08 Apr Do You Know How to Come Back Into Alignment?
The other day I talked to a well known trauma therapist who is going through a rough time.
I asked if they were going to therapy and the answer was no; they said there wasn’t anyone who could help – this after trying a number of therapists and it not working out. Instead they were seeing a spiritual medium.
It’s the sort of trend I’ve been seeing more and more.
What it implied, and I asked further about it, was that as mental health professionals we are not always finding that we’re trained to answer the questions that live deep in our hearts.
Which is why the psycho-spiritual connection is so important, especially in addressing burnout or when the medical/therapeutic model is not satisfying.
This seems to be especially true in dealing with the energetic and philosophical suffering that people today are dealing with.
That’s why so many incredible professionals I know are training in energy fields, astrology, shamanism, yoga, meditation, psychedelics ….
Thank goodness there’s greater acceptance for integrating these various fields into the work we’re doing.
The other day Katherine Carbone said in a conversation about similar topics, “It’s about remembering there’s a soul process going on at the same time, one that’s not damaged by life.”
Those words resonated so much with me.
These are the questions I’ve been sitting with these last few years.
One of the rather shocking inner confrontations I had with myself in that time has been seeing how much I had shape-shifted to “fit into” the academic field (granted, I’d done it rather successfully) – but, at the same time shape-shifting meant leaving bits of my heart and soul behind.
I realized how much my own attachment style, imprinted deeply, meant I had “forsaken” a deeper knowing, leaving me untethered from what nourishes me the most.
On reflection, I had sublimated the psychology of yoga (which had illuminated my Inner Wisdom) to neuroscience (which is massively important) and a more secular psychology.
That’s when the Transformational Fire had its way with me.
I didn’t realize it at the time; it didn’t feel like transformation. Truly, it felt like tremendous anxiety. Almost too difficult to bear.
Well, to be more honest – it WAS difficult to bear.
I didn’t know what was happening. I felt out of control. I was waking up at odd hours awash with this intensity. Scary s***.
The only thing I knew was to revisit the practices I’ve been doing since I was 18 or so.
Instead of pushing it away, trying to get rid of it (well… I did at first try to shut it down but it just didn’t work) I learned to hold the energy, open to it.
That’s when it started to move differently.
Instead of being anxious, I recognized the sacred tremoring within bringing me into alignment — over time. It was a different kind of alignment than I’d ever experienced, one where a coherent flow moved in my physical and subtle energy bodies.
Slowly the pieces of my multi-dimensional body came into focus.
Using all I know from attachment theory and yogic philosophy and the energy practices of over 40 years it began to make sense, charting out a map of how we get out of kilter, out of alignment…and then back in kilter.
That’s marked a huge shift, mapping out a path home, one where we can connect our Vertical Axis (Spirit, earth wisdom and all our psychological parts) with our Horizontal Axis (where we are connected relationally with ourselves and with those in our world around us.)
It reminds me of Winnicott’s words that I’ve held near all these years:
“When we’re there with ourselves we’re no longer alone.”