Thanks for all your comments on my post, Honoring the Shadow. Agreed, we all have a shadow side. The greater the light, the greater the shadow. In today’s world, we’ve learned to project these negative feelings, our demons and dragons, onto other people, other groups, and other countries. I’m right, and you’re wrong. We dare not reflect that shadow within ourselves; it’s got to be out there somewhere. Society has placed a very high standard of how we are supposed to be, in our goodness and productivity. There’s no room for the dark side, or at least, no safe place to share those negative thoughts, our fears, our anger, our envy, our shame. The list goes on and one, wouldn’t you say?

But, even though we may project this dark side, that doesn’t extricate that shadow completely. As my favorite book by Karol Truman states in her title, Feelings Buried Alive Never Die, and indeed, even though we may deny, reject or project those emotions and feelings, they’re alive and well and will, indeed, stay within us, buried alive, to surface at sometimes the most inappropriate times, or even worse, manifest into a physical imbalance or disease.

As Chuck shared in his follow-up post More on Honoring the Shadow, we subscribe to the belief that this shadow needs to be honored, to acknowledge it and hopefully, make peace with it. The journey into the shadow needs to be an inside job, an internal journey, rather than projecting it outwardly. I know I’m the eternal optimist, but wouldn’t it be grand if we all did the work personally, without placing the blame on others, that we could honor the shadow individually without the projection outwardly; Democrats against Republicans (yes, I’ve been following our political elections), Whites upon Blacks, Men against Women, Catholics upon Protestants, Capitalists upon Communists, Muslims upon Hindus?

And I re-state and emphasize Chuck’s suggestion of using imagery as a tool to do this internal shadow work. We have a passion for guided imagery as a powerful tool in dealing with the dark side within. Since the brain cannot distinguish between what’s real and what’s imagined, we can indeed meet our demons and dragon within without projecting onto others, and come to balance within ourselves in love, peace and joy.

I subscribe to the philosophy of Roberto Assagioli, MD and Pychosynthesis. You may want to Google and read more about Dr. Assagioli’s breathtaking work. His belief, as is mine, is that there are the positive, as well as the negative, aspects within us, and that we need to make peace with all these parts, often referred to as sub-personalities. When we can come to a place of honoring that dark side, we can indeed come to balance. There is an appropriate place for anger; there is an appropriate place for fear. Honoring that part of us, and understanding, can bring an incredible shift, my friends. And further, Assagioli believes that at the core of every sub-personality is goodness. They came into our lives with good indent.

As Chuck pointed out in dealing with the addict, honor their original motive. They came in an effort to alleviate pain. Of course, along the way, it’s gotten out of hand, but honor their original motive and watch and see what’s happens. Acknowledging their efforts, making peace can bring about some incredible shifts. Even honoring the part of us that is prejudice, for example, can bring new insight, delving into where these beliefs originated, with new ways to handle our differences.

In using imagery as a tool in bringing balance to these many sub-personalities within, and after years of teaching and doing guided imagery, the following is our philosophy.

DIAGNOSIS: Imagery is instant access to feelings and the unconscious, bypassing that censor we call the mind. Trauma, pain and negative sub-personalities can be identified, truth revealed about the past, false belief systems clarified, all without judgment, understanding the past for the purpose of clarification and healing. There is no bad truth.

A SAFE PLACE: In that relaxed place of imagery, you can experience that dark side, the pain, discomfort and embarrassment and not be destroyed by it. Giving both permission and safety to freely experience any and all feelings is the beginning of healing.

UNDERSTAND CAUSE & EFFECT: Why me, why this, why now? What is the meaning of these various experiences in our lives? What is the message or learning we are to receive? Reconciling conflicts between the many sub-personalities or parts of us that we manage to externalize into outside relationships, projections and anger.

ACCEPTANCE & FORGIVENESS: Because there is no judgment, there can be an acceptance of reality, a seeing without distortion or denial, a forgiveness of self and others. Forgiveness does not imply condoning hurtful or unacceptable behavior; it is rather a releasing of the issue or trauma, choosing to not let it go on affecting one’s life. To NOT forgive is to give total power over the rest of your life to the one who injured you. A marvelous quote by Deidre S. MacCannon, Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different.  It’s accepting the past for what it was, and using this moment and this time to help yourself move forward.

HEALING: Of both the physical and the emotional, changing perceptions and beliefs that have crippled us. The feeling good about self that sends forth a host of positive chemicals throughout the body that boost the immune system and enables a natural healing.

