Giant Sequoias Thrive On Fire

Written By Don Shetterly

The other day I came across something that I thought was unique.  I didn't know it, and I found it interesting.  Giant Sequoias thrive on fire.


Forest fires actually help these giant sequoia trees.  I've never gotten to see one except in a picture online, but they look like majestic trees.

Fire does not destroy these trees, and in fact, it helps in the germination of the seeds and seedling growth.  Without fire, the seeds are not released, and these trees do not grow.  Besides, fire helps reduce the competition of other species of trees so that the sequoias can grow.

I often think about the stuff I went through as a kid, and it was not easy.  From the sexual abuse to the torture and physical, emotional and mental abuse, my life was not easy.  You could easily say I had been put through the fire.

Without the struggle in my life...

While I struggle to write this thought, I realize that without what I had been through in my life, I would not have become what I am today.  I recognize that, and I hate that statement, but deep down I know it is true for my life.

I'm not condoning abuse in any way, but I know that without it, I could not be there for others in the way that I am.  It is through that experience that I'm able to understand what others have gone through and how I can support them.

Sometimes the fires of life are more challenging than we can accept, but they are there for a reason.  That's my belief of course.  You're free to not believe that if you want.  I just know that in my own life, the fires helped open up a side of me that may not have emerged without it.

The Giant Sequoias are an example of how nature uses something that destroys most trees to regenerate and help it grow and thrive.  It seems that nature always finds a way to balance things out.

In my own life, I can see the same.  Even though it doesn't make the journey easier, at least I know there is a larger purpose for my life than what I experienced.  I strive to be all that I can be so that I can help others as they walk the treacherous journey healing from abuse.

See this source to Learn More About The Giant Sequoias

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

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Self Care Changes With Our Journey

(Written by Survive - Thrive - Conquer, Matt)

Self Care Changes With Our Journey

As human beings, we are creatures of habit. We do things on a daily or routine basis because "that's what we've always" done. I know I've said that very phrase countless times in my life whenever someone questions me, or I question myself as to why I do something.

Why do we go to the same grocery store, by the same brands of food, or stop at the same gas station? Because at one time we tried something and since the experience was positive and gratifying in some way, we just stuck with it. Over time, even with a myriad of other options, we often default back to what works for us. We are familiar with it, and we know the result of engaging in that behavior generally yields a positive result.

For example, there are two convenience stores within a block of each other, or right across the street from each other, how often do you find yourself gravitating towards one more than the other? I know for me, there are two gas stations that are on the way home from work, but I almost always stop at one instead of the other, regardless of which direction I'm headed.

Why?  Habit, Familiarity, Just Because...?

We also might be forming habits in our healing journey, in particularly with self-care. We continue to do what works for us because it's worked in the past, and while there's nothing wrong with that, it would also behoove us to keep an open mind to new experiences that might also be beneficial.

For me, self-care has always involved several Go-To options:

• Listening to Music
• Playing my bass.
• Going for a walk.
• Catching up on shows that I've recorded and allowing myself to be carried away in the story.
• Reading my Kindle.

Those things usually always work, or if one doesn't work as well as expected, I can try another and often find some emotional peace and relaxation. After all, self-care is about doing things that we enjoy, things that make us feel good, or take us away from the reality of what's troubling our minds for awhile.

But, self-care can evolve too, if we let it. As we age, our likes and dislikes can change. What we did as teenagers, we probably don't do anymore, or at least not as often or as rigorously. What happens though, since we are creatures of habit, we sometimes ignore new opportunities or brush them aside in favor of what works for us.

Case in point, I had a bit of an epiphany not long ago. Each year I go to a music festival not too far from where I live. It's always a very good time, two days of reliving the glory days and singing along to iconic anthems from a cherished time of my life. That festival has been a rock solid form of self-care for me up until this year.

On the drive home, I was pondering this and wondering to myself, "what is happening to me"? Am I just getting too old for this or is there something more profound happening in my healing journey or just my life in general?

