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One Part Zombie Apocalypse, One Part Neuroscience…
Now if you’re ever-so curious about how these could be even remotely related, have a gander at the video below.
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Balance, Schmalance
Anyone else noticing that Balance is one of the hot buzzwords?
Now y’all might disagree with me, but I think the the use of the word “balance” has been overkill. No wonder, though. In our chaotic world, a little bit of everything being equal and accounted for sounds quite delightful. So what is it that we really want out of achieving balance. And, really, what does this word even mean?
I recently had a very nice interaction with a chiropractic colleague on Facebook regarding this very topic. His provoking question was, “Do you seek health or balance?” I thought this was a great conversation starter and really got me thinking. We tend to think that Health and Balance are one in the same.
Read below for the actual definition of balance, according to the online Webster Dictionary.
From the online Webster’s Dictionary
As you can see, two dominant words in the definition are “equilibrium” and “static.”
In my humble opinion, I would have to agree: Balance = Static
Now if you look at the–ahem–finely crafted graphic below (yes, I made them myself), this is traditionally how we view balance–
Does it look like there is any movement when you are balancing?
No momentum, no movement, no ride….
The graphics below give a more accurate representation of how “balance” truly shows up in our lives.
See…Up’s and Down’s…constant movement and momentum
When you say “Balance,” you are really seeking the ability to give appropriate time and energy to priorities in your life–NOT necessarily seeking stasis. Of course, distribution varies depending on personal values. You may value your spiritual practice more than career, or career more than spirituality, or value both equally. What you truly desire is to be able to devote yourself to the things that are important to you.
Energy is constantly moving between the various areas of your life.
One area is never completely separate from another because there is always a common denominator–YOU!
It’s those times of being off-balance that cause you to want to seek a more balanced state. Your greatest times of growth and progress are when you have deviated from balance, and chaos has become the dominant state–even if just for a moment. This opportunity–often disguised as an obstacle–is perfect for you to take a more accurate inventory for your life.
Am I spending the time I want with my family? Are my finances working? Is my relationship satisfying? Do I feel able to take care of myself?
When you are living your life out of alignment with who you are, something will always come up to get you to pay attention and change what you’re doing. This is to get you back into alignment with who you are.
So, I encourage you to embrace when things feel off-balance as it pushes you to reorganize your current way of living to move back to a state of “balance.”
The Fourth Sacred Season–Integrate
“Integrate: To form, coordinate, or blend into a functioning or unified whole; to incorporate into a larger unit.”
—-Merriam-Webster Dictionary
OK, so you’ve experienced all 12 Stages…now what?
By experiencing all 12 Stages you have now created and developed the strategies to be able to consciously observe yourself and your life.
In the season of Integrate, you can consciously choose which seasons can be blended together to create the season, stage, experience, and internal reality of your choice. You can revisit a previous season while still keeping the perspective from a different season. For instance, you may be in Discover surrounding a situation–using language like “I don’t know why this is happening” “Why doesn’t this end?”–and still have the underlying consciousness of Awaken–wondering “Where is the gift in this suffering?”
It makes sense that you are never completely immersed in one Season at one time. As a highly complex creature, you will pull wisdom from your being to form a customized plan to live out the situation. The Season of Integrate is truly an opportunity for you to create “a more unified whole.”
Next Week: Dr. Katie will begin a five part series of Nutrition, Stress Management, and Self-Care for the Holidays!!
Stage 12-Community
Receiving and Accepting Gifts
Celebration of Oneness through Diversity
We experience our involvement with humanity and recognize that wholeness comes from bringing our individual gifts into community. This occurs in our internal and external communities. We recognize that all of our choices are spiritual ones and affect all beings. Our dialogue runs as follows, “At times I recognize that we are each other’s medicine, and that first, I must be my own medicine. My life and success in life is a function of the relationships that I share with others. I celebrate and receive divergent energies and help them to join, transforming them into new possibilities and love. I seek those parts of my body and life that have become separate and invite them into new possibilities and love. I seek those parts of my body and life that have become separate and invite them to join the community of self and of selves.
