Holding Space and Allowing the Flow
Sep 23, 2016
By Chris Lowe
It is not the problem that causes internal energy drain, as much as it is the stored significance we assign to a problem. ~ Heart Math
Early in life I felt I had to be doing something useful to be of any 'value', to be somebody. 'Désoeuvré', my grandmother used to say this word while giving me a look of absolute disapproval. I felt the weight of this word, as if it cut into me and gave rise to a feeling of dread. 'At a loose end with nothing to do' is the translation of this word from google, but it was much more than that to me. She was, after all, the matriarch and could name family members who had amounted to 'nothing' in her eyes, and how they had been outcast from the family circle... cast away. I can still hear her voice, and growing up I felt the dread of being caught doing nothing, then I am nothing. All because of that stored significance of this word, I did not feel safe to be me. I had to live up to the family expectations and had to meet some criteria of the family consciousness. The fear of not belonging brought on some anxiety, and I seemed to operate from that space.
Emotions are an Immaculate Navigational System ~ F E Dodson
From birth I seem to have been beside myself, not in my body most of the time, and suffered from unexplained anxiety, IBS and child obesity. Not feeling safe, emotionally safe, and most of the time preferring my own company, a loner. Much later on I realized that I had a badly functioning Vagal tone and at the time no medical personnel ever identified this syndrome.
Quite a lot has been written on this amazing bio-directional system, Vagus system, that connects the brain, the Heart Brain, the gut brain as well as the conscious and subconscious mind. Dr Stephen Porges, Neuroscientist, has put this squarely in our conscious space due to his extensive research in the field of relationships and compassion. The Polyvagal Theory
Feeling safe is the most desirable emotion required to function optimally and with ease.
Unsafe to speak our mind, fear of being judged, not owning our space and unable to just be ourselves generates a sense of discomfort with self. It is easier then not to be present, nor to be in the moment. More and more in our practice we are seeing school aged children, who are not part of a 'circle of friends', reacting in unsafe mode, depressed, insecure and overweight. Cast away from their peers. Emotions that set off a cascade of chemicals from their internal security systems; and distraught parents have run out of options, save to medicate the feeling away. It seems that their internal security system apparatus is over stretched by too much anxiety, leading to disruption of their operating systems and leaving the individual unable to respond with confidence to situations that present themselves. Symptoms like PTSD are now showing up in children.
Balance, harmony and flow of our energy system equals health; when this flow is disturbed by distress, the internal balance will find a different combination to re-establish itself: a balance within the imbalance. Often by becoming compulsive doers, compulsive eaters, just to calm themselves and self soothe and get to a place of a reasonably safe feeling. This raised stress level is what brings most of our clients to our practice to seek relief from their resulting physical symptoms.
For healing to take place, the person seeking understanding and relief needs to feel safe with his health practitioner.
As practitioners, do we have a stable vagal tone to enable us to interact with compassion, without judgement? Does our voice communicate this ease of being to the clients? Our vocal chords will communicate more information than just our words, our facial expression, our eyes, will indicate if we are present or not. All this is happening unconsciously to our awareness but felt deeply by the energy systems of our clients. We can't 'fake' being present and grounded (good vagal tone).
Deep healing takes place at an electromagnetic level and the clients energetic system will probe our own at a level that is not known or understood by them, but is a fail-safe system of interaction. Their subtle senses will gauge, from the practitioner's field, if there is enough compassion for their story to be heard and received respectfully, without judgement, that it is safe for them to be angry or ok to be scared, that the shame they secretly carry can be expressed and released like a lanced abscess and will open to a new way of being. Only then, will his internal engagement system allow him to relax into trusting and letting go mode. In this safe space, the client will feel, have a gut feel, that his feelings will be validated. And at that point in time in the healing session, he is the most important person deserving of attention and that 'time', as a boundary that contains his current reality, fades...
Past, present and future will blend into a fluid space of no time/space and they might be able to see that the pain they experiencing is a messenger that alerts them of an opportunity to shift into a different state of health and wellness; the gift of grace. This 'gift' that was packaged in a destructive energy configuration, has kept their story locked up for eons of time, reality, dimension and space...and the story can be set free from the confinement of their perceived reality. In that fluid state, unlocking 'his story' of trapped pain to flow freely as new codes of perceptions are activated. A different time line will show up, one where the energy no longer feels stuck but has the potential of dissolving and reshaping itself according to different rules set.
