There's a safe place inside you

Why do I focus so much on the emotional experience of being human when I’m a detoxification specialist?

Because :: we are soft, imprintable creatures whose physicality is highly dependent upon our nervous system & the emotions that effect it. This begins in the womb & continues until our body’s return to the earth. If we do not focus on & get curious with the imprints in our beliefs & thinking, & the resulting feelings that come out of that, & how we were even formed that way to begin with, we will never truly unwind into a state of healing.

What I have found is that some of the deepest, most painful, consuming, & confusing emotional material we carry is pre-verbal, meaning it formed & settled into our beings before we could talk or make any sense of it. We were too little. And because so much of our survival as tiny people was linked to acceptance & belonging within the family we were born into (whether that was a healthy family or not), the hardships we experienced at that time felt like potential death. Deep down, the message was clear that if we didn’t be or do as our parents told us, we would get rejected & that meant our very existence was at risk. That is how deeply a child depends on their family for survival, for they have no capacity at that age to care for themselves.

This is why when we sit with our most painful feelings & beliefs, it often feels like we’re going to die within it. The pain is that strong. This is our inner little one who was trying to survive ~ who was aware at some deep, subconscious level that our survival depended on whether we “fit” in our family or not.

Of course, there are other traumas that can take place at any age that can have a similar or the same kind of feel, but this pre-verbal imprint is so important to meet with. It needs us to give it all that we can to feel safe. It needs us to speak to it how it needed its caregivers to speak to it. It needs us to be that loving, warm, wise, strong guide that we may not have gotten as little ones. It is calling for us to be the person {{now}} that it always needed then. So communication with this pre-verbal part of us is very important in order for us to discover what it needs from us so we can begin to re-imprint ourselves into healthier, safer patterns. Nine times out of ten, the answer will be simple, & it will beyond words or ideas or processing: {{safety}}.

{Side note ~ all parents are going to fall short. We are all imperfect & this is the human design ~ to always be growing, learning & evolving. But some fall short much more than others & are downright abusive, so there are many unique facets of this work for each person & their personal lineage. No two are alike & there is no one-size-fits-all answer for healing for everyone. However, creating safety with ourselves & for this particular pre-verbal aspect can be a beautiful, powerful, simple, & effective place to begin}.

How does all of this emotional work weave into the body's state of health? Trauma & stress physically change the brain, which changes how our brain communicates with our bodies & therefore how well they function, so unprocessed trauma & stress are key factors in the formation of dis-ease in the body. That’s why it is necessary to work on the wholeness of our beings, not just our physical bodies. It is all woven together & continually being woven together by God’s fingers in every moment.

So when I work with people, we meet with their inner little one who cannot yet speak or make sense, because this is usually where so much love, compassion, & safety is needed.

As adults, we are being called to become safe homes for ourselves. And as we do that, we can then also be safe homes for others.

This is how we can begin to heal within ourselves and as a human family, mentally, emotionally, & physically.

~{Painting by me}~

Healing should be simple

{{Simple changes with a strong, healing impact}}

No matter what’s happening with your health, there are a few simple things you can do that are very healing.

I generally believe in a slow & steady movement when it comes to detoxification. Making too many healing changes at once can actually be emotionally & physically stressful. It can move toxins around in the body when the body’s elimination channels are not functioning well enough to shed them. This can damage your health even further. Also, many people do not cope well emotionally with limiting many food options at once, especially if there’s been any kind of past with emotional eating. For someone who’s ever had an eating disorder, it can be downright traumatic & any healing journey would need to be walked with such slow & gentle loving care. Aside from that piece, there is such a deep intimacy with food for everyone, whether they’re aware of it or not, connected to pleasure, comfort, and nourishment. I once read in a book called “Women, food, & God” by Geneen Roth {I highly recommend her work} that how you eat is how you live. That how you connect to food is how you really connect to life, and to yourself.

Think about a little one’s very first food. God’s pure love flowing from a breast. Sweet, warm, & thick. We were designed to relate deeply with food shortly after coming into this world.

{An important note of compassion ~ Some little ones don’t get their parent's milk • of course that milk is the most nourishing for a little one but please know you’re not flawed in any way if you were not breast-fed as a baby or if you weren’t able to breastfeed your child. Sometimes being bottle-fed can cause health challenges but it in no way makes any parent or child bad or wrong}.

The first healing change I suggest is drinking celery juice in the morning on an empty stomach. It is very soothing to the digestive tract, helps to re-build the proper amount of stomach acid, & is very alkalizing & mineralizing.

The second change I recommend is cutting out dairy, gluten, & sugar. These three are mucous-producing & acidic and lead to inflammation for many, so leaving them out of your diet can make a huge positive difference in your health.

The third change is to make sure you eat organically, so your body isn’t having to battle pesticides & genetically modified foods.

The fourth is to implement one fruit smoothie & one green salad into your day. Fruits & vegetables are alive with a healing nourishment that will support your body in both secreting what it doesn’t need & sustaining it with vital nutrients.

Just making these changes alone can make an incredible change in your body’s well-being, and sometimes, even be the difference between ill & healthy.

{{May these little changes bless you with incredible love & well-being}}

Feelings as medicine

Your feelings are our medicine.

They are here to bring us home to the nectar of our precious heart.

Many of us feel most challenged by the emotion of anger but it is here just to show us how we've turned away from ourselves & perhaps allowed others to mistreat us. It is also a healthy, natural, and necessary response to violation of our safety, physically or emotionally.

When held in the light, anger is simple & clear. It says “too far.” Too much. No more. Stop. Enough.

It shows us clearly where the integrity of ourselves & our values are. Anger says “this {whatever it is that is bringing up anger} violates what I hold dear & is against my heart. I will not participate.”

Is there any greater gift?

But anger needs to be held so tenderly, because it is strong & part of its function is to “move” us. This is why anger is like fire. It is why we feel the need to move our bodies with it. To shout with it.

While anger needs to be held tenderly & carefully, it also needs to be allowed. When we shame or suppress it, we are rejecting its gift of clarity. It’s also a gift for others in our lives who may be circling in harmful patterns because it can pierce directly through those patterns & breathes life into them. Anger offers an opening to wake up within our unconscious behaviors.

Anger {held & felt with safety & love as its container} is especially a healing gift to those who have suppressed themselves or been suppressed by others. It is especially important that those who’ve been abused in any way make room for anger & its insights so they can fully process & integrate their experiences.

Anger is so strong & clear that when you’re with it, it feels like it’s never going to leave. But, listening to our anger & making whatever changes are needed to care more deeply for ourselves will help it to soften into what it truly is ~ the deepest of sadnesses turned outward.

This is where anger begins to heal & we find a beautiful innocence, with its hopes & expectations, at its core.

Maybe ..

We wanted our body to be safe and someone violated it.

We wanted a mama & papa that were safe & loving, and we didn’t get that as a child.

We wanted something to be simple & instead it became a long & hard task.

We wanted love, in the ways that love felt real to our hearts, and we didn’t receive that from another.

We wanted something that we loved to stay in our life, like a job, friend, or a loved one who passed away, and it didn’t.

There are many innocent hopes & true needs underneath anger’s wild river, and they deserve a safe place in our humanity.

We are loved.