trauma

The growing popularity of sites like ancestry.com and services like 23andMe underscores our deep human desire to understand where we come from. While digging into archival records and testing DNA can shed light on our cultural antecedents, ancestral healing practices add another valuable layer to the picture. Ancestral healing is a modern, spiritually-based ritual process which seeks to bridge the chasm between cultural wounds and cultural treasures.

The chakra system is a system that EVERY human being has, whether you believe in energy or not. The chakras are powerful energy centers that can be found along the spinal column with two extending into the head. Last time, we focused on the root chakra.

The deer, in Taoism, is identified as an animal who lives long and has a healthy sexual appetite. There are other animals, such as the crane and the turtle, that are identified in Taoism who live long and healthy lives, but the deer’s strong sexual and reproductive characteristics makes it stand out among the rest. The deer was observed constantly exercising its anus. The exercise was adapted for humans and the deer exercise was invented.

Forgiveness. Sometimes it seems to be the be-all and end-all of spiritual practice, the goal

of every religious seeker, the easy solution to almost every experience of abuse and trauma a person can experience. Indeed, true forgiveness is a profound state—and probably a pinnacle of spiritual evolution. However, demanding that those who are on different places on the path to healing and wholeness forgive—without even understanding what that entails—and using “forgiveness” as a way to blame victims is an act of violence itself.

This world is full of things that trigger us: those things that get under our skin, those moments where we lose all the cool we have been cultivating and fly off the handle, those unspoken rules of etiquette that we know and are shocked that others do not abide by. Each one of us has our own unique set of triggers and the people who match them. We may try to ignore them, we may want to avoid them, but we cannot escape what we avoid.

If you’ve recently spent any times traveling on planes and through airports, you might have seen dogs lying at their owner’s feet, secured with little more than a leash and a vest reading “Therapy Animal.” Therapy Animals have become popular in recent years: pigs at the San Francisco International Airport, 

After going through a few hard months, I've recently been able to really focus on looking within and getting myself back to balance. I of course went for my go-to methods of relaxation and energy healing; meditation and yoga, but I also came across something called somatic therapy, which really piqued my interest.