—SomatoRespiratory Integration Workbook
I feel that the summary above more than sufficiently describes Stage 12, so I’ll try no to ramble on too much. In Stage 10, you experienced complete merging with Spirit that allowed you to understand the Divine connection within the Universe. Stage 11 brought that connection to a more embodied state so you had the capability to share yourself and your gifts. Stage 12 is the process where you actually share your gifts. Community is not just a place where you visit; you actually DO something while BEING in connection.
In Stage 12, you are committing to actions that connect with the later stages of healing. The key point in Stage 12 is that there is the understanding that we are each other’s medicine, bringing our gifts to each other. But first, we must be available to ourselves. In your inner community, your body produces its own antibiotics, insulin, pain medication, chemicals to achieve altered states of consciousness, and other elements we need to heal, grow, and function. As a result, your body can express the perfection of the dwelling spirit that forms the core of your existence.
This afternoon, Alison James, a local professional psychic medium, provided a great example of Stage 12. Alison was sharing incredible stories of her life (for those of you who don’t know her, she is a very gifted storyteller as well as psychic). She told of one incident where she spontaneously went into her trance medium state and helped a young lady decide whether she wanted to stay in her body or cross over. This story is a great example of Stage 12. Alison knew she must utilize her gift to help this young lady because it was for the Higher Good of the Universe–no questions, no judgment, no doubt…it simply was.
Realize that being so connected to your community, you often will begin to experience more suffering that is happening in whatever circle you have decided to create. You may find yourself back at Stage 1–Suffering/Disconnection. This is perfectly good, as it creates another opportunity for you to progress through the Stages once again and gain a greater understanding of who you are and your place in the Universe. The circle of your understanding of community will broaden until you really do see “Community” as all existence.
Stage 12
| Primary Concept of Stage 12 |
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| Questions You Ask Yourself in Stage 12 |
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| Common Emotions Experienced |
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Next Week: Integrate–The Fourth Sacred Season
Stage 11–Descent
Gift Giving/ Prophet Like
Sponsorship/Service
When you first hear “descent,” you probably automatically think hellfire and damnation. Not the case this time…
If you read my last entry, Stage 10, you learned about Ascent, when you experience nothing but pure immersion with Spirit. You are then able to incorporate this experience and understanding into the deepest aspects of your being.
Now being in this experience of actually BEING love and light and actually BEING one with The Universe, do you think you would be able to DO much?
Probably not…
Stage 11 allows you to take the experience of Stage 10 and bring it to a more embodied place. Your motivation is a pure desire to share your gifts with the world to give the world a more complete experience.
We really are all One, and you act with this understanding as your basis.
We are renewed beyond our limits and sense of self and enter into the world again. We know that we are part of all we perceive and responsible for all that we know. We live without being attached to our circumstances. We love and we serve. We participate in a larger circle of life, knowing our gifts and having a burning desire to effortlessly share them with the world, in service. Our inner thoughts and desires are magically and naturally matched by our outer experience. For extended periods, irrespective of external circumstance, I can find a place and experience compassion, empathy, love, forgiveness, and altruism. I long to serve others with the gifts of my soul. This is how I am, when I do what I do.
—SomatoRespiratory Integration Workbook
Adapted from The SomatoRespiratory Integration Workbook
Next Week: Stage 12–Community
Stage 10–Ascent
Being the Light/Being the Love
Receiving Your Gifts
Merging Past the Illusion of a Separate Soul
Of the Twelve Stages of Healing, the tenth stage is known as the “ascent” stage. This is the experience of the mystical that many religions and spiritual traditions seek as the highest experience of being. You can compare it to “Christ Consciousness,” “Nirvana,” “transpersonal integration,” etc.
In this stage you lose your sense of self in the experience of absolutes. In Stage 9, you experienced yourself as connected and full of light. In Stage 10, the clear boundary of your own light dissolves and begins to merge with the Universe. Donald Epstein compares this to having the light you experienced in Stage 9 represent a candle burning brightly. As you move through Stage 9, you become aware that there is a bright light outside, and it is coming into the room. You realize your candle does not seem as bright as it did before compared to this light. If you were to walk outside into the bright noontime sun with your candle, it appears that the candle is no longer lit, but you know that is just an illusion. This is what the loss of your sense of self is like. Your own light has not diminished but merged with the greater intensity of the Light of the Universe.
