waking The Tiger By Peter Levine


Blog Post & Images (c) 1/4/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only

Moment Of Now

To just sit here, experiencing the quiet, the peaceful and serene.

Hearing the sounds of the outdoors.

Feeling the humidity, sunlight and breeze on my body.

Noticing the rise and fall of my breath in my body.

No pressures, no worries, no concerns at this moment.

Just being in the moment of now, far removed from anything that demands my attention.

Observing, sensing, feeling, noticing all that is around me.

All that matters in this moment is just being here now, and present within myself.

Accepting this moment.

Accepting all that there is.


(Above Picture taken at Gatorland, Kissimmee, FL - (c) 06/23/10)

Sensation Of Feeling In The Body

There is a field of thought that once you encounter a feeling in a body and if you stay with this feeling, it will give rise to the sensation beneath that feeling. And if you stay with that sensation, you will reach the chemical reactions that produce the sensation. Staying with the chemical reactions, you will reach the molecules that make up these reactions. With enough time, the molecules can be divided and broken down into the smallest particles of living substance within our body where they can no longer be divided.



Pg 43, Dr. Clyde W. Ford
Compassionate Touch: The Body's Role in Emotional Healing and Recovery


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