Farmers know the importance of letting fields rest. It is a restorative process in agriculture, one that allows soil to regenerate and so be ready to support the next crop. In our busy, twenty-first century lives, we often forget to permit ourselves to lie fallow, to die to the ego-driven energies that prevent wool gathering and dreaming into stories other than our own.
Category: Trust
Inner Peace in the Time of COVID-19: Self Care Post 2
As we move into the next few months, practicing self care may become more challenging. As the human nervous system responds to real and imagined threats, we become more hypervigilant because our Sympathetic Nervous System is activated, compelling us to fight, escape, and even go numb or dissociate. First responders, medical personnel, agency employees serving high-risk populations, and traumatized children and adults are often so highly vigilant that personal and professional crisis-management reactivity becomes a way of life. Whatever our personal circumstances and professional commitments, when we are constantly expecting the worst, we run the risk of serious health challenges.
Helpful in returning our Sympathetic Nervous System to a state of calm is the simple act of bringing the hands to the head and gently and steadily allowing them to travel to the heart. If we are in a place where self-touch is restricted, especially of the facial area, we can place our hands a few inches out from the head, then follow the same slow, steady path to the heart. When at the heart, allow the hands to rest, one over the other on the chest, and open, like butterfly wings, at heart level. Breathing deeply, we can begin our meditation on trust – in the self, in others, and in our ability to work together as we open to the guidance that will help our families, our communities, and indeed, the entire world, to find peace amid the chaos of uncertainty.
I meditate in this way because I have learned that we are all connected through invisible energy fields. Rupert Sheldrake, author of Dogs That Know When Their Owners are Coming Home, has studied these fields in depth, calling them Morphogenetic Fields, now commonly known as Morphic Fields. He uses this term because his research has proven that the energetic fields around us organize and generate our physical lives.
When I first heard the term morphic field, I immediately thought of Indra’s Web, a mythological concept describing how the entire universe is woven together through invisible interconnections. Evidence for the existence of our invisible interconnections is found in the concept of entanglement in quantum physics, what Einstein referred to as “Spooky Action at a Distance.” Spiritual leaders point to this scientific evidence of entanglement as an explanation for answered prayers.
Our invisible interconnections are especially comforting during these times of social distancing. Drawing the energy from our worst-case-scenario thoughts to our steady, reliable hearts as we meditate on trust allows each one of us to contribute to peace and calm at a time when we need it most.
May we all send out kindness and trust each day.
Love, Jane
Greeting the New Year Consciously
Please Note: Winter Blooms is an educational website in no way meant to replace building a relationship with a trained EFT practitioner, counselor, or therapist. To find an EFT Practitioner, visit the AAMET website, the ACEP website, the EFT Universe website, the Tapping Solution website, or contact Jane for EFT coaching support.
As the season explodes with the message to ‘Party, Party, Party,’ many of us are turning away from what Leonard Cohen calls the ‘hurly burly’ of daily life to attend instead to our inner guidance. When we turn inward at this time of year, we are creating the sacred space necessary for reflection about the year that is slipping away and about the year to come. New Year’s Eve is a potent time for those of us committed to living consciously, because it offers us a clear ending and a clear beginning in a single moment. As we light our candles, gather our thoughts, and open our hearts and our journals, we are consciously attending to where we have been physically, emotionally, and spiritually; when we complete these reflections, we then turn our attention to our aspirations and intentions for the year to come.
Discovering Wisdom After a Fall – Part Two
Please Note: Winter Blooms is an educational website in no way meant to replace building a relationship with a trained EFT practitioner, counselor, or therapist. To find an EFT Practitioner, visit the AAMET website, the Gary Craig website, the EFT Universe website, the Tapping Solution website, or contact Jane for EFT coaching support.
Last week I began to describe a fall and its aftermath. You can read the first part of Discovering Wisdom after a Fall at http://www.janebuchan.com/blog/posts/discovering-wisdom-after-a-fall/#more-1025.
Falling, it’s simply never on our agenda, and yet, like so many other surprising and unwanted events, it happens. In its aftermath, we inevitably discover the beliefs, conscious and unconscious, we hold about ourselves and others. What follows is an exploration of the beliefs that surfaced after a fall I experienced last August as well as a the tapping rounds that helped me to facilitate healing both my body and my spirit.
Facing New Challenges: Tapping, Trust, and Resourcefulness
Please Note: Winter Blooms is an educational website in no way meant to replace building a relationship with a trained EFT practitioner, counselor, or therapist. To find an EFT Practitioner, visit the AAMET website, the Gary Craig website, the EFT Universe website, the Tapping Solution website, or contact Jane for EFT coaching support.
Sometimes it seems that just as we develop a comfortable groove, our world is turned upside down and we must learn new skills if we are to live with confidence and satisfaction. While it is a refrain we often would rather not hear, being alive means living with change. Because of life’s inevitable changeability, the happiest and most successful people are those who have learned the art of adaptation. This is a formidable skill to learn, but once we have mastered it, we find life’s chiaroscuro changes much easier to embrace. Our adaptability means we tackle with confidence work situations that require we train in unfamiliar areas; adaptability also means we bring grace and optimism to family demands that ask us to step beyond our current comfort zones. For some very rare people, change is always exhilarating, but for most of us change, especially unexpected change, unearths past experiences of perceived failure that can trigger our insecurities and activate a learned helplessness response we thought we’d outgrown long ago. When change knocks us off centre, Tapping for the space to cultivate trust in our creative problem solving abilities will help us to move forward with ease.