We experience our union with the creative force of the universe. We transcend the limits, boundaries, language, and judgments of our existing sense of self. We gain the wisdom of knowing the oneness of all of creation during this stage. We feel as follows: “I have had moments where I have merged past the illusion that I am separate from the spirit of all life, the essence of love, and my experience of the most Divine. I had had the experience that I am within all, and all of life is connected to me. I have experienced the grace of love as a physical and spiritual phenomenon through light, vibration, or touch. I know that I know and am humbled by this experience of the infinite element of life. I am grateful to witness this Greatness.
—SomatoRespiratory Integration Workbook
There is no fear in experiencing the chaos in Stage 10 because you know that the Divine is fully supporting you throughout the experience. In Stage 10 you merge with the unrecognized wholeness of your being.
In Stage 9 you experienced energy or consciousness expressing THROUGH you; in Stage 10, you BECOME consciousness. You BECOME energy. You BECOME love. The concept of boundaries is blurred, and you lose your sense of time, space, meaning, and self only to fully surrender to Oneness.
Next Week: Stage 11–Descent
Stage 9–Light Behind the Form
Energy Beyond Form
Filled with Love/Filled with Light
From our place of emptiness and gratitude, we can truly appreciate our energetic fullness. Our inner sense runs as follows, “I sometimes feel the energy within my symptoms, underlying my emotions, within my spirit. Sometimes I feel the energy between people, and the primary organizing subtle energy fields to which my body is connected. I feel the energy in people’s words, their eyes, or their being. I am more sensitive to love as a basic energy of the universe and find it all around me, and within me. I am grateful for this energetic awakening. I experience gratitude for the love within me and in the universe.
–SomatoRespiratory Integration Workbook
OK, so you released all of your old “stuff” in Stage 7, and you felt the emptiness and gratitude in its space once the “stuff” was gone in Stage 8. When you feel emptiness and gratitude, what is left to come in and take over?
Love, light, and energy…
In Stage 9, you begin to feel the energetic connection that flows within yourself and between yourself and others. Your thoughts begin to dissolve into energy–at this point, there are no words. Because you are SO connected to others, you often begin to experience psychic and intuitive events. You might begin to realize that you are not who you thought you were–that there is more to you that you have ever experienced before. You truly understand that YOU are responsible for your vital life force and how you express it in the world. You acknowledge and feel gratitude for your energetic flow rather than manipulate it. This experience of energy is filled with awe, wonder, and a simply observe and experience it.
Stage 9 feels very similar to Stage 8 in the essence of gratitude. However, the experience of energy is more specific in Stage 9. Filling the emptiness of Stage 8 with the love and light of Stage 9 allows to you have the ability to experience the energetic strands within the events, circumstances, and people around you.
“Thank you for this life force and may it continue to flow through me.”
“Help me experience my energetic connection within myself and others.”
Next Week: Stage 10–Ascent
–Written by Dr. Katie Fahnel, D.C. of Body Harmony Chiropractic, a partner of The Healing Loft. Visit the Contact Information tab above to reach Dr. Katie. Comments are welcome to this post! Please leave them in the comment section below.
Stage 8–Emptiness in Connectedness
Emptiness/Beingness
Effortless Flow
“After the discharge we are emptied. Rather than a space of nothingness, we find ourselves in a place of possibilities. We enter into a state of gratitude, vulnerability, connection with our external rhythms, and alignment with events around us. We welcome serendipity as a natural way of life. The sentiment is, “I do things because they feel right–not to move towards pleasure and avoid pain. I do things because it is the time to do them. I know that I will be supported by an abundant universe in my choices. I experience peace when at times my thoughts, inner noise, or static cease. I sense more room in my body for breath. I sense the rhythms within and sometimes around me. I feel gratitude for my connection to others and in a greater cosmic plan.”