TRANSFORMATION: Enlightenment, empowerment, courage and strength by making contact with the spiritual dimensions of the true inner self and its connection with the power of universal truth. Knowing that you are enough for any circumstance or situation.

So, it’s an inside job of acknowledging that dark side, understanding, accepting and hence, making peace with all those demons and dragons within. Reminds me of the ancient fable of Milarepa. An interesting story indeed, and years ago I wrote the following poem.

A brave young lad

Ventured forth in the world

Finding life an adventure

He grew to be a man.

 

He experienced it all

The good and the bad

Tempted by all the dragons around

He lived, he lost, he fell.

 

Now life was far from grand

His world was filled with pain

Traveling farther and farther

Away from home he wandered.

 

Then one day, one fateful day

With strength he found

From deep within

He decided to return.

 

Finding at last his home

In shock he entered a place of hell

Demons and dragons filled his head

A terror beyond his years.

 

Instead of running fast away

He faced the monsters one by one

In sheer fright he honored them

And slowly they disappeared.

 

All but one had vanished

This demon that remained

Was the meanest, the ugliest

The worst of all the lot.

 

Rather than retreating away from home

This man freed his beast in love

He started to sing

And stood square at the feet of his fears.

 

In the flash of an instant

The last demon was gone

And the man was free at last

Welcome home was filling his heart.

Also, these negative or shadow parts of us can manifest, as I mentioned, in physical imbalance or disease. As I mentioned in previous blog postings, I am a cancer survivor, no; I’m a person who happened to have had cancer. My original diagnosis was a cancerous tumor on my optic nerve. I lost the sight in my right eye. After many rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, and surgeries, my prognosis was that I had six months to live.

This was when I was introduced to guided imagery, and through the process, I met my cancer. It came in the form of a skinless deer, and rather than trying to get rid of it, I guess project it out there somewhere, I was instructed to listen to its messages, to love it, and yes, put skin on it. Remember, even a cancer, any disease for that matter, is a symptom of a part of us that needs to be healed. By acknowledging the disease, talking to it, honoring it, and yes, even loving it, we are making peace with the issues of a sub-personality within our dark side, so that symptom, the disease, is no longer necessary in our lives.

No part of us can be destroyed. It needs love and understanding so it can change or heal, rather than just wanting it to  go away. If a disease or imbalance comes your way, stop and listen to the message. With the onset of a headache, for example, stop and acknowledge the pain, ask for the message it brings. Perhaps it comes to tell us to slow down and rest. Making peace with that pain and perhaps following the advice to relax, we can allow the headache to leave, halleluiah.

So, imagery by imagery, I visualized putting skin on that deer, listened to his messages and slowly, my tumor started to shrink, I re-gained my eye sight, and today, more than twenty-five years later, I consider myself cancer free with new information and insight. A miracle? I would dare say, yes. But, again, since the brain cannot distinguish between what’s real and what’s imagined, visualizing the transformation of the deer brought about a shift in me. Embracing the deer as part of me, healing it, in turn, healed me. And thus, healing and making peace with all the shadow parts of us, can bring about a healing for not only us, personally, but the planet.

Namaste,

Patti Leviton

www.synergyseminars.com

November 8, 2010

In Greek mythology, once upon a time, so very long ago, there was a beautiful woman named Medusa, who somehow offended  Athena, the goddess of wisdom and perfection and daughter of Zeus.  In retaliation, Athena changed Medusa’s hair into snakes and made her face so hideous that all who looked on her were turned to stone.

Athena then turned to her hero, Perseus, to rescue her and to kill Medusa in a final revenge.  Athena gave him a mirror-shield to protect him, for he could not dare look at Medusa, and a magic helmet which made Perseus invisible. Perseus slew Medusa, avoiding being turned into stone by keeping his eyes on the mirror-shield.  According to the story, Medusa was killed.  Perseus, on his journey back home to celebrate his conquest, and feeling very powerful and strong, rescues the princess Andromeda from a sea monster and releases her from the rock to which she had been chained as a sacrifice. Now bear with me here, there’s point to this story.

For centuries, we have been wrestling with the dark side. We are trapped in the extremes of the gods, so to speak. Driven to do our best at school, on the job, in our relationships, in every facet of our lives, we try to make ourselves into works of art.  Working so hard to create our own perfection, we forget that we are human beings.  On one side, we try to be the efficient, disciplined goddess Athena. On the other, we are forced into the ferocious,  repressed energy of Medusa. Indeed Athena is chained to Medusa as surely as Medusa is chained to Athena. We dare not look at this shadow side, in fear that we will turn to stone.  Like Athena, we are too scared and angry to meet Medusa ourselves, to meet our demons and dragons alone.

