Words elicit a great deal of emotions, thoughts, and beliefs. For some when we hear the word pain, we can be transported back to a memory of a time pain was experienced. In our society we view some words as ‘good’ and some as ‘bad.’ The words that are deemed as ‘bad’ are the words we try to avoid at all costs, they are the things we don’t want to admit we experience, yet in the denial of their experience we exasperate and prolong the impact these words have on our life.  

We all have a story we tell ourselves about our lives, ourselves, and our bodies. These stories keep us where we are and are constantly reaffirmed by our brains. We have stories we tell ourselves about how we are in social settings, about how other people treat us, and about the limitations of our bodies. These stories limit our capacity for growth and healing; they hold us captive in the story with no room or space for growth or renewal. When we constantly tell ourselves the story of our bum knee that keeps us from pursuing a more healthy and active lifestyle not only do we begin to form an unhealthy relationship with our body by blaming and potentially hating our knee; we begin to settle into the unhealthy lifestyle through the belief that it is all that is available to us due to our limitations.

“Watch your thoughts: they become your words. Watch your words: they become your actions. Watch your actions: they become habits. Watch your habits: they become character. Watch your character for it becomes your destiny”
-Upanishads

Healing takes a different amount of time and looks different for everyone; however, it does always take time. It can be easy to become impatient with the healing process and try to rush it or even try to bypass it completely. Healing is often gritty, dark, and dirty, but that is why it works we need to see all aspects of ourselves to be able to truly accept ourselves and heal. Healing can sometimes (most times) hurt. Sometimes healing can feel worse than it does to be in the unhealthy or nonfunctional place we are in. Healing often is extremely uncomfortable and takes more time and effort than we wish. Sometimes we want to rush through, or not look at the things that need to be looked at or feel the things that need to be felt. Sometimes we want a quick fix, we want someone or something to make all the hurts go away, but healing does not work that way. Just as only you can end your hunger only you can heal your hurts. You can find guides to support you, activities and rituals that aid you, but doing the work is still up to you and you alone.

Throughout history times of war, pandemics, economic crisis, and the like have been referred to by the media and politicians as ‘uncertain’ times. The term uncertainty evokes deep rooted feelings of fear to surface in people; our brains like predictable situations that are similar to other things we have experienced in our life, when confronted with new stimuli our brains look through our memory bank and call forward a memory or experience that is as close as possible to the new stimuli. Thus, we are never reacting to the current situation we are reacting to a past experience. Uncertainty breeds fear, and fear often carries with it hate, anger, and frustration. These sensations are more likely to lead to division and resentment which can lead to even more fear and the cycle continues. I am not one to censor based on words, I am simply interested in understanding the emotions that certain words can evoke and the repercussions of those emotions. 

All things in life, all things, begin and end, this is the nature of life, and all aspects of life. All things in life exist on a spectrum, or within a polarity, for one thing to exist, a beginning, its opposite must also exist, an ending. There can never be a beginning without an end and there can never be an ending without a beginning. It is common for endings to be a challenging time, a time of struggle, a time of longing and wishing; however, it is often not the ending of things that brings us sorrow, it is our longing for things to have not ended that causes us to suffer. It is our wishing for things to be a way that they can never be again that results in grief, sadness, and depression. It is our struggle with attachment to beginnings and acceptance of endings that brings about discomfort and dissatisfaction not the ending in and of itself. We become attached to and comfortable with the beginning and even the middle; however, the end is so final and new we do not know how to comprehend it and we long for the familiarity of what was. As human beings we are programmed to be drawn to what we know, regardless of how beneficial it is to us or our well-being; if it didn’t kill us our brain counts it as a win. Our brains operate by recognizing stimuli we have experienced before to draw on past experiences that we survived to illicit a reaction.

Rest seems like a simple enough concept, we get tired from the busy lives we live so we sit on the couch and scroll through our phones, read, watch TV, maybe even have a nap. At first glance all of these things look like rest; however, they are all actually introducing more stimuli for our brains to process consciously. We are truly only resting when your bodies and brains are not processing on the conscious level. We are truly only resting when we are not guilt tripping ourselves for taking a break. We are truly only resting when we are not planning out what we will do as soon as we are done resting. We are truly only resting when we can quiet our minds and actually allow the body to be completely still. 