–SomatoRespiratory Integration Workbook
Stage 8 is the first level of BEING. It is the doorway to later states of consciousness. You are eager for the connections that await your new awareness. You might experience the “newness” of being separated from what you were previously connected to; however, you feel content with the separation and even excited with the energetic freedom. Donald Epstein likens this time to the space in between grabbing the bars from a trapeze. It is stillness and openess rolled into one. In this space, it is easy to become more observant of your own rhythm and the rhythms that surround you. You may feel more connected to your environment and be able to sense your alignment with others.
You can probably recall a time when you experienced a release and enjoyed the space created by its void. In that space, you may have felt vulnerable–yet secure–and grateful by the possibilities that filled it. What sort of new opportunities are coming up next?
Please feel free to leave comments below this blog post. Visit the CONTACT INFORMATION page to contact Dr. Katie.
Next Week: Stage 9–Light Behind the Form
The Season of Awaken
Awaken is about joyous and grateful acceptance of reality, rather than the CONCEPT of reality.
So if you’ve made it this far…congratulations!!! You’ve sorted through a lot of “stuff.” With the last stage, Stage 7, you finally realized that the “crap” you’ve been carrying around until then doesn’t work anymore–and GLADLY released it!! This marks the transition from Transform into Awaken.
Awaken is about expanding beyond yourself, beyond the things and people who will benefit you. It involves the experience of the space around you and within you. Your thinking mind drops away, and you can experience the true nature of reality beyond the form of structures as you know them. Your focus is on the energy of life and love. You no longer feel you have to get love but instead give love, live in gratitude, and find the gifts in your situations and relationships.
You truly connect to your gifts and feel your responsibility to share
these gifts within your community.
When in Awaken, you remember your core nature and honor the same in others. Your relationships, experiences, and awareness of the Energetic deepen, and you feel the field of Oneness.
**DISCLAIMER: People involved in the spiritual world are quick to jump into Awaken. Of course!! It feels wonderful! It’s lovely! It’s heavenly! You’re singing with angels and communing with the world, and, yes, it’s an absolutely beautiful space to be in…when it’s APPROPRIATE!! If you falsely try to jump to Awaken (more accurately “pseudo-Awaken” before you’ve done all the work up to then, most likely you’ll end up back to Discover–and very quickly!! The more you have the strategies and refinement in place within your nervous system, the more aware you are of what Season is appropriate…more about this when I discuss the Season of Integrate.
Next week: Stage 8–Emptiness in Connectedness
Stage 7–Resolution
Acceptance
Discharge of bio-electric energy is associated with a discharge of mechanical energy. This may be a discharge of the muscular system, or fever, coughing, sneezing, or vomiting. Crying, screaming, and laughing are also discharge phenomena. When the discharge occurs after the previous six stages, resolution can occur with the discharge. A sense of accomplishment, satisfaction, peace, and inner strength accompanies the process when resolution occurs. The sentiment is, “I am so ready to scream and not only discharge, but resolve the recurrent energy pattern distracting me from who I really am! I am fully committed to do this now. I must let go of this now!
–SomatoRespiratory Integration Workbook
To dis-charge means to eliminate a charge. Successful discharge is bringing the BodyMind from a state of distress towards ease. This result is RESOLUTION!! All of the uncomfortable build-up and preparation you experienced in Stage 6 is officially released–in an empowering way–as you move into Stage 7.
If discharge occurs at an earlier stage of healing–say Stage 1 or 2 (read earlier posts), you often focus on what was lost. When this happens, the tension between your True Self and the disconnected parts of yourself increases. You feel discharge at that time is an unwelcome event because you still have attachments or a need to those parts of you that you are giving up.
When discharge occurs in Stage 7, your focus is primarily on the wholeness of your being that is eliminating something you no longer need and does not serve you. It is then a welcome event that you have prepared yourself to expect.
As the discharge process develops, you begin to feel the alternating building of tension and release of tension. You have mixed emotions of relief this can finally happen and disappointment that it has to be uncomfortable. Then the rhythm begins to take control of your physiology, and you lose complete thought and control over it. The end of Stage 7 is characterized by a completion of the discharge with a sense of resolution.
Once you have completely resolved the old energy and patterns held within the BodyMind that no longer serve you, all that is left is emptiness….
Body Harmony Chiropractic 
