“Forgiveness does not excuse their behavior.
Forgiveness prevents their behavior
from destroying your heart.”
Category Archives: Forgiveness
Spirit is the healer
Some say Spirit is the healer and they are right. But what does that really mean? Is the Spirit that heals, a ghost? An amorphous being, a specter, phantom, apparition or halloween spook? No, the spirit that heals is far more than that — and far more readily available to all.
The word spirit comes from the Latin noun spiritus, which means breath and from the Latin verb spirare, which means to breathe.
Spirit is the breath that breathes you. Spirit is the life that lives you. Spirit is the motion that moves you. Spirit is always there — filling you from within you holding you all around, about. There is nowhere spirit is not. You are never alone. Every breath you take is a gift of love.
God breathed life into Adam and God breathes life into you every moment of every day and all night through. Breathing freely, fully and deeply is your natural condition.
When you are afraid, your breath becomes quick and shallow — you hold your breath. In essence, when you are afraid and hold your breath, you are saying No! to life. At that point, tensions get stuck in your body. When you recall the point at which you held your breath, you breathe again – the dis-ease, fear and tension are released. When breath is restored, ease is restored; Love returns to fill the place where the fear had been lodged. You are free.
And that is why they say,
Spirit is the healer.
You are only as sick as your secrets
Sometimes secrets are intentionally kept. On birthdays we don’t want our friends to know what we are giving them because we want them to be happily surprised.
Sometimes wonderful, velvet memories are kept secret because they are intensely private and personal. We do not care to share what they are because they might be misunderstood and not cherished by others as we cherish them ourselves.
But then there are the prickly or even stabbing secrets that hurt us then and continue to hurt us now. Those secrets are best aired and released. We fear that to tell them would only burden others, so we keep them to ourselves.
Truman Capote, author of In Cold Blood said that he used to write and write to get all the horrible secrets from his childhood out of his memory and onto the paper. Many people write, sing, make videos, journal and blog to get their stories out of their minds.
Sometimes secrets are so secret that they are secret even from ourselves. We have buried them deep in our minds because we don’t want to ever think again of the terror, horror, grief, pain, shame, guilt, humiliation. Many of the deepest secrets we have kept hidden from ourselves originated long ago — in childhood and even before.
Unfortunately, secrets unavailable to the conscious mind do not just go away of their own accord. They are still securely stored in the human subconscious, the hard drive, better known as the body. Unreleased tension can be stored in every muscle and cell of our body.
For the sake of our health and happiness, we need to locate and release those tensions. It is not difficult to do and it need not be painful. In fact, releasing old traumatic memories it is usually experienced as pleasant, freeing and empowering.
Here, we focus on simple, safe ways to release forgotten trauma and unpleasant emotions. We are available to coach you to free yourself from the chains of the past. Once you know how, you can release fear as it arises. To gain that degree of control over fear is the most exciting adventure on planet earth.
Everyone is welcome!
Birth & Rebirth – Why Are We Here, Now?
We humans are usually born head first and even though we are most often caught in a pair of loving hands before our heads strike the ground, we are routinely stricken with a deep case of amnesia as soon as we reach the planet — or shortly thereafter. There is usually enough of a memory of our Source to keep us going for a few years, despite the delights of barbaric hospital births, primitive toys and condescending baby talk.
The adults who came before us forgot who they are too, so they cannot know who we are. Quickly we forget that we were made in the image and likeness of God and have traded infinite love for finite loneliness. It is rare for anyone on planet Earth to remember for very long. The ones who remember
We dive into a swirl of people, places and things, are thrown around like a Spanish dancer — this way and that — until we get to that place where we want to stop the world and get off. We have tired of feeling less than love and aliveness. We become determined to remember who we are, to sort out which voice inside our head is our friend or foe. We promise ourselves to turn our lives around to ground zero and reclaim our original identity, our dignity, and compassionate nature. After all, “God is love”, and it is our job to “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
It is my humble opinion that “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” might have been more accurately stated, “Ye are perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect”, for the same image and likeness that we were created in was, is and will always be, perfect. Pure light. Pure love. Spirit. That is what we are. It’s a true adventure to reclaim our heritage. The secret to our healing from our mistaken human identity is to rediscover, remember our original Identity.
Remembering is the first step, but intellectual understanding and one or two flashes of clarity are not enough to sustain us for long. Frequent reminding is essential because we tend to forget to remember. A lifetime of identifying with who and what we aren’t is not usually overcome in one instant, but practicing, bringing the instants closer together; our thoughts, behaviors and communications change for the better.