The spiritual healing comes when we have the strength to call upon that part of us, Perseus, the invisible warrior, armed with mirrored shield, with no projections to others, and his neutrality of being invisible, to slay the monster.  Meanwhile the one who is forgotten is the maiden Andromeda, chained to the rock, in danger of being sacrificed to a monster from the unconscious.  Make sense? She is the forgotten one.  As long as she is chained to the rock she must remain still. She needs to be released, allowing her to find the deep down passion of life within each of us, that zest.

We are born whole and magnificent. Forgive me here, I sound like a Nelson Mandela speech. But, somehow our culture demands that we live out only part of our nature and refuse other parts. We divide the self into an ego and a shadow because our culture insists that we behave in a particular way, that there’s a right way or wrong way to do things, according to our family, our community, our church, our country. Hence, we all arrive at adulthood with a clearly defined ego and shadow, a system of good and bad, a teeter-totter with two sides.  Ego and right are thought to be synonymous, while shadow and wrong are also to be paired. Indeed, a division, a separation.

And then, the religious or spiritual process consists of restoring the wholeness of the personality.  The word religion means to re-relate, to put back together again, to heal the wounds of separation.  It is absolutely necessary to engage in the cultural process to redeem ourselves from our animal state; and paradoxically, it is equally necessary to accomplish the spiritual task of putting our fractured, alienated world back together again.  I believe this is true of each of us, as well as collectively as a country, as a planet. One must break away from the Garden of Eden, of this separation, if you will.

Therefore, it is clear that in order to keep our culture, we must make a shadow, or there would be no culture, no right or wrong. We must restore the wholeness of the personality that was lost in the cultural ideals, or we will live in a state of dividedness that grows more and more painful throughout our evolution.  Culture has divided the ego as the right, and the shadow as the left, wrong or bad. 

One of Jung’s greatest insights is that the ego and the shadow come from the same source and exactly balance each other.  To make light is to make shadow; one cannot exist without the other. To own one’s shadow is to reach a holy place, an inner center, not attainable in any other way.  To fail this is to fail one’s own sainthood and to miss the point and purpose of life.

We cannot make light without a corresponding darkness.  India balances Brahma, the god of creation, with Shiva, the god of destruction, and Vishnu sits in the middle keeping the opposites together.

In German, there is a term, doppelganger, meaning one’s mirror image, one’s opposite.  Goethe was profoundly affected when he approached his home one evening and was met by a vision of his doppelganger, the other one who lived in his home, his personality.

The central symbol of Christianity, the cross, is a double seesaw with the two axis crossing at the center.  It provides the framework for balancing the right or good and left or evil, as well as the high and the low, a true balance. The further apart, the greater the opposites on both sides, the greater the creativity, the greater the shadow.

Narrow creativity always brings a narrow shadow with it, while broader talents call up a greater portion of the dark. Schumann, the composer, went mad, two extremes. The world knows about the very dark side of Picasso. Think of all the geniuses with their unusual habits. The greater the creativity, the greater the shadow, indeed keeping the balance.

On a global level, we have escalated war and political strife to equal our visions of utopia and the perfect world. Again, the balance, the opposites, no matter how extreme. If you’ve followed me up until now, you may ask, how can we produce something of beauty or goodness without doing an equal amount of wreckage?

As I’ve mentioned many times and share in all my lectures, the unconscious cannot tell the difference between an actual act or event and a symbolic one, between what’s real and what’s imagined. This means that we can aspire to beauty and goodness, and play out that darkness in a symbolic way.  This enables us to do the upkeep on both sides, while still keeping the balance.

This would include the thrill of horror movies, gangster epics, TV crime shows, the front page of our newspapers with IF IT BLEEDS, IT LEADS philosophy, driving slow to see the accident on the freeway, playing violent video games. This, in essence, is honoring that dark side.

George Bernard Shaw said that the only alternative to torture is art.  This means, in essence, we engage in our shadow in the symbolic world or have to face its alternative, brutality and true violence.

As an example, in the early 1990’s with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and a new relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, we entered a brief period of euphoria and were convinced that we had left the dark days behind.  Yet here is an example of what the human shadow can do. We unconsciously picked up the energy released from this relationship and put the shadow in another place!  Hence, always the balance.

