DEW - Deep Emotions Welcome

I awoke this morning at my usual 5:30 am with this title and acronym floating in my brain. I wrote it down and sought out a picture to accompany it for this blog. This picture was taken on a hike at Forks of the Credit, Ontario.  

Is it the title for an upcoming workshop or course? I’m not sure yet but know it will find its way into my work somehow.

New insights often ‘pop in’ for me first thing in the morning when I’m rested and my mind hasn’t yet launched into my busy day of clients, errands and activities. This is a delicious time of day for me. I find it is very important not to jump out of bed and into my day too quickly or I will fail to capture these little gems that are introducing themselves.

I have just finished reading Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Liz Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and enjoyed it immensely. In it she describes her relationship to creativity and inspiration. I love how she personifies inspiration as non-human entities searching for human beings who will assist them onto a physical plane. These un-birthed creative energies seek to manifest in the world and search for the human being who will get them there. Gilbert suggests we listen, be receptive, connect and respond. Very thought provoking and delightful. I recommend it.

Back to DEW - Deep Emotions Welcome. As human beings we have profoundly deep emotional landscapes. I want to welcome these emotions in people and help people live richer, more fulfilled lives.

I do this partly through learning the emotions that are getting in the way of my client living  ‘their’ version of a creative, inspired life and partly through discovering what creative impulses long to be birthed through my clients. Specifically, helping people to identify their desires, be it creative or relationship desires and co-create a plan to get them there.

I also work through the physical body. One of my all time strongest influences has been Alexander Lowan. He wrote The Betrayal of The Body and many other groundbreaking books on the body as a resource in healing.  He is another recommended read.

We can get very discombobulated in the brain, holding thoughts and beliefs about ourselves that are counter-productive, negative and limiting. Our sense of self can get very distorted from life experiences, especially if it has been one of lack or abuse.

Our nature as children is to take everything very personally, especially if the message is coming from our parents or siblings who we depend on so dearly for our safety and sense of well-being.

Using body-focused psychotherapy we track physical sensations (what we are feeling in the body) to help the healing process. Initially, you don’t even need to understand what is showing up. That comes later in the process. Just allowing what is appearing is enough for one to begin to feel more ‘present’ in the body. Connecting to the self in a deeper, more complete way is actually in some ways a very simple thing.  We complicate it by our adaptations and conditioning, often occurring out of traumatic experiences.  These adaptations are learned patterns of behavior and thinking, they can be unlearned and other patterns put in place that serve us better.

Then we are able to truly take charge of our lives, both creatively, and in relationships, feeling fully accepted and clearly defined as to who we are.