Soul Stories for Wholeness
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”
C. Jung
If the privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are; and I believe it is, then…
Do you know the embodied experience of being who you truly are?
How does it feel to be authentically you?
When was the last time you experienced who you truly are?
In my experience the feeling of being who you truly are is a Soul connection and it feels deeply sublime. I trust you’ve experienced it at some point in your life and know that it’s well worth the work of getting there. But to get there we need to heal. Egoic wounds tear the fabric of being. Healing is a form of sewing, yoking, integration or bringing together. It means to make whole. All that we make whole then becomes holy.
What are you in the process of making holy?
Perhaps you are creating a new boundary, stepping away from a person, place or pattern, cultivating a sustainable habit or a new work ethic, learning to trust yourself, letting go of a fear or phobia, becoming vulnerable, releasing an old egoic defence or deliberately building a new one…regardless of how it looks on the outside, your Soul seeks to make wholeness with you. The work you are doing to get there I am calling Swholeness.
Let’s develop a personal paradigm to work with.
A scenario that takes a short clip from your life’s process of wholeness. Something that still holds a charge for you or feels like it needs completion. If you’re at a loss, think back to the last family event you attended. Perhaps it was Mother’s Day, a wedding or funeral, someone’s birthday, a family meal or celebrated holiday? Undoubtedly all the ingredients for your Swholeness presented at one of these family events. When an emotionally charged memory arises write it down.
As Swhole seekers, spiritual aspirants and people growing beyond the material realm we know that bridging what is seen with what is unseen is where the growth and the healing happens. Regardless of the healing modality we choose, this integration process is always an essential part of our life’s work.
When you work with paradigms the easiest way to choose them is through emotional charge. Paradigms with emotional charge are still active in your nervous system even if you’re avoiding, compartementalizing or suppressing most of the time. If there’s a charge, something you can feel (like a push, pull or symptom), the memory is ripe for integration, transformation and the process of swholeness.
As you write remember YOU are the protagonist in your paradigm and the gold is found looking, feeling and honouring through your lens. Take a few minutes now to write down one scene where you still feel the charge. Often it means you felt uncomfortable, unseen or unheard and the situation was not resolved. Be honest with yourself and compassionate.
After writing out your experience reduce it to a single sentence or two. Remember that every minute detail of your life is designed for your wholeness. Every gnarly, boring, embarrassing, cringy, overlooked, underdeveloped, judgy, depressive, ugly, not so feel good and feel good bit of it! After writing your paradigm take a moment to stretch, yawn or move your body. Then…
Come back to the page and create a new state of being by remembering a Soulful moment. Write it down and reduce it to a sentence or two. Then sit, breathe and remain in this internal state of being for as long as you like.
Let it flow through your blood, strengthen your bones and return your nervous system to its home frequency. Remember that becoming who you truly are bridges what is seen with what is unseen. Bridging is the work. The getting there and being who you truly are is a Soul connection that feels deeply sublime.
To bridge the dark with the light of your Soul is to bridge what is unconscious with new energy and consciousness. This ancient alchemical process, I call Swholenss, is what heals. Like a bandage over split skin, it brings two separated halves together and creates something new. Scar tissue, like healed space, looks and feels different and is stronger than it was before. The process of tending to and caring for the wound becomes part of your swholeness. What heals becomes your holy ground.
In these paradigm writing practices your body is the alchemical vessel, container or cauldron for healing. All the ingredients you need are already a part of the paradigm and the alchemy lives through your nervous system and your subtle body. However, if it is also your preference to develop a separate ritual outside of yourself, then please do.
When you are ready to bridge the uncomfortable, unseen, unheard moment with your Soul’s energy, create enough space and time where you will not be interrupted. Maintain your Soul’s self state and visualize the scene of your paradigm through the single sentence you wrote. Avoid telling yourself a story or being swept away in negative or positive emotions.
Let the scene reveal the charge in your body and name it. Shame, regret, fear, anger, embarrassment, defeat, grief, despair are common charges to hold in the nervous system. Be as honest and affirming with your self statements as you can. i.e:
It was so hard to remain silent my stomach hurt.
I wanted to cry but I felt unsafe to do so, it gave me a migraine.
Shame consumed me and I felt like hiding.
It was terrifying to say…
Allow the charge in your body to speak its truth. Name this truth and write it down. Let it meet the alchemical Soul space in your body. You can visualize, draw, hum, sing or dance both places meeting. Trust that the process is healing. In the moment you won’t have complete certainty about how swholeness looks but know that it always gifts new insight, opportunity and perspective. Let the timing unfold on its own. Keep watch of what arises over the next few days, weeks & months. Pay particular attention to your actions and internal responses to similar and repeating moments. When you notice a new response, write it down. You seeing you through new eyes is part of the process.
At a personal level I work with a variation of this paradigm process everyday in my meditative morning integration practice. The alchemical process of bridging what is seen and unseen is my passion and my gift. When we work together there is an even greater healing potential that comes with combining our consciousness, insights and intuitive gifts. If you have a personal paradigm, experience, vision or dream you’d like more depth, understanding and Soul connection to please reach out. I’d love to work with you.
Going Deeper:
If you are looking for a deeper practice of swholeness here is one I have worