Hidden Structures
Fundamentally, consciousness structures who we are and everything we experience. The physical world has been built up in layers. There are 7 primary layers (koshas) in this process. And there are 7 primary chakras (energy …
Category: Mind
Parenting from a Trauma-informed Lens
Two of my teachers I’m studying with at The Centre For Healing did a class on trauma-informed parenting. (They talk for about an hour.) The 5 key steps: 1) Understanding trauma, emotional imprints, and the …
The Levels of Thinking
Back in the 1950s, Bloom developed a taxonomy of thinking ability for educators and exam writers. They revised it in 2001. It has 6 levels, with a style of thinking (of using the mind and …
Qualities of the Self
Recently, I listened to a workshop discussing Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Polyvagal Theory. IFS is a psychological model. “Internal Family” is a reference to our system of sub-personalities, what I call the roles we …
The Fall of Self-Esteem
During the 1980s, popular psychology promoted the importance of self-esteem. This was both widely promoted and widely mocked as self-absorption. The issue with self-esteem is when it’s measured by our achievements, expectations, and social norms. …
On Anxiety, Again
Anxiety is considered normal in modern western culture. And yet, it’s your body telling you that something is wrong. What is anxiety? Anxiety is an activated state of the nervous system created by a feeling …
The Stages of Trauma Recovery
When I say trauma, you may think of a car accident or something like that. However, trauma is a very common adaption to overwhelming experiences we’ve had throughout our life. For example, when my illness …
What is the Subconscious Mind?
In a recent Embodied Processing class, the instructors described our body as the subconscious mind. While I find this a little imprecise, they went on to explain that this is because our body is an …
On Anxiety
Fear is a natural response to a threat to our well-being. Yet most of us very rarely experience a life-threatening event. Instead, the identified ego takes on the self role. Then we equate perceived threats …
Mithya
I’ve written before about how our dominant guna (quality) determines how we see the world. When Tamas (inertia) is dominant, we experience the world as solid and real. This is how most people see the …
What is Embodied?
When I talk about the move here to more physically embody the opening, it’s useful to ask – what is being embodied? We can embody our identity, drama, and/or suffering. We can embody various levels …
Levels of Identity
I’ve spoken of the motivation to explore somatic healing so I can better embody the unfolding. I’ll be writing about what I mean by embody. I’ve also written about head, heart, & gut, the 3 …