We exist in all planes simultaneously, but we lack awareness of them because our consciousness is not synchronized with them. In such a state all of the many physical possibilities become available enabling the healer to switch to another one. ~ Lifeforce: The Scientific Basis, Dr Claude Swanson - Physicist
We have at our disposal several tools to quiet our Vagal system. One of them is Conscious breathing- The ancient art of deep conscious breathing is an amazing tool to calm and self soothe. Slowly inhaling through the nose to the count of 4, holding our breath to the count of 7 and releasing consciously through the mouth to the count of 8. In the holding of the breath between inhaling and exhaling, is where the magic of space happens.
As the breath is very slowly and consciously taken in, particle by particle, there comes this moment when the body is filled with air and prana, without room for any more. In that moment, there is a pause, a space. The world seems to stop, and the thoughts in the mind also stop very naturally.
~ Breakthrough Consciousness by S Janis.
Deep relaxing breaths that not only oxygenate the brains, but allows the Vagus nerve to fulfill its many functions of sending acetylcholine to the brain and heart, retraining our nervous system to relax, sending increased energy into our internal organs. It is also believed to be the receptor for oxytocin, the neurotransmitter that is involved with bonding and compassion. Using the power of intention and attention, visualize and focus on the Vagus system and all its internal connection to our organs while breathing consciously; will help to re-establish the bio-directional highway between our brain, heart brain and gut brain as well as our minds: conscious and subconscious.
Used as a meditation tool, it will quiet the 'monkey mind'. This simple exercise will bring us to the present should we feel triggered during an interaction, we can consciously bring our attention to our breath, without anyone noticing our internal discomfort. The Bodytalk technique of Tapping of Cortices, my instinctual go-to technique when I need to calm my mind, brings immediate relief to many ..issues. And again, with attention and intention of restoring the communication systems, a special emphasis on the meridian system acting as the carrier band to our extremities, is undoubtedly the Rolls Royce of self-help, but depending on place and time, it might not be convenient, while breathing is the quintessence of life.
Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh.
Our healing breath keeps us present so that the flow of information and healing can reveal it self through our quietened mind.
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Early in life I felt I had to be doing something useful to be of any 'value', to be somebody. 'Désoeuvré', my grandmother used to say this word while giving me a look of absolute disapproval. I felt the weight of this word, as if it cut into me and gave rise to a feeling of dread. 'At a loose end with nothing to do' is the translation of this word from google, but it was much more than that to me. She was, after all, the matriarch and could name family members who had amounted to 'nothing' in her eyes, and how they had been outcast from the family circle... cast away. I can still hear her voice, and growing up I felt the dread of being caught doing nothing, then I am nothing. All because of that stored significance of this word, I did not feel safe to be me. I had to live up to the family expectations and had to meet some criteria of the family consciousness. The fear of not belonging brought on some anxiety, and I seemed to operate from that space.
Emotions are an Immaculate Navigational System ~ F E Dodson
From birth I seem to have been beside myself, not in my body most of the time, and suffered from unexplained anxiety, IBS and child obesity. Not feeling safe, emotionally safe, and most of the time preferring my own company, a loner. Much later on I realized that I had a badly functioning Vagal tone and at the time no medical personnel ever identified this syndrome.
Quite a lot has been written on this amazing bio-directional system, Vagus system, that connects the brain, the Heart Brain, the gut brain as well as the conscious and subconscious mind. Dr Stephen Porges, Neuroscientist, has put this squarely in our conscious space due to his extensive research in the field of relationships and compassion. The Polyvagal Theory
Feeling safe is the most desirable emotion required to function optimally and with ease.
Unsafe to speak our mind, fear of being judged, not owning our space and unable to just be ourselves generates a sense of discomfort with self. It is easier then not to be present, nor to be in the moment. More and more in our practice we are seeing school aged children, who are not part of a 'circle of friends', reacting in unsafe mode, depressed, insecure and overweight. Cast away from their peers. Emotions that set off a cascade of chemicals from their internal security systems; and distraught parents have run out of options, save to medicate the feeling away. It seems that their internal security system apparatus is over stretched by too much anxiety, leading to disruption of their operating systems and leaving the individual unable to respond with confidence to situations that present themselves. Symptoms like PTSD are now showing up in children.