Only months later, we were engaged in another struggle, with terrifying technology behind it.  When the US went to war in the Persian Gulf, once again we see the rise of primitive psychology, with both sides projecting demons and dragons onto their opponents.  The Collective Consciousness, the greater the civilization, the more intent it is upon its own destruction. And so it goes.

This is global and any real repair of our fractured world must start with individuals who have the insight and courage to own their own shadow.  The tendency to see one’s shadow out there in one’s neighbor or in another country and is the most dangerous aspect of the modern psyche.   Nothing out there will help if the interior projecting is not honored to wholeness.

However, if even a few people find wholeness, the whole world will be saved.  God talked about if just one righteous man could be found in Sodom and Gomorrah, those cities would be spared.  And slowly, I believe this new spiritual movement of peace is making a difference. As stated in Gregg Braden’s book, The Spontaneous Healing of Belief, in his research with the Conflict Resolution study of 1988, it only takes the square root of one percent of any given population to begin the process of peace and wholeness. But, more on that in future blogs.

So it’s an inside job, right? What happens to the left side of the balance if one does not keep it conscious and give it honorable expression?

First, the shadow will project. Unless we do conscious work, the shadow will almost always project; that is, it is neatly laid on someone or something else so we don’t have to take responsibility for it. It was HIS fault becomes the mantra.  

Whole businesses are devoted to containing our shadows for us, the movie industry, fashion designs, and even novels and TV shows provide us with easy places to invest our shadow. Men lay their shadow upon women. Whites upon blacks. Catholics upon Protestants. Capitalists upon communists. Muslims upon Hindus. And so it goes. I find the ritual fascinating in that each year, the Aztecs would chose a youth and a maiden to carry the shadow and then ceremonially sacrificed them. 

Ever wonder where the term bogey man came from? In old India, each community chose a man to be the bogey. He was to be slaughtered at the end of the year to take the evil deeds of the community with him.  The people were so grateful for this service that until his death, the bogey was not required to do any work and could have anything he wanted.  He was treated as a representative of the next world, so to speak.  Since he had the power of the collective shadow in him, he was supremely powerful and feared. 

Jung would say there but for the grace of God go I. I guess we can say, be grateful for our enemies, for their darkness allows us to escape our own.  Jung once talked about a man he was doing analysis with. The man complained that he never dreamed.  He also said that his five year old son had the most vivid dreams. Jung took the son’s dreams as the unlived shadow of the father and viewed them as a part of the man’s own psychology, and he applied the son’s dreams to the father.  After about a month of this, the father began dreaming on his own, and the son’s vivid dreaming ceased.  The sins of the father, right?

Harry Truman had a little saying the buck stops here. Of course, he meant this as a statement of taking responsibility and personal authority. Basically his thoughts were financially, however, could this not be psychological, too? If only we could give our next generation, our children, the most wonderful blessing, to stop the blame and projection, that we would stop passing the buck to them.

William Blake spoke about the need to reconcile these two parts of self, this right side and left side.  He said we should go to heaven for form, the right side, and to hell, the left side, for energy, and then marry the two.  When we can face our inner heaven and our inner hell, this is the highest form of creativity.

Hamarati’s code is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Mahatma Gandhi would say, .you end up with a blind and toothless world.  We can refuse a shadow projection and stop the endless cycle of revenge if we will just own our shadow, and only our own.  To be in the presence of another’s shadow and not reply is nothing short of genius.

There is a story of a Japanese girl in a small fishing village that became pregnant but was still living in her parent’s home, unmarried.  All the villagers pressed her to name the father.  After many angry questions, she finally confessed it’s the priest. The villagers confronted the priest and all he would say was Ah so.

For months afterward, the people were very down on this simple priest.  Then a young man who had been away from the village for some time, returned and asked to marry the girl. It turned out that he was the father of the child. The girl had made up this unlikely story to protect him.  The villagers went to the priest and apologized.  And all the priest would say was Ah so. This story shows the power of waiting while others do their own shadow work. We don’t need to project on others.

Then how we do individually honor our own shadows and not project on others, you may ask? First, the premise, we are whole. And at the core in all of us is good. And there is a balance, the right and the left. Through culture we have learned to disown part of ourselves. But to keep the balance, we’ve learned to project on others, or outside circumstances. But rather than outside, we need to look inside, to meet that left side of us, the shadow. Because of the neglect and dishonor, indeed we have all created monsters.