Continue reading Facing New Challenges: Tapping, Trust, and Resourcefulness
Voicelessness and Sexual Assault
Please Note: Winter Blooms is an educational website in no way meant to replace building a relationship with a trained EFT practitioner, counselor, or therapist. To find an EFT Practitioner, visit the AAMET website, the Gary Craig website, the EFT Universe website, the Tapping Solution website, or contact Jane at 802-533-9277 or jane@winterblooms.net for EFT coaching support.
Last week, in the post on sexual assault’s afterlife, I touched on my grandmother’s vocal response to the event along with my own inability to make a sound during the assault. It is easy to assume a four-year-old child is unable to confront a sexual predator, but this is not always the case. Some children scream, cry, and fight physically, while others, like me, manifest sudden voicelessness and physical paralysis. This is the manifestation of the Freeze aspect of the the Fight, Flight, or Freeze Stress Response. During sudden trauma, we sometimes fight, we sometimes take flight, and, as happened to me, we sometimes freeze. Daily tapping, along with healthy sleep habits, eating habits, thinking habits, physical movement habits, meditation habits, and social habits, can build resilience into our lives that helps the Stress Response do the work it is meant to do – protect us from actual danger.
After Sexual Assault
Please Note: Winter Blooms is an educational website in no way meant to replace building a relationship with a trained EFT practitioner, counselor, or therapist. To find an EFT Practitioner, visit the AAMET website, the Gary Craig website, the EFT Universe website, the Tapping Solution website, or contact Jane at 802-533-9277 or jane@winterblooms.net for EFT coaching support.
Of all the challenges I deal with personally and professionally, none requires more sensitivity than sexual assault. For most survivors just saying the term, or the more common word, rape, sets in motion a physiological chain reaction that often feels like someone’s fingers are probing around in our guts. In survivors, this subject can trigger feelings of threat, of vulnerability, of shame, and – at the same time – of agency, of empowerment, and of triumph. We can be terrified and in one and the same moment have the courage to speak out in order to honour our determination to heal and to support others in their healing. We can rage against those who would blame us for the criminal acts of others and at the same time be calm enough to speak our truth, end the silence around these vicious crimes, and create community with others who feel vulnerable and ashamed and at the same time empowered to speak out against sexual predation and its coverups.
Tapping and the “One-Minute Wonder”
Please Note: Winter Blooms is an educational website only and is in no way meant to replace experience with a trained EFT practitioner, counselor, or therapist. To find an EFT Practitioner, visit the AAMET website, the EFT Universe website, the Tapping Solution website, or contact Jane at 802-533-9277 or jane@winterblooms.net for EFT coaching support.
Many people are introduced to Tapping with expectations of experiencing the “one-minute wonder” that put Gary Craig and the first EFT practitioners on the Energy Psychology map. It is an unfortunate expectation, since some of EFT’s most valuable results manifest without fanfare and over a relatively long period of time. The yearning for instant change is often true for the young and eager students who come to the protocol wanting to transform their lives in fifteen minutes, or even an hour, without the deep reflection that contributes to our collective store of wisdom.
Trust and Tapping: PTSD Transformations
Disclaimer: PTSD is not something anyone without training should face alone. This blog contains descriptions that may trigger anxiety or fear, especially in PTSD sufferers. If you suffer from PTSD and have learned tapping from your EFT Practitioner, counselor, or therapist, please tap while you are reading the following post; if you are unfamiliar with tapping, please postpone reading this blog until you have engaged a counselor, EFT Practitioner, or certified/licensed therapist who uses this technique. Winter Blooms is an educational website only and is in no way meant to replace a trained EFT practitioner, counselor, or therapist. To find an EFT Practitioner near you, visit the AAMET website, the EFT Universe website, the Tapping Solution website, or contact Jane at 802-533-9277 or jane@winterblooms.net for support in transforming your PTSD experiences.
Please see the August 3, 2014 blog post for the introduction to this three-part exploration of tapping to transform PTSD symptoms.
In transforming my personal PTSD symptoms and in my work with clients, I consider our ability to reframe or shift our perspective on events to be our most valuable tool. In every case, by learning to view our PTSD symptoms as messengers warning of potential danger we are able to create the necessary space to be with the evidence of our trauma, not as a threat, but as an ally that is looking out for us. Once we understand and experience our explosive feelings as guides and teachers, we can then shift our relationship with them.
Developing Trust in the Face of PTSD – Introduction
Disclaimer: PTSD is not something anyone without training should face alone. This blog contains descriptions that may trigger anxiety or fear, especially in PTSD sufferers. If you suffer from PTSD and have learned tapping from your EFT Practitioner, counselor, or therapist, please tap while you are reading the following post; if you are unfamiliar with tapping, please postpone reading this blog until you have engaged a counselor, EFT Practitioner, or certified/licensed therapist who uses this technique. Winter Blooms is an educational website only and is in no way meant to replace a trained EFT practitioner, counselor, or therapist. To find an EFT Practitioner near you, visit the AAMET website, the EFT Universe website, the Tapping Solution website, or contact Jane at 802-533-9277 or jane@winterblooms.net for support in transforming your PTSD experiences.
Many of us, despite feeling happy and in control most of the time, may be unexpectedly blindsided by past events that flood us with fear, terror, rage, and/or despair. The sun may be shining, the people we love may be safe and happy, and our work may require no more of us than our current skill sets support, and yet a sound, a scent, a scene, a taste, or a touch has the power to catapult us into a dark, isolating world even our closest companions cannot understand. When the past becomes the present research proves that tapping can help us to resolve what has come to be called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) more quickly than other coaching methods or indeed psychological therapies.
Continue reading Developing Trust in the Face of PTSD – Introduction