Balance, harmony and flow of our energy system equals health; when this flow is disturbed by distress, the internal balance will find a different combination to re-establish itself: a balance within the imbalance. Often by becoming compulsive doers, compulsive eaters, just to calm themselves and self soothe and get to a place of a reasonably safe feeling. This raised stress level is what brings most of our clients to our practice to seek relief from their resulting physical symptoms.
For healing to take place, the person seeking understanding and relief needs to feel safe with his health practitioner.
As practitioners, do we have a stable vagal tone to enable us to interact with compassion, without judgement? Does our voice communicate this ease of being to the clients? Our vocal chords will communicate more information than just our words, our facial expression, our eyes, will indicate if we are present or not. All this is happening unconsciously to our awareness but felt deeply by the energy systems of our clients. We can't 'fake' being present and grounded (good vagal tone).
Deep healing takes place at an electromagnetic level and the clients energetic system will probe our own at a level that is not known or understood by them, but is a fail-safe system of interaction. Their subtle senses will gauge, from the practitioner's field, if there is enough compassion for their story to be heard and received respectfully, without judgement, that it is safe for them to be angry or ok to be scared, that the shame they secretly carry can be expressed and released like a lanced abscess and will open to a new way of being. Only then, will his internal engagement system allow him to relax into trusting and letting go mode. In this safe space, the client will feel, have a gut feel, that his feelings will be validated. And at that point in time in the healing session, he is the most important person deserving of attention and that 'time', as a boundary that contains his current reality, fades...
Past, present and future will blend into a fluid space of no time/space and they might be able to see that the pain they experiencing is a messenger that alerts them of an opportunity to shift into a different state of health and wellness; the gift of grace. This 'gift' that was packaged in a destructive energy configuration, has kept their story locked up for eons of time, reality, dimension and space...and the story can be set free from the confinement of their perceived reality. In that fluid state, unlocking 'his story' of trapped pain to flow freely as new codes of perceptions are activated. A different time line will show up, one where the energy no longer feels stuck but has the potential of dissolving and reshaping itself according to different rules set.
We exist in all planes simultaneously, but we lack awareness of them because our consciousness is not synchronized with them. In such a state all of the many physical possibilities become available enabling the healer to switch to another one. ~ Lifeforce: The Scientific Basis, Dr Claude Swanson - Physicist
We have at our disposal several tools to quiet our Vagal system. One of them is Conscious breathing- The ancient art of deep conscious breathing is an amazing tool to calm and self soothe. Slowly inhaling through the nose to the count of 4, holding our breath to the count of 7 and releasing consciously through the mouth to the count of 8. In the holding of the breath between inhaling and exhaling, is where the magic of space happens.
As the breath is very slowly and consciously taken in, particle by particle, there comes this moment when the body is filled with air and prana, without room for any more. In that moment, there is a pause, a space. The world seems to stop, and the thoughts in the mind also stop very naturally.
~ Breakthrough Consciousness by S Janis.
Deep relaxing breaths that not only oxygenate the brains, but allows the Vagus nerve to fulfill its many functions of sending acetylcholine to the brain and heart, retraining our nervous system to relax, sending increased energy into our internal organs. It is also believed to be the receptor for oxytocin, the neurotransmitter that is involved with bonding and compassion. Using the power of intention and attention, visualize and focus on the Vagus system and all its internal connection to our organs while breathing consciously; will help to re-establish the bio-directional highway between our brain, heart brain and gut brain as well as our minds: conscious and subconscious.
Used as a meditation tool, it will quiet the 'monkey mind'. This simple exercise will bring us to the present should we feel triggered during an interaction, we can consciously bring our attention to our breath, without anyone noticing our internal discomfort. The Bodytalk technique of Tapping of Cortices, my instinctual go-to technique when I need to calm my mind, brings immediate relief to many ..issues. And again, with attention and intention of restoring the communication systems, a special emphasis on the meridian system acting as the carrier band to our extremities, is undoubtedly the Rolls Royce of self-help, but depending on place and time, it might not be convenient, while breathing is the quintessence of life.
Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh.
Our healing breath keeps us present so that the flow of information and healing can reveal it self through our quietened mind.
The BodyTalk Access techniques are specifically designed to stimulate balanced brain function and can improve children's learning abilities.