A story told by Shakti Gawain about a mother busily preparing for a special dinner party.  Her toddler son was bugging her for a cookie.  She dismissed his demands and went about her preparation.  The child grew more insistent, and soon there erupted an argument.  The child was sent to his room.  He had a tantrum and began to scream.  The mother matched his fury and spanked him.  The struggle escalated and both were yelling in rage.  The mother, as a last resort, threw the kicking and screaming child in a closet.  He began to yell louder and his strength was unbelievable.  He kicked and pounded, to the point the mother began to fear for her life.  She bolted the door and now the child became a monster.  She could feel the heat from his fire breathing attacks.  She thrust her whole body against the door to keep him contained.  All her energy now on was fighting the demon.  The dinner party was long gone from her mind.  Her only concern was survival from the monster. What does this monster want from me? She screamed in terror. The reply was simply a cookie!

To individually have the strength to face our demons. Remember, the unconscious cannot distinguish between what’s real and what’s imagined, so to honor that shadow side does not necessarily mean physical destruction and chaos, but an internal acknowledgement of the dark side, that balance.

As Dr. Thurman Fleet explains in his book, Ray of the Dawn, these two sides, the good and the evil. The laws of the Soul, the good, and the laws of the Mind, the evil.

 Faith                     Fear

Hope                   Worry

Generosity           Selfishness

Aspiration           Vanity

Patience              Anger

Sympathy            Criticism

Noninterference                 Envy

Kindness             Greed

Courage              Hypocrisy

Forgiveness        Prejudice

Duty                   Jealousy

Love                   Hate

Honoring all these emotions is normal and necessary to keep the balance, the dance, if you will. Taking personal responsibility for our wholeness, the good and the bad, the right and the left, without projecting onto others is, I believe, the key to reaching our individual balance for ourselves, and thus the world. Dream on, I know, but perhaps to reach that perfect place of world peace at last. And, let it be known that the actual meaning and derivation of the word perfect is balance. Something to think about.

Namaste,

Patti Leviton

www.synergyseminars.com

October 24, 2010

As a former board member of the American Holistic Health Association, as well as a holistic practitioner, I am both intrigued and pleased with the current increase in scientific studies on the body/mind connection.  The research of biochemists such as Dr. Candace Pert is proving that there IS a connection between our thoughts, emotions, even the words we speak, and our physiology.  Her fascinating work is substantiating that our feelings can stimulate certain hormones and chemicals in our body that can enhance or suppress our immune system, that a negative attitude, for example, can literally lower our metabolism.  No wonder that diet never works when we’re depressed! 

I believe, therefore, that the first step to a more holistic lifestyle begins with being AWARE.  Just by being aware of our thoughts, our state of mind, our attitudes, we can make a subtle shift.  The body, an obedient and faithful servant, is listening.  I remember as a child growing up in Chicago, in the fall season, my family started stocking the medicine cabinets with cold pills and aspirin.  The flu season would soon be upon us.  Alas, self-fulfilling prophecy, our bodies obeyed, and sure enough, we would bout with a round or two of the flu.  The body was indeed providing what we asked for or expected.

Similarly, as we indulge in a marvelous hot fudge sundae, we often say, I’m going to gain ten pounds! and maybe we do.  The body is always listening.  Think about all the negative and often erroneous information we feed our bodies on a daily basis.  Review your belief systems for the truth you tell your body.  Think about the dialogue, the positive as well as the negative things you convey to yourself.  What is your belief about your health?  What do you tell yourself about diet?

We have the power to control our thoughts, adjust our attitudes, our outlook, and slowly, I believe the body is given the permission to heal.  We can gradually give the body freedom to mend and perform all the functions of health in perfection.  This, indeed is a continual process of our own self talk.  By affirmation, whether it is by our thoughts or our words, slowly the body will obey in health.

The second step in this journey of health is BELIEF.  Modern science is continually baffled by the phenomenon of the placebo effect.  When we believe that a certain procedure or medication will be effective, it will.  Increasing the efficacy by 50 to 60%, I believe our positive self talk to the body is working.

Decades ago, during the Vietnam War, ill prepared for the enormity of the conflict, medics found themselves too often tending to the severely wounded with no morphine.  Time after time, they would administer an IV saline solution, the only thing they had, telling the soldiers that it WAS morphine and that their pain would soon subside.  Within a short time, the pain was alleviated.  How?  Sugar water is hardly an analgesic.  Was it their belief that it was morphine that literally tricked the body into producing the chemicals, the endorphins, necessary to block pain?  Lab reports taken from these soldiers who had been given only saline, but with the understanding that it was morphine, revealed there was morphine in the blood. Where did it come from?  The body was listening indeed.