That is why I recommend knocking off big chunks of false identification with a few great counseling sessions or deeply transformative workshops, attending ongoing groups affiliated with your favorite church or being part of a Twelve-Step Program (AA, CoDA, ACoA).
Between times of becoming aware of, working with and releasing the big chunks of old fear and forgetfulness, we recommend staying in touch daily with our true nature by practicing feeling the feelings we love to feel. That’s what real healing is all about… releasing old fears (false evidence appearing real) and becoming accustomed to feeling peaceful, happy and content.
Here you will hopefully find helpful information, practical tools and inspiration regarding the nuts and bolts of real healing that will help you stay in touch with the love in your heart. There is something called Knowledge… Knowledge of the Soul or Knowledge of God, which helps us remember Who and What We Truly Are. Some find it to be the best gift of all, ever.
How could anyone ever tell you…
How could anyone ever tell you,
you were anything less than beautiful?
How could anyone ever tell you,
you were less than whole?…
For healing: hypnosis or de-hypnosis?
“All healing is essentially the release from fear.”
– ACIM
Hypnosis can be a powerful tool for good — or for ill. Hypnotic suggestions program your mind, which is essentially the hard drive of your body computer. We have all been programmed to believe what we believe, to see ourselves and the world as we do.
Some love the color red; others hate it. Some love dogs; others fear them. When we came from the womb, we were simply open and receptive; fear has hypnotized us all and imprinted us all with different programs.
Fear is an especially effective means of hypnosis. A trained hypnotist might suddenly push you off balance or clap loudly next to your head… for he has learned that fear puts the subject into a trance of shock. Once in trance, suggestions can be made that will go deep into the mind.
Someone may be an excellent hypnotist and have the best of intentions, yet not know what you personally need. Only you know. Only that part of you that is below the conscious mind knows what you have been through and what you need to hear to heal the past.
This is why I recommend de-hypnosis. We need to be de-hypnotized from all the trauma we have known — from our creation until the present. Once all the trauma is gone, we are naturally restored to our innate peace of mind, joy and unconditional love.
When you are very relaxed, your own inner wisdom can show or tell you what you need to know to heal your life. It works every time. It is very efficient. It never harms.
Depression is not irrational – Suicide is not a solution
I was depressed from an early age. As a child, I always wanted to be dead. I know now that it was probably after my clitoridectomy. I was bereft. Life didn’t seem worth living. I went to the kitchen to get a knife to cut out my heart, but I was too small to reach the sharp knives – I didn’t even know where they were kept.
When I went back to my bed that night, I heard a voice say, “What makes you think it would be any different if you were to die?” I had to admit I had no guarantee. But I saw the implication was that I would have to live through those early childhood years again – no way! – and so I have stayed. My teen years and early twenties were no better. But after that, each year my heart has grown more full and rich and happy. I have no external possessions to brag about, but peace of mind and joy are my priceless treasures.
Depression is not irrational. It is a diagnosis that is like that drawer in the kitchen where you put everything you don’t know what to do with. Depression is an accumulation of legitimate, but unreleased fears, angers and sorrows. Our society does not allow grieving and does not offer anything much better than “you are born, life is for suffering, technology advances, and then you die.”. Religion often makes life on earth sound like a prison sentence, a valley of tears, after which – if you are perfect – you get to go to “heaven” and experience something that might or might not be all that much better than what you have known on earth… but there are no guarantees on any level.
What finally brought me out of my depression was the discovery that when I was very very quiet, I could feel my heart.
“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer… no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.” ― Albert Camus
Another way to say that is, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” It is! And it can be known NOW. But only one thing can exist in one place at one time, so as long as we hold on to negative feelings from the past, we do not feel that beauty that already exists in our own hearts.
I came to understand that I had something important to do here on planet earth. Until I released all that old baggage, I might just come back over and over again – no way! And so I began to do my work and began to let go of all that old and ugly stuff.
We are fortunate in this age to have lots of help – from people and healing systems like Jed Diamond, Byron Katie’s “The Work”, Gary Craig’s “EFT – Emotional Freedom Technique”, Hale Dwoskin’s “The Sedona Method”, and many others. It’s all about healing – letting go of fear/anger/sorrow. It’s why we’re here and why “stuff happens” – so that we feel the old stuff and release the past – to “forgive”, which is “for giving ourselves peace of mind, joy and health.” Feelings got stuck when we held our breath in fear. So whatever feelings come up, breathe into them… that’s how we tell ourselves that we’re safe here and now.