It caused me a good deal of stress for awhile, not so much from the "getting old" thought but more from the, "why doesn't this work for me anymore like it used too" perspective.  As it turns out, after much debate in my head and talking to a couple of close friends, I concluded that my self-care routine is simply evolving.

Maybe I don't need to go to this every year anymore. Perhaps every other year would be fine, or maybe just going down for 1 of the days instead of both would do the trick. Only time will tell, but the point is, that it's okay to be open to change in self-care. Just because something always worked before, doesn't mean that we can't ever deviate or find something different, should that time ever arise.

Back to this whole creature of habit topic that we started with - do you find yourself doing the same self-care just because it's always worked or because it's become a habit?  Have you begun to feel twinges that maybe something isn't working quite the way it used too?

If you have, I encourage you to sit with that feeling, explore it, and understand that there's nothing wrong with you. There's nothing to fear, and you aren't suddenly going backward in your healing. It just simply means that your needs are changing as you grow throughout this journey.

What's done the trick and been your go-to method of self-care might just be evolving into something new and exciting, or maybe just slightly different. Either way, what matters is that we do what's best for us and be open to whatever that change may be.

Rock Your Survivor Journey!

 - Matt (SurvivingMyPast.net)

Read all of Matt's Columnist Posts

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Matt

Blogger
Podcaster, Author
Advocate

Visit Matt At:

Website:  SurvivingMyPast.net
Twitter:  @SurvivingMyPast

Make sure you check out Matt's Free E-book, Surviving Grief 

Check out his Weekly Podcasts every Sunday.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly and Matt

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As We Shed Who We Think We Are

Sometimes it is easy to get complacent and think we've progressed to the point where we fully know ourselves.  Yet, self awareness and growth are a continuous process because the more we get to know about ourselves, the more we are able to see and discover.

As we shed who we think we are, we discover what actually exists.

Don't stop discovering more about your life.  There's much more to you than you can currently see.

Become more conscious and aware.  

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

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Cultivating Your Mind And Body

We're living in a day of disconnect and numbing.  While we can do the new age speak and say words like the mind body, we understand far less than we think we do.  The mind body connection is much deeper than we truly go.

Just like planting a garden and growing seed, if you don't make a fertile place for things to grow, you will never harvest what you plant.  It will be as if you're going through the motions but doing things that truly will not help.

Cultivating your mind and body is how you go in and prepare your day for a day that can be productive and helpful in your growth.  It involves identifying the weeds and other harmful things to your life, where you can work to remove them.  It involves feeding and watering your mind body so that you give yourself optimal conditions to grow.

We fail to see the whole picture...

Too often, we give the soil of our thoughts the opportunity to grow, but we fail to fertilize and water our thoughts by connecting to the body.  We fail to see the whole picture of what we are doing, rather than just the plant that may be emerging from the ground.

Our mind body balance is critical to our overall health and outlook on life.  It can either help us find wholeness and wellness or it can be a source of deep pain.  Our mind body is where it all happens, but if we only focus on the mind and ignore the body, we're only halfway to the place we need to be.

The mind body connection means going into the cells and allowing us to feel and sense what is there.  It is not about creating a story from those moments, but just observing and being one with our mind body to notice what is in that moment.  The more we notice, the more aware we become.  The more aware we become, the more conscious we are.

It must come from deep within...

Awareness and consciousness that stand the test of time do not only come from the mind like many think they do.  Yes, you might have awareness or a conscious thought, but if you truly want it to be grounded to stand the test of time, it must come from deep within the body connected to the mind.

The body is such an important part of the mind body connection and it often gets missed.  We stay numb and disconnected because often times, there is far too much pain that we attempt to hide.  By hiding this pain, we are numbing our entire mind body connection and robbing ourselves of peace, joy, and true growth.

Once you realize that cultivating both the mind and the body is essential for wellness, you will see much more power in healing your own life.  You will experience a deeper world around you apart from the fears that are overblown each and every day.

If you want to know more, here are some good resources to check out because these people truly understand much more about the mind body connection and how it impacts every part of your life.  Do yourself a favor and learn to cultivate not only your mind, but your body.  The rewards it pays out will far surpass the fears that try to hold you back.