What is Yoga Nidra? Yoga Nidra is commonly referred to as yogic sleep; however, the goal of yoga nidra is to stay as awake and alert as is possible as the body is transported to a deeply relaxed state. That being said there is no wrong way to engage in yoga nidra. If you do fall asleep trust that your body and mind needed the rest and know that due to how yoga nidra works with the subconscious mind even if you do fall asleep you will reap the many benefits of this practice. During the practice of Yoga Nidra the body and mind are guided through different brain wave states which allows for an expansion of one’s consciousness and a release of stuck or held stress and tension.

I have had the privilege of teaching many yoga classes and in my teachings I have noticed a common thread amongst those practicing; the fear of taking up space, whether that fear is taking up space with the breath or taking up space with the physical body the fear is noticeable. I have noticed people are more likely to hold or restrict their breath than they are to engage in a full deep inhale and a full sigh of an exhale. I have noticed people barely taking up any space on their mat, constricting their bodies and themselves into a small space not representative of the divine being they truly are. I have noticed people drawing their shoulders towards their ears and compressing the back of their neck as a way of making the self smaller and taking up less space. How we carry ourselves on our mats translates into how we carry ourselves throughout our lives. Our discomfort with taking up space in our yoga practice is indicative of our comfort level of taking up space in all other facets of our lives.  

Awareness is defined as ‘knowledge or perception of a situation or fact.’ Now, what does this definition actually mean and how is this useful to us on and off of our mat? This definition provides us with a tangible understanding of awareness; it is a knowing or perception of a situation or experience. Knowing is easier to understand than awareness, we know we have thoughts and we know we exist. We understand that our perception is how we interpret the world around us and we know that our perception creates and dictates our thoughts. We know that a situation is a series of events occurring in a specific order and facts are something that is known or proven to be true. Once again how does this definition provide us with a deeper understanding of awareness, or the ability to tap into awareness? This definition provides us with the mental framework of what awareness is; however to understand awareness fully we must experience awareness. 

We live in a world, in a society that is primarily focused on quick fixes, speed, and over committing. Our society rarely places emphasis on slowing down and doles out accolades to those individuals who achieve and achieve with never a misstep, never a break in stride and certainly never time for rest. Society conditions people to believe there is a pill for every ailment and discomfort and that we should want to take said pill to ease any and all pain and discomfort. We are conditioned to produce results and thus we want to see results instantly. We are encouraged to do more, be better, and push through and past pain. The last thing we are encouraged to do as a society is to sit with our pain which creates the mindset that sitting with our pain is wrong and something that must be avoided at all costs. In our fast-paced performance-based world we are presented with a million ways to avoid sitting with this pain. We can medicate, self-medicate, shop, work-out, work more hours, clean, gossip, etc.

We live in a society that places feeling certain emotions on a pedestal while demonizes the feeling of other emotions. Our society tells us that there are emotions that we should feel, or that are acceptable to feel and there are other emotions that are not acceptable and that we should not feel. Society goes even further to state that certain genders, ages, and cultures are allowed to experience certain emotions and that depending on these factors we should not feel or express certain emotions. 

Who doesn’t love a good routine (spoken like a true Taurus I know). Maybe it’s a morning routine that you are drawn to that aids you in not only greeting the day but getting through the day or maybe an evening routine calls to you to help you unwind and release the day. Maybe you have a mid-day routine, or some other routine that is special and useful on your journey. When we get used to our routines it can be difficult to get through the day if we are unable to complete our full routine. We may find ourselves coming off as harsh, not participating in activities that are healthy for us or we may find we just feel off and nothing is working out. It can be easy when this happens to scapegoat our routine, “oh if I had been able to complete this part of my routine I would have felt better and not done ______.” Sometimes we can find ourselves caught in a routine that may not be working for us; however, it can still feel like something is missing or off even when some part of a maladaptive routine is thrown off.

There is a saying many of us have heard and probably said in the past dozens of times: “it ain’t my first rodeo.” Well, my friends I am here to tell you that in fact it is always and will always be our first rodeo. No matter how many times we have done something, said something, or experienced something, the current time we are doing, saying, or experiencing that thing is the first time we are in that moment doing, saying or experiencing that thing. I get it, that last sentence was a little confusing and one that may seem easy to refute as how different can a repetitive mundane task truly be.

Whole Soul Healing has been a dream of mine for the last 5 years. I have long wanted to combine my love of counselling with my passion for yoga and art in a way that aided people in living their most authentic and meaningful life. I wanted to create a place for people to come home to until it felt safe to come home to themselves. I wanted to create a community where like-minded people could gather and share their expertise and experiences with others. I wanted to create a space for people to step into their power, and that is what Whole Soul Healing is. This is a space where you will be supported, you will be heard, you will be validated, and you will be held with love always.