See the “Tools” tab, above and release one little thing today, here and now. You will be so glad you did. Then move to another… and let it go…
Emergency measures for PTSD
Trauma happens. Daily. To many. Those of us who have been suddenly exposed to terror, horror and shock, those of us who have lived in it for extended periods of time, all of us suffer at least some degree of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Sufferers of PTSD — even veterans — are not always correctly diagnosed and are even more often not treated. However, those who do receive attention do not always reap sufficient benefit from conventional treatment.
Sometimes it takes a child to say what no adult will — the emperor has no clothes and the medical field has no cure for PTSD. The conventional mental health system offers diagnoses and medications, but the mere labeling and numbing of symptoms does not equate to genuine healing. Terror and horror persist in the hearts and minds of victims and witnesses, both. The good news is,
All healing is essentially the release from fear.
Healing is always certain.
We can do it ourselves. Fact is, we must. No one else can do it for us; they don’t know what we have been through. Here is where we start. Here is where we learn to release the fear that has tied our minds and bodies into knots. Here is where we learn how to let go of fear.
We learn the principles of self-healing. We practice with ourselves and one another. We address one memory, one pain, one tense muscle at a time. Soon we are free of the shudder, the revulsion, the horror, the past. We feel real peace again. We have taken back our lives.
Search on the Internet for videos on “Emotional Freedom Technique” (EFT) or “Tapping” (they’re the same thing, just different names. This simple yet profoundly effective method of releasing fear might come in handy as you are reading, learning, practicing, identifying issues, and releasing them. Get this helpful stress-release tool under your belt and then scour and devour the rest of the healing methods here on this site. Any one of them might be enough to heal all your wounds. But one might “speak to” you more than another. Try them all.
As we release fear, we feel safer; as we feel safer, others will feel safer around us.
Lester Levenson, The Release Technique & The Sedona Method
Lester Levenson, was a physicist and engineer who lived from 1909 to 1984. He inspired The Sedona Method, and the Release Technique. At age 43, he was told he only had weeks to live. He lived 40 more years because of what he learned about healing himself.
Lester, like us, liked simplicity. He said “KISS” means Keep It Simple, Sweetheart. And he did it. There is nothing complicated about what he taught — and yet it is extremely powerful and helpful. Two people took the ball for a touchdown after Lester died: Larry Crane and Hale Dwoskin.
Larry Crane of the The Release Technique, writes,
In 1952, after being sent home by his doctors to die, Lester realized two truths that literally saved his life. The first was that his own feelings were the cause of all his problems, and not the world or the people in it, as he had previously thought. He also realized his own feelings were what he had struggled so hard and long against. And this struggle was what had destroyed his health and caused him to suffer in every way.
The second truth he discovered was that he had the inborn ability to let go of his feelings. He discovered how to completely discharge them and their negative influences from his life. Instead of struggling with them by suppressing, coping and venting as he had previously done, he discovered how to totally release them. This put an end to his struggle! He found permanent happiness. And, he found the more he released his feelings, the happier and healthier he became. In fact, within three months he was completely well, and he stayed well for over 40 more years!
The Release Technique is the most wonderful little 24-minute audio with Larry Crane and Lester Levenson. Listen very closely. Listen again. You can apply this simple understanding to all the fear in your life and release it easily, painlessly. As Lester says in this talk,
This thing called love is your basic nature. All the love in the universe is in your basic nature. You will discover that happiness — your happiness — equates to your capacity to love, and conversely all your miseries equate to your need to be loved. Just love, love, love and you will be so happy and healthy and prosperous.
Remember, you merely need to let go of your non-love feelings.
The Sedona Method is a series of CDs and books that Hale Dwoskin developed, based on Lester Levenson’s work. First, you find an issue or uncomfortable feeling that calls for attention. Then you ask yourself these three simple questions:
Could I let it go?
Would I let it go?
When?
Give each question sincere thought and an honest answer. There are no right or wrong answers.
The firstand second questions can be answered either “yes” or “no”. The third question can be answered with “now” or whatever time is true for you. If you are not ready to let it go “now”, repeat the questions until you reach a point where you no longer wish to hold on to it. You may find yourself laughing out loud on the third or fourth repetition of the questions. Of course, if you get really stuck with a difficult issue, you can always work on it later.
Another statement by Lester Levenson:
One of the things that happened in my process to love all was I discovered my identification with others. I saw that we are all related, we are all interconnected. Each mind is like a radio broadcasting and receiving station; that we are all tuned into each other unconsciously — that we are just not aware of it. I also saw that life was meant to be beautiful… meant to be happy all the time with no sorrow. And to be with perfect health. And so after reaching that high point of understanding in 1952, I have wanted to help others to discover what I had discovered.