Resources

1. Breaking The Habit Of Being Yourself
2. Waking The Tiger
3. The Body Bears The Burden
4. Unified Therapy - Dr. Paul Canali

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

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Trauma and Reactive Responses

I had posted an earlier blog entry on this topic and a reader asked me to clarify this.  So, I thought I would explain more what I think this quote means from the book by Daniel Siegel, Parenting From The Inside Out.

I'm stating this from my own knowledge and what I see in it, not as a professional may view it.  I just wanted to be clear on that point.

See Blog post on Reactive Response 10/26/09

When we go through experiences in life, whether it is trauma and child abuse, or just difficult situations, our life becomes filtered and framed from those experiences.  They become a big part of who we are.  They shape how we view life and the world around us.  They become how we see everything.

Through healing, your focus is on reclaiming those moments and bringing back who you truly are deep inside.  Often, this is buried as a result of the trauma or experience without the individual even recognizing it is buried.  Each traumatic experience cements over our true self, and until we start to chip away at what is buried beneath the layers, what we have become on the outside is who we are in that moment.

Stuck in reactive responses...

As a result, we're stuck in these reactive responses.  I see reactive responses as how we deal with situations based upon the self that has been altered because of the traumatic experience.  It is automatic and happens in the subconscious mind, most likely as a way to survive in that moment of horror.

When a situation gets too difficult to deal with, the brain goes into protect and survive mode so that we can keep functioning.  Its goal in my view is to keep us alive and functioning at all costs.  So, if it has to bury something deep within our mind, it will do it.

Our choices after those horrendous moments, though, are colored and filtered and judged based upon what we know or we think we know up to this point in life.  It is reactive in that rather than dealing with the current situation as many might do, we're dealing with it as a result of our past experience.

We rob ourselves of so much...

If we continue down the path of reactive response, we rob ourselves of so much.  However, I believe that no matter what we've been through in life, all humans tend to be reactive based upon their life to that point.  We truly see things in the way we were taught or shown, or what we observed.  It provides the foundation and basis for our current and future moments.

For me, if I hear the loud bass thump sound coming from a car or a source around me, it immediately makes me want to silence that sound or person in any way I can.  It is a reactive response because it draws upon a very horrible moment in my childhood where I couldn't stop the screams of my kittens being killed.  It is an automatic response that has shaped me into who I am in this moment.

I'm not saying I can't change this reactive response in myself.  I have really worked on it and am doing much better, but nevertheless it is still how I respond.

Now, I can focus on saying that I will train my mind to react differently.  Unfortunately when these moments such as the example I described show up, the response has already happened before I can consciously think about doing anything different.

I go deep into healing work...

Instead, I go deep into the body part of healing work, and work to allow that horror of that trauma to come forward and out.  It happens little by little, piece by piece.  I do not believe it is something that you can truly heal in the blink of an eye.  When it is that difficult of a past experience, it takes time for the mind and neural pathways to release and rewrite.

With reactive responses, our choices now become measured on past experiences, whether we want to always acknowledge this or not.  If each one of us looked deep within, I think we would all see that - but with horrible experiences and trauma, none of these things are easy to observe.  The fear, anxiety and despair come up rapidly when we try to expose them.

Learning to deal with reactive responses is not about desensitizing you to what happened.  I think that only buries things further.  It may possibly be helpful in the immediate short term, but if you don't work to dive deep into the cellular memories of this through bodywork such as Unified Therapy, you're only masking the situation.

We all react to current events based upon our past.  It is in awareness, growth and consciousness that we come to more fully know who we are from the deepest levels within our mind and our BODY.  What the mind stores, so does the body.  What the body stores, so does the mind.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

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Some Days I Fly and Some Days I Don't

Life is ever changing.  There are both good and bad moments sometimes leading us where we need to go and other times challenging us for where we need to be.

Some days I fly.

Some days I don't.