Wherever your healing journey takes you, be aware of your self talk.  Do you believe in the treatment, what is your belief system about each particular modality?  If you believe and have confidence, the body hears this and will respond in a positive way.  If you are fearful and apprehensive, the body likewise will react in a negative way. 

And the third step in the process is REMEMBERED WELLNESS.  As researched by Dr. Herbert Benson, Harvard University Medical School, when we visualize or think about our bodies in health, remember a time when we felt our bodies were the strongest and healthiest, certain hormones and chemicals are literally secreted to replicate that good health.  Time and again, in my private practice, I use this technique with my clients to promote healing.  As they imagine and remember themselves in perfect health, their bodies are literally obeying.

Right now, think about a time when you felt the best, when you felt you were the healthiest.  It could be last week, last year, or twenty years ago.  Close your eyes and literally see yourself as that strong, perfect you.  Feel the balance, the strength.  Now, throughout your day, continue to think about that healthy you.  The body IS listening. Research has proven that just by focusing and thinking about yourself in health enhances the immune system.  By doing a simple saliva test, scientists are proving that the immunoglobulin A increases.  Indeed, proving a powerful body/mind connection.

Your journey to a more holistic lifestyle begins with being AWARE.  Your very thoughts and attitudes can greatly effect your health, positively or negatively; it’s your choice.  Then add BELIEF, the strong commitment that what you are doing is in the best interest of your health and wellbeing.  And, lastly, focus on the healthy you, the REMEMBERED WELLNESS of when you felt the strongest and healthiest.  Your body is a faithful obedient servant that will respond. 

Simple tools to begin your journey.

Namaste,

Patti Leviton

October 3, 2010

Synergy Seminars

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If you’ve been following our blog, the theme of all our articles is basically wrapped around the body-mind connection, dreams and guided imagery.  For those of you who may not be familiar with imagery, allow me to introduce you to this powerful process.

Guided imagery is as old as psychotherapy itself. Called by many different names, visualization, directed daydreams, active imagination, this process is a state of relaxation whereby we can bypass that censor we call the brain and go directly into the buried emotions of the unconscious. This place of healing can bring to the surface painful or negative issues that need to be seen, understood, or resolved, whether emotional or physical. The body cannot heal in chaos. Through this process of relaxation we provide our bodies the environment to balance and regain health and well-being.

Major universities and hospital centers are combining imagery with traditional healing practices as a tool in the treatment of catastrophic illness, as well as in quicker recovery from surgical procedures. Imagery can be marvelous in helping to eliminate some of the negative side effects from any chemotherapy treatment.

An imagery experience is like a dream except we don’t have to wait for the unconscious to provide the dream or the subject matter. We can create a dream at any time to cover any desired subject. Whether using imagery for emotional trauma or physical situations, this process can be dynamic. A client, Ann, came to me concerned about a cyst discovered in her breast, which was filled with an unidentified substance. Her doctor recommended draining the growth in hopes that it would shrivel up. In an imagery experience, I asked Ann to see the cyst and she did. I suggested that she imagine a spray bottle filled with a healing solution, made up of all the chemicals from her own body needed to heal and flush away the cyst. This image of the magic solution is not as unusual as you may think, for scientifically, there is not a chemical or pharmaceutical available today that the body cannot replicate within itself.

As Ann imagined spraying this solution liberally over the cyst, I asked her to watch and see what happened. Spontaneously, she saw a substance draining from the cyst and slowly the growth began to shrink and shrivel up. A week late, her doctor reported that the cyst had almost disappeared and the procedure was no longer necessary.

Whether you are just in maintenance of a strong body or facing a particular health issue, you can try an imagery right now. Close your eyes and visualize your own healing solution flushing away poisons, toxins, pain, or disease, relaxing and bathing your body with peace and calm. Take a deep breath and literally feel yourself relax. In this place of relaxation or imagery, the body does change, and physiological shifts do happen, and healing begins. In the area of severe illness such as asthma or cancer, imagery can also uncover the emotional components that underlie the illness and then give the body permission to heal. This love and support can often provide physical miracles. And, as modern research is proving, the brain cannot distinguish between what’s real and what’s imagined, so, through imagery, imagine that return to wellness.

On your own,  you can use CDs to experience a journey of relaxation and healing. A simple google search brings hundreds of CDs available on just about any subject you can think of. Also, visit our website at http://www.synergyseminars.com/bookstore/bookstore.htm for a full listing of all our CDs, from dealing with cancer to releasing weight, from alleviating pain to increasing energy, and everything  in between.

