What you may be missing on your healing journey….
You are on a healing journey! You have come to the realization that there is more to life than you have been experiencing. You have reached a limit of being able to deal with life’s stressors and are trying to take your health and power back. You are tired of feeling tired and ready to let go of the anxiety, tension, pain, depression, digestive woes, unfulfilling relationships, situations and just plain stress.
You have been trying all sorts of “healthy” habits such as exercise, going vegan or paleo, meditation, yoga or maybe even dabbling in some energy therapies like reiki. You are focusing on being positive, having gratitude and doing all the “right things.” All of this has been helpful and you are feeling better but you still aren’t quite getting to where you want to. Life continues to overwhelm you. You might feel stuck. Something feels amiss….
Firstly, please give yourself a round of applause for having the courage to even step onto your healing path as although it can lead you to fabulous unforeseen breakthroughs, its inherent nature is to challenge you. Healing is ultimately about learning and evolving through trials and tribulations. It is a non-linear process of self-discovery and evolution. It also never truly ends. After a grueling and treacherous climb reaching a new vista to savor there is always another rocky trail ahead to traverse for an even more amazing one, and so on. It is like being on an eternal switchback trail where the view keeps getting better and better. As you become more fit and adept to navigate the path it can also become like second nature. You learn the keys and skills to life! A life where you are truly free to be You!
The nature of life is that there are always 2 opposing forces which are constantly shifting back and forth around a midpoint, a place of neutrality. Our reality is all about charge which is driven by these positive and negative energies. Some examples are yang/yin, up/down, right/left, day/night, sun/moon, male/female, logic/intuition etc. The existence of one defines the other. Without left would there be a right? Without one, you can’t appreciate the other. In the absence of this dynamic nothing would happen! The charge generated by these polarizing forces is what creates life and its inherent rhythms.
Our culture has conditioned us to believe that we need to only focus on the positive and it’s unacceptable to express “negative” feelings such as anger, fear or sadness. Your worth is defined by your appearance, productivity and achievements. Failure and mistakes are to be avoided at all costs. This has created a yang, masculine dominated society where the yin feminine has been suppressed and hiding in the shadows.
Within these shadows are the parts of you that are typically not seen, acknowledged and often repressed. These are the aspects of you that you don’t like and are perceived as being “negative” or unacceptable. For many of us, we are not even aware of these dimensions of ourselves. In fact, that is what the journey is all about! Finding the courage and strength to finally face these uncomfortable parts within. It is only through this process that you will truly learn to know your “Self” and be free. You have to descend to ascend. Healing is about reconciling ALL dimensions of yourself.
With that said, the #1 missing element on a healing journey is often:
Getting to know and integrating your shadow Self
Because you are a multi-dimensional being comprised of physical, emotional, mental and soul domains, so does your shadow! Let’s go through each one.
Physical Shadow
Get to know the left side of your body and space.
Did you know that the human body is inherently asymmetrical by design and we are more grounded on the right side? Our asymmetrical organ arrangement (larger liver on the right vs smaller stomach on left) seems to have triggered our diaphragm muscle to evolve to be thicker and larger on the right vs the left which orients our spine and pelvis to the right side. This occurs regardless of whether you are right vs left handed but also explains why the majority of humans are right hand dominant.
The bottom line is that we feel more secure and safe on our right leg and in our right space. Furthermore, when you add any additional stressors (can be physical, emotional, mental and/or spiritual) to the body it will physically respond by winding up even more onto the right side. This is how we compensate and adapt to feel secure. The result is that our left side and space goes offline and we lose the benefits of integrating both sides of our body creating tension and restriction. This negatively impacts not just our freedom of movement but all dimensions of our health, including our sleep, digestion, immunity, emotional and mental regulation and even our connection to our higher self and the ability to receive and give love.
Therefore, in order to be fully grounded and centered in your physical body it is absolutely essential to learn how to authentically find, feel and function the shadow left half of you.
Release underlying toxins and pathogens.
Many are unaware of the presence of toxins and pathogens in their bodies that are creating inflammation, pain and all sorts of health problems. These substances and entities can invade your tissues, organs and nervous system and may not always show up on conventional medical tests.
Viruses derived from the herpes family such as shingles and Epstein-Barr are responsible for a lot of our mystery chronic illness. Strep bacteria are also a major offender, as this type of bacteria is easily passed between family members and intimate partners. Over time, strep has become stronger with the use of antibiotics as pathogens continue to mutate and evolve.
The top 3 foods pathogens “consume” to survive and thrive are eggs, dairy and gluten. They also enjoy a nice feast of toxins such as heavy metals which they will excrete into even more toxic material for your body. In addition to their dead carcasses being poisonous to you, they also release neurotoxins and dermatoxins which are very irritating and even debilitating particularly when impacting your nervous system.
Toxins and pathogens can get passed on from generation to generation through conception and while in the womb. This landmark study (Body Burden: The Pollution in Newborns), found an average of 200 industrial chemicals and pollutants in umbilical cord blood from 10 babies born in August and September of 2004 in U.S. hospitals. Tests revealed a total of 287 chemicals in the group. The umbilical cord blood of these 10 children, collected by the Red Cross after the cord was cut, harbored pesticides, consumer product ingredients, and wastes from burning coal, gasoline and garbage.
We are thus entering this world with our bodies already burdened with harmful substances in addition to the constant exposures we endure throughout our life.
Therefore, in order to truly heal from chronic illness and pain it is essential for you to to learn how to appropriately detox your body from pathogens and toxins.
Emotional Shadow-Allow yourself to acknowledge and feel “negative” emotions and then move them.
Out of all the dimensions, the emotional shadow seems to be the most difficult shadow aspect for people to face. Our culture has done an amazing job of repressing emotions over many generations. Most of us have no idea how much unprocessed anger, frustration, sadness, grief, fear, shame ect. we are carrying within our bodies that are drawing from our vital life force. The element of water symbolizes our emotional nature. This means emotions were meant to be fluid and move through us. When they get stuck in our bodies it can be quite the battery drain, leaving you exhausted and fatigued!
Emotions serve a very important function as messages for you. They act as guides for you to realize how you feel about certain situations, to make decisions and what action or not to take. If an emotion is not fully acknowledged and processed it makes it very difficult for you to make choices that align best with You. It can overwhelm you with all sorts of confusion, anxiety, frustration and even depression.
Therefore, in order to be fully aligned with your emotional nature, your heart center, it is essential for you to learn how to appropriately recognize and process your emotions. This includes the many layers of ancestral emotional patterns you are carrying. In order to heal it, you need to feel it and move it!
Mental Shadow-Have the courage to recognize your underlying self-limiting beliefs and the role they play in your choices and behaviors.
The mental domain encompasses the underlying perceptions and beliefs we have about ourselves and the world around us. These attitudes drive our behavior, emotional patterns and physical health. For example, the two most foundational self-limiting beliefs that all humans have to some degree are “I am not safe” and “I am not enough.” Because of these perceptions, we feel insecure which can play out in our lives in a myriad of different scenarios. To name a few: anxiety, depression, addictions, chronic pain and fatigue, physical dis”ease,” poor health behaviors, unfulfilling relationships, problems with self-honor, taking responsibility for your choices and quite simply: making the best decisions that support your health and vitality.
Diving in the shadow of the mental realm often reveals difficult truths about yourself that need to be acknowledged. Because it can be painful to face these realities, we tend to keep them in the darkness. However, once you are able to find the strength within to acknowledge them and learn their accompanying lessons, the door to transformation opens.
Soul Shadow-Realize that your soul has a life experience curriculum for you to learn and evolve from which can involve trauma, illness, loss and very challenging situations.
Your soul is akin to your “higher self” or “higher consciousness.” It is the most evolved, luminous and wisest version of you. Within your soul is everything that you will ever need and is an unlimited reservoir of unconditional love, safety and wisdom.
Your soul also has an agenda for your life experiences and lessons. There are certain people, events and situations which are “under contract” for you in this lifetime. We refer to these as “sacred contracts” as they are destined to happen in some way or another in your life. There may be certain people in your life where you feel a very strong connection with, almost like you may have known them for ages and they bring you lots of love and positive support. On the other hand, there are some individuals who are a very strong fixture in your life that trigger lots of stress and turmoil. With either of these types of relationship connections a soul contract likely exists where you have agreed to have certain experiences together. These soul contracts are specifically selected and timed to assist in your transformation, the expansion of your consciousness and understanding of yourself.
The same may be true for certain events or situations in your life which are under contract. Sometimes we are meant to experience particular traumas, illnesses or losses as a learning experience. When you reflect back on the most difficult aspects of your life thus far, are you able to see how you may have become stronger and wiser because of them? Or perhaps they may still have a negative hold over you?
When accepting the shadow aspect of your soul, you are able to understand that not everything in your life is meant to be characterized as positive, joyful and filled with light. We are also destined to experience the negative, sadness and darkness. Our human gift of free will gives us the choice in how we want to act, work with and ultimately perceive our circumstances.
Resonate Health is designed to assist you in all dimensions of your healing journey: the physical, emotional, mental and soul in both the light and shadow. Resonate Health’s Master Guide membership showcasing the Resonate Health Integrative Healing Program and accompanying weekly forum for Q&A and special healing experiences hold all the resources, tools and techniques you need. Or take it a step further for even more customization to your needs and consider one of our individual offerings. This way you can be assured that your healing experience is amplified and optimized just for you. Resonate has redefined the meaning of health to be able to take you to new vistas using tried and true healing trails.