Some days I can soar like the eagles and sea gulls, seeing all that is before me and readily knowing what lies ahead.  Sometimes in those moments, even the challenges make sense and I know that I too can rise above the floods overtaking the ground below me.

Some days I don't soar like the birds as the challenges get great.  At times I am faced with insurmountable odds, not knowing where my next foot step goes or what the next movement should be.

Sometimes, I am overwhelmed at the challenges that lie before me.

The one common thing between the days that I fly and the days that I don't, is that no matter what, I have to keep moving.  I can't give up.  I can't stop.  Even if it seems dark before me, I must keep trudging onward because that's the only way I will find the light of illumination for my path.

In the days that I struggle to fly, it isn't easy.  I will not make any claims that it is.  However, I keep reminding myself that no matter what is going on in this moment, this too shall pass.

It will not last.  It will not prevail.

 

There are moments that are meant as challenges to prepare us for future growth ahead.  When those challenges hit, may we all remember that we can fly.  May we see our lives soaring like the birds and not giving up because that moment may be too difficult.

Some days I fly.  Some days I don't.  This is all part of life because even birds in flight stop to rest upon the ground, so they can once again soar through the sky.


#RelaxingPianoMusic

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

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Dealing With Trauma

When you've been through so many horrible experiences in your life, it can be difficult at best to deal with them, try to heal from them and not let them take you under.  Dealing with trauma is not easy and if anyone tells you it is, don't buy the iceberg in the middle of the swamp they are trying to sell.

Sorry, if anyone thinks I'm off my rocker here, but I've had to deal with trauma.  Yeah, I've done a pretty good job keeping the hungry tigers at bay, but sometimes the trauma is just hard to deal with, let alone heal from in life.

I keep trying no matter what.  Some days, I want to give up and say enough is enough with this.  It can be exhausting at times and horrifying at other times.

I don't want to give the impression that if you've been through trauma, life is pointless or hopeless.  It is not!  As hard as it gets, there is hope that you can go on long enough to heal from it and find a measure of happiness and meaning and purpose in life.

Kept putting one foot in front of the other...

When I was really processing the heavy parts of trauma, I often felt exhausted and I wondered if I would ever get through things.  Sometimes it felt hopeless and sometimes my energy level didn't seem enough for what I needed.  In those times, I kept putting one foot in front of the other knowing that "this too shall pass".

In those difficult moments, I turned to nature.  Any time I could get to a park or the mountains or oceans, I would go.  Anytime I could just spend a moment outside in the sun, feeling the warmth of the sunlight or the breeze upon my face, I would do it.  If there was just a moment where I could walk down the sidewalk and escape the difficult moments of the day, I would go.

Creativity helped me deal with trauma...

I used creativity to help me deal with trauma.  Creativity through writing, drawing, painting helped.  It gave me an outlet.  If you're not one that likes to write, draw or paint - that's perfectly okay.  There are a hundred million other ways to be creative.  Just find the one that works for you and use it to help yourself.  Creativity helps you process.  It gives you a channel for those things that are so hard to put into words.

Dealing with trauma is not about ignoring it.  It is about embracing it and allowing yourself to go in and heal from it.  I still remember the therapist that told me how happy she was that I stuck with the therapy.  She told me that all too often, many will quit therapy long before they should.  No, it isn't easy going to therapy and opening these wounds up, but in order to heal - you just can't wish it away.

Dealing with trauma is not one size fits all.  You have to find what works for you and then do it.  Don't wait for others to tell you what works.  Seek out the things that help you and if it is not working, find something else.  Don't be like the friend of mine that was seeing therapists every day of the week and exclaiming nothing was working.  My advice to him was to stop what he was doing and find something that did work.

Therapy that does not connect the body with the mind may help to a degree, but it will be lacking in potential.  The body stores the memories and they can only be accessed and released by doing work on the body.  There are some great therapies for trauma healing such as the Unified Therapy with Dr. Paul Canali.  It is highly effective work and it does not take too long before you begin to see and feel a difference.