Guided imagery with a caring therapist provides a safe and non-judgmental place for facing your fears or negative aspects of self. Feeling protected, supported, listened to, and understood is one of life’s most healing experiences.

Charles D. Leviton, EdD

September 28, 2010

Synergy Seminars

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In my post awhile back entitled Show up and Pay Attention, I discussed the Sufi’s four levels of consciousness.

Show Up

Pay Attention

Tell your Truth

And Don’t be Attached to the Outcome

In today’s world, these words of wisdom are even more profound and insightful than when they were first written some two centuries ago.

With all the craziness in the universe right now, with the exaggerations and polarities, we need to truly SHOW UP. To be in each moment, in the present. Not go back to the past, which may be filled with anger, sadness or regret. Not to look to the future which may contain anxiety and fear. But, in the present, the NOW. Eckhart Tolle does an exquisite job of discussing this in his book The Power of Now.

In Neurolinguistics, it is said that when a person is thinking about the past, they tend to shift their eyes up and look to the left. While thinking about the future, eyes go up and to the right. But, with eyes forward, the person is more able to be present and in the moment. So, to be in the NOW is indeed looking straight ahead. As modern research is proving, the place in the brain that is functioning in the here and now, really has no emotion. It’s that place of just taking in information. So, SHOW UP is about gathering facts, without judgment, and just being present.

Then, as we PAY ATTENTION, we begin to see details and process, again from this place of non-judgment, to see the world without the morphic resonance or collective unconscious of the world. To see things as they truly are, not clouded by prejudice or according to the preconceived notions of what it should be or could be.

Then, the TELLING YOUR TRUTH becomes much easier, because it’s about our authenticity, our truth according to us. As we separate from the situation according to how the world wants us to perceive it or believe it, we can truly speak according to how it resonates with us.

Now, the hard part. DON’T BE ATTACHED TO THE OUTCOME. Hey, we showed up, we paid attention and we told our truth. Of course, we should be attached to the outcome. Right? However, as I mentioned in the previous blog page, to the contrary, if we show up and pay attention and truly speak our truth, there’s no need to be attached to the outcome. Whatever happens is fine, because it happened. Believe in the process of the first three steps and then let go of any outcome. Perhaps the universe has bigger and better plans. Perhaps the outcome can give us lessons to change, or maybe not change.

By not being attached to the outcome, we don’t define ourselves by that outcome. If, for dinner, I make a quiche that turns out terrible, am I a terrible person? No. Not being attached to the outcome makes me conscious of the preparation of the quiche, and if it turns out poorly, that doesn’t define me, but gives me information of what I did wrong or what needs to be changed in making it again.

In a similar fashion, DON’T BE ATTACHED TO THE OUTCOME applies to our past, our history. Now, more than ever before in our history, we have come to carry our past, the outcome of our lives, as an attachment, defining us, defining who we are.  Hi, I’m a rape victim or Hi, I’m an alcoholic. We attach to all the traumas from our past, carrying with us each day, each moment, the pain of all the things that have happened to us.

Years ago I was proud of the fact that I could say I’m a cancer survivor. Indeed, I am blessed that I’m still here today to even make the comment, however, I’ve come to realize that this statement really re-enforces the attachment to that journey. It defines who I am and continues to feed the emotions wrapped around the cancer, the pain, the fear, the anxiety, the desperation. As one of my favorite authors, Karol Truman, captured so well in the title of her book, Feelings Buried Alive Never Die.

We all have the traumas and pain from our past, that’s our history. But, staying attached keeps all those negative emotions alive within us. We carry them like a badge of honor, defining our very being. Then, when we’re face with a new experience, a new challenge, we not only react with the one trumpet of the moment, but a  symphony of all the past hurts join in. Often creating an exaggerated and deafening reaction to the present situation.  

I lost my parents in a car accident many years ago. After years of work, I have been able to let go of the attachment to the trauma. Of course, I can’t let go of the memory, it happened and nothing can change that. After almost forty years, I still miss them so. All of us have a history we can’t change. But I have let go of all the emotions and now, if I’m ever involved in a car accident, I know my emotions will be appropriate to the moment, without re-awakening the pain from my past.