In dealing with trauma, I have found that most of the times I had no answers in what step to take.  I just searched and sought out things that would help.  I tried to recognize how my body, my gut, and my heart felt about whatever therapy I was doing.  I am a highly driven person and so I constantly evaluated if what I was doing truly worked.  If it didn't, I found something that did.

But most of all - don't accept that trauma has to ruin the rest of your life!  There is healing and growth from it.  There is a way forward.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

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Becoming Conscious

Seeing the world through eyes that can never close is how we awaken.  It is how we become more conscious and alive in our life as humans.

When our eyes are closed, we are not seeing clearly as to everything that is happening in our life.

The bigger picture of illumination is when we see all that there is to see.

When we are open to life in a way that gives us a sense of purpose, it is then that we have found our self in this life.  We become a beacon of hope and possibility to our self and those around us.

Sometimes it is difficult for us to see something greater than ourselves.  At times, we are walking through the fire of life as we are being melted and molded into something new.  It is at these moments when we are morphing into something greater than we were before, giving us a new outlook on our life and existence.

Becoming conscious is a pattern of growth and awareness in our life.  It is one moment of awareness followed by another moment.  It is when we choose to open our eyes to all that there is in our life, not just that which we want to see.

Becoming conscious begins deep within our body as the process connects us to our mind.  It is the felt sense within our physical body where our mind discovers the spark of awareness.

As we become aware, so to do we find not only the life that was meant to be, but a life that shows us more than we realized was possible.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

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You Must Think Like Me

When growing up, we were mind controlled every way.  From the fundamentalist church we went to and the family I grew up in, the unwritten rule and code of the day was YOU MUST THINK LIKE ME!

Now the inhabitants of the family and the church would never admit to this.  They would say I was crazy.  They would say I was brainwashed.  In fact, it isn't that they just would say these things, but they have already made sure our friends know that I"m crazy and brainwashed.  I've been ostracized by everyone that knew me.

You see, I didn't accept all of this belief any longer.  I challenged it.  I questioned it.  I didn't just subscribe to the mind control philosophy of YOU MUST THINK LIKE ME.

They didn't like that.  They tried further countermeasures but those didn't work.  They escalated the countermeasures through every means possible and yet those didn't work.  When they could not control and manipulate my mind anymore, they continued to pester me every day with hurtful assaults and comments.

I had to walk away...

In my case, I finally had to walk away from the family.  I had to leave it behind.  There was no way I was going to accept the mind control that they were forcing upon me.  I didn't want to subscribe to their views and beliefs that YOU MUST THINK LIKE ME!

Yet, today in this country and world, I see the continuation of the mind control methods being employed.  People look at one another and state, YOU MUST THINK LIKE ME or I won't be your friend or I won't have anything to do with you or I will ridicule you.

Off with your head...

It is epidemic that we have gotten to a place where we hate one another so much because of some position the other person holds.  It doesn't matter what position it is, there is no coming together and no balance.  It is all about thinking like what you believe, or off with your head!

Social media displays this far more than most things.  In fact, I think it is more efficient showing the hatred for one another than even the churches or mind controlling families like my own.  You see it every day and if you don't, you're not opening your eyes.

Why is it that our way is the only right way.  Why is it that YOU MUST THINK LIKE I DO or you are wrong?  Why is it that we cannot even begin to entertain something different than what we believe?

No way to learn from others...

There is no way to grow as a person if you only see things in one dimension.  There is no way to learn from others if you see all that hold different view points as the enemy or the losers or the ones that are horrible people and scum of the earth.  There is no way to rise to higher moments in our world if all we do is stand opposed to one another.

If what we believe and think is so solid, it will stand.  We will be able to accept differing viewpoints without harming our foundation.  Yet, if our foundation is something that is not strong or we do not have confidence in, then we will not feel as if we can stand with others who think differently.

Thinking differently and allowing ourselves to entertain those thoughts is essential to being human.  It is required for us to grow.  It is necessary for our survival.

When you look at life as "YOU MUST THINK LIKE ME", than you're limiting humanity and holding all of us in a prison of our own making.  May we shake this attitude that is so pervasive across all communities and peoples and see how we can come together for our common good.

If all of our ideas were right and all other ideas are wrong, will we ever make it into a new millennium or will we be the downfall of our own civilization.  We will destroy our own by thinking we know all and everyone else is wrong?

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

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The Neglected Pepper Plant

Sometimes things can grow out of almost nothing.  In one of our Earthboxes, we had a red pepper plant growing.  Of course, the weather got to hot in our central Florida summers and so the plants died out. 

There was no need to water it any longer as the plant was at the end of its life cycle.

Lately, we have not had much rain, other than foggy nights which bring a little moisture to our world. 

However, I was looking at our red pepper plant and noticed that it had come back to life.  In fact, it had a couple of peppers on it.

Now these peppers didn't look all that great.  When you think of them coming from the neglected pepper plant, I think it is pretty cool what could be produced. 

I'm still not sure how a plant with little water could revive itself and grow these peppers, but it did.

The earthbox is a self contained growing box that I love and does a great job.  However, you have to add water to it.  Water doesn't just get in there easily.

So, as I compare this to life, sometimes we think we are neglected pepper plants.  Maybe our lives had experiences where we were neglected or mistreated or abused.  Yet, somehow, we've made it this far.

We've survived and we are growing and thriving.  We're producing fruit from our life.  Yeah, we might have some blemishes, but to grow something beautiful out of nothing is pretty darn impressive in my eyes.

So maybe instead of seeing all of the ugliness we have experienced, let us not forget to look at the fruit that was produced.  As we reach out to others and heal ourselves, we're working to make a neglected pepper plant into something so needed to sustain life.

#Earthbox

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

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We Remember Failure More Than Success

It is funny (OK, wrong choice of words here), but maybe I should say that it is interesting how humans tend to remember their failures and not always the successes as much.  At least I know I do that.  I find myself focusing on those darn failures and holding them up as proof that my life is horrible. If you don't, my hat is off to you!

When I was working at grocery store in college, I had to get on the loud speaker and say to a customer, “your order is ready”.  Ok, doesn't that sound pretty simple and easy to do?  Unfortunately it was much harder than I realized.  When I started to speak, all that came out was your…blah, noise, blah..blah, noise, sounds.  Imagine nothing sounding coherent that came out of my mouth.  Words that had no meaning and no language from where they came.

It is all that came out.  I died of embarrassment and horror.  The failure was evident in my eyes.  After that moment, I struggled to talk into a microphone or in public in any way.

Barely able to get words out...

After college, I had a job where we had meetings with several hundred people and I had to talk to them on stage.  I would be sweating profusely and barely able to get any words out.  My mouth would be so dry it felt like I was eating sand.  Everyone would look at me and offer all kinds of remedies and none of them worked. 

Fast forward to a year ago and I actually gave some talks (Syncing The Mind and Body Seminar).  I was nervous, but I did it.  It actually helped that in the job I had prior to this, I was training people almost every week in different cities.  I was doing conference calls and several other things things where I was talking to strangers in situations that weren't comfortable.

I still get shy...

While these last experiences helped me, I still get shy and sometimes it is hard for me to speak in front of people.  And yet, I want to teach!  Figure that one out!  At one time in my life, I was not afraid to talk and then that all changed.

I remember growing up as a kid where I was taught in some very physical ways, kids are to be seen and not heard.  I remember a cousin that made fun of me when I tried to tell them something that I found made me happy.  I remember the times I was beat because I didn't say the right thing at the right time.  I remember when I tried to speak up and was met with punishment beyond belief.

Yet, I see myself as having failed several times in life and sometimes that just isn’t easy point to get back from. Sometimes these moments have really taken me down and sometimes they are just too hard to even want to take a glimpse through my eyes.

The one thing I know is that usually these events become a springboard to future growth.  Yes, they may feel like failure in the beginning, but as I've found in my own life, things change.  Sometimes I needed those low moments of failure to find the next step to the springboard that would launch me further into life.

#Failure

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

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Uncomfortable Places

They are numerous in life.  I've gone through many in my own life.  Uncomfortable places can be challenging, frightening, scary, disaster zones, horror, and nightmares.  At the same time, they can be life changing events.

All too often and especially when we are going through moments that seem beyond our capability to endure, we look for things we recognize.  We look for the familiar.  We want things that help us feel like we have stability and life isn't going to evaporate before our eyes.  It is human to be this way and normal, in my view.

When I was paralyzed and was watching my body slowly slip away from me, there was nothing I could count on.  When you lose complete control of your body and any connection to it, you've lost one of the most important parts of feeling connected and in control.  It is a frightening feeling.

Sometimes it was too overwhelming...

Through that experience and many others, I have learned that I had to walk into those uncomfortable places of life.  Now, it didn't mean I did it all at once.  Sometimes I took baby steps and I inched into it.  Sometimes it meant dipping my toe in the water and pulling back out of it.  Sometimes it meant it was just too overwhelming at that moment.

However, in order to heal and become more than we are in this current moment, at some point you have to face those uncomfortable places.  Some people will push through.  Some will retreat.  Some will say, never again while others don't stop until they've found the other side.

The more power I reclaim...

I've learned through some healing work I have been through that the more I go in and learn how to deal with the uncomfortable places, the more power I reclaim for my life.  The more I feel like I have discovered who I am to a greater degree.  The more I feel like I have risen to a different view point of what I can now see, rather than what I thought I could see.

Yes, there were fears.  Yes, it was difficult.  Just for me learning how to sit up in bed and walk again, imagine if I would have said, "I'm not going into that uncomfortable place."  It was through the struggle that I learned how to reclaim my body and walk again.  It was through the struggle that I learned I was strong enough to face the things that later would show up on my path.

A never-ending path of learning...

Life is a never-ending path of learning.  Life presents us with choices and possibilities and moments where we become more than we are.  Life is about walking through those uncomfortable places to find so much more than we know exists in this moment.  I know it isn't easy, but neither is stopping at the water's edge of uncomfortable places.

I am including a blog post from 2012 for further reading, Allow The Process To Unfold.

Question Of The Day

What are some of your uncomfortable places that you've been in and how did you find your way out or are you still looking for the way out?

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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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Living In A Human Body

I remember an instructor talking about this when I was going through massage school and I think it is still relevant today.  We are humans living in a human body.  While this may sound like a simple thought, it is how we apply it to our daily life that makes it anything but simple.

Living in a human body can be difficult in the best of times and challenging in the worst of the times.  We didn't come with an owners manual telling us how to operate in every situation that we face throughout our lifetimes.  I'm not talking in a religious sense either as some might immediately generalize.

In many ways, it is a good thing that one size doesn't fit all and being human is something we hopefully search for and grow in each day of our life.  Imagine if each of us all had to be alike and for every situation that came up, we were already preprogrammed to respond in the same way.  It would make for a very boring experience in day to day life. 

Living in a human body means...

Living in a human body means that we all have challenges and pains.  We all have physical and mental difficulties that we face.  We all have situations that baffle us and empower us, enlighten us or connect us with ignorance.  Our life and what we experience varies so much from person to person and even though we are the same species, we definitely are not like anyone else.

Being human is a growth response I think to the challenges we face.  It is about learning and discovering and becoming more aware and conscious.  It is about learning how to interact with one another to survive in a brutal and harsh world, rather than limiting ourselves to our own inner circle.  The inner circle of thought and action that aligns with our views and opinions and beliefs.

It is about challenging ourselves...

Living in a human body is about dealing with the nightmares we face or the situations that feel so overwhelming.  It is also about growing and challenging ourselves to not stay in the situation we are in, but overcome it.  It is about challenging ourselves to become more, not succumb to the agony and despair we have endured.

Is it easy to live in a human body?  No, it is not always easy to do this.  Ask anyone and they will tell you what their life experiences have been.  In fact, you might even have your own story to share.  I know I do.