Ok, so how do we let go of the past, let go of the attachment? The brain processes all our experiences in two different places. One place, the hippocampus, holds the actual event, the details of what happened and the other part, the amygdala, holds the reactions, the feelings, the emotions. Through imagery, we can literally unplug, if you will, from the emotions, the pain. The event must remain, but the emotions of the trauma can be released. A simple shift in changing the ATTACHED to CONNECT. We no longer need to attach to the outcome, but we can connect to the experience, it is part of our history and it has indeed brought us many lessons of personal growth and empowerment.

Imagine that sacred ritual of people standing in a circle. Arms outstretched to their sides. But rather than holding hands, which it truly a symbol of attaching, we need to re-define that to connecting. In many Native American cultures, this circle involves arms outstretched, left palm up, right palm down but not touching; connecting WITH, not attaching TO the other person.  

Right now, I invite you to think of an event from your past that you would consider a trauma or was very painful for you. Now close your eyes and see it as a symbol that represents that event. Got it? Now, see yourself standing in front of that symbol and you realize that there is a fine cord attaching you to that symbol. See it? Now, I invite you to see a tool right there on the ground that would be able to cut that cord, and I’ll give you some time to just sever the cord. The symbol must remain, it is part of your history, but the attachment to you is no longer necessary.

Since research is proving that the brain cannot distinguish between what’s real and what’s imagined, use your imagination to re-frame and shift from being defined and attached by our past, our traumas, to a place of personal empowerment and connect as just part of our history, our story; changing the words from ATTACH to CONNECT, a simple shift in consciousness. Similar to my theory of telling the body to RELEASE weight, rather than LOSE weight. Because, in the processing of the brain, everything is taken literally. Whatever we lose we will try to find. So release is letting go forever. Come on, admit it, how many times have you lost a few pounds and then gained them back? Indeed, the body is obeying and finding once again what it has lost.

Attach, in Latin, literally means TO BECOME PART OF. We become part of each event and it defines us.  I become my cancer. We become whatever happened to us.

Connect, on the other hands, connectere, its Latin meaning, to tie together, each remaining separate in and of itself.

Subtle difference, but profound. So rather than saying I’m a cancer survivor, I now say I happen to be a person who had cancer.  I no longer need to attach to the experience, but rather connect that it is part of my history.

Namaste,

Patti Leviton

September 21, 2010

Synergy Seminars

www.synergyseminars.com

Chuck and I were at a conference in Tucson this past week, and I didn’t check my blog. Home now, this morning, armed with my cup of coffee, I checked the site. WOW. I was blown away by all your comments about our articles. Indeed, that warms my heart. I’m sharing my observations about the world around me, and you validate that we are all experiencing the same thing. Like minded, fellow journey men, if you will, traveling and experiencing the same adventures. I’m sharing my world, according to me, and find there are many on the path. Thanks for all your complimentary comments, and I hope you will continue to enjoy our words.

For all of us, honor the synchronicities of the universe. I read years ago the quote by Allen Vaughn, “a coincidence is just a way for God to be anonymous.” Indeed, pay attention to all those coincidences in your life right now. Even the simple experience of starting to hum a special song and then turn on the radio and they’re playing that tune. Perhaps that’s the universe saying “we honor you, we’re paying attention”. Don’t try to figure out the logical reason why, when you were thinking about someone and then, out of the blue, they just called you. Just smile and say “thank you”. Pay attention to all those sacred synchronicities. It is indeed a validation that you’re on the right track.

I take comfort in these synchronicities. It’s as if I know there is a greater power out there taking care of me. From the simple coincidences of going to the market to buy toothpaste and discovering your favorite brand is on sale, to, quite by accident, meeting someone who will become your best friend or life partner. Indeed, there are no accidents. So, from  these small and sometimes silly coincidences as validation, build your trust that all the traumas of life will bring the right person, the right information, the right whatever your way to give you the power to handle anything.

I was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor some twenty-five years ago. I look back and see all the wonderful synchronicities that opened the doors for my healing. Quite by chance it was during that time I met my husband. A therapist, he was teaching and using guided imagery with his clients, and we began using this modality as a tool, first to reduce the side effects from the chemotherapy and then, to delve deeply into the issues of what were the lessons I was supposed to learn from this journey of cancer. Through imagery, I learned how to get out of my own way, if you will, and give my body permission to heal. And so it was. From a diagnosis of six months to live to now, my life path of sharing and teaching the art and science of guided imagery.

So, to you, my bloggers, I am interested to know how you found our site.  There are no accidents. And also, if you’re interested in learning more about imagery, visit our website at www.synergyseminars.com. Namaste,

Patti Leviton

Synergy Seminars

www.synergyseminars.com

August 28, 2010