Living in a human body is not about a road map that others have followed, but discovery of everything that makes us who we are and leads us to all we can be.  It is about defying the odds of what everyone thinks should happen so that you can truly find what is possible.  It is about learning to deal with life in this moment as you find your own steps forward into a realm you most likely cannot see in this moment.

One of our greatest experiences...

While living in a human body can be challenging, it can be one of the greatest things we ever experience.  The true choice of that is how we respond and what we allow to happen in our life, even if it feels like we have no say in the choice.  May we all rise to discover and understand more each day what it means to live in a human body.

Here is a blog post from 2015 where I struggled to be living in my own human body called "Can You Mask Exhaustion And Stress".

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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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See Your Progress

We are constantly moving through life even if it sometimes doesn't feel like it.  We're growing and learning and changing.  Maybe we don't see it right now and we don't feel it, but it is there.  Just look and see your progress.

I think others cross our paths to help us grow and find our way while we do the same for people we meet along the way.  It is cool to look at that in this way because it means we need each other along all the changes and growth we go through.  We need each other to help us progress along life's journey.

Even in the moments that we may feel like we haven't gotten very far, just wait a few more moments and then take a look back over your shoulder.  I've got a feeling you will see things differently and see the progress you have made.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 1/3/16 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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Follow And Believe Sniff Test

Have you ever seen those cartoon characters on TV that their head literally spins round and round?  Some days I feel like that when I see some of the things that people believe and follow.  I'm not here to say what is right or wrong, but I think we follow and believe things that just don't pass the sniff test.

So today, let's consider a few things that would be part of a sniff test.  Hopefully I can write this in a way that is enlightening and not threatening to people.  After all, most people hold their beliefs very close and dear to their heart.  If you challenge them on it, they feel like you are threatening to kill them.

#1 Sniff Test - Your Experience

The way I see this is, has this been your experience?  Do you have some personal narrative to back up what you follow and believe.   Is it just something you think may be possible or it sounds plausible?  If you experience something firsthand, then you know without a shadow of a doubt that it is true for you.  However, even though it is true for you, it may not be truth for everyone.

Much More Than We See

Let's say you've lived in a world where you never saw a tree.  Maybe you were stuck inside and couldn't go out or look out a window.  Maybe you just lived on a remote island that had no trees.  Now, let's take for a moment that someone comes along and starts talking about trees.

Of course, at first you think, what is this person talking about.  What is a tree?  You have no room to understand that or comprehend what a tree is.  You don't even know what color a tree is or the shape it comes in or the height.  You don't even know what the purpose of a tree is or how beautiful it can be.  It is totally a foreign concept to you.  It is totally beyond your level of comprehension and awareness. 

Now, lets begin to go through the process that happens in the lives of many people.  You begin to learn and grow.  Your awareness increases and your knowledge grows in leaps and bounds.  You start to discover things that had no consciousness to you.  Things that were once not even seen or understood all of the sudden come into view.

Is Humanity Lost?

Some days I really wonder about the human species.  I wonder if the animals truly are the more advanced life forms on this planet.  Heck, for that matter maybe the plants are more advanced than humans.  Everywhere you look though, humanity is either asleep or just down right as hateful and evil and greedy as they can get.

So is humanity lost?  Let's explore a few of the faces of humanity that seem to be getting all the attention these days and see if it is truly lost.

Humanity is not greed.  It seems that everything these days is done out of right-out-greed.  The dollar controls every action in corporations and the news media.  Politics is no longer about the best ideas, it is about who has the money to control it.  Okay, maybe its always been that way to some degree, but in the past few years, it feels like greed is taking way too many steroids or drinking way too much caffeine.

Humanity involves creativity.  Creativity is asleep at the wheel.  What is created these days seems to be flat.  It is a rerun of the same things that are done over and over until we're so exhausted by them, we no longer know what creativity is all about.  Songs are nothing more than electronically synthesized music that makes the sensitive souls cringe as if someone was scrapping their fingers on a chalk board.  Music that is turned out these days has no soul.  It lost its soul.  Entertainment and movies has to be "greater" and "more action oriented" and "more extreme" to get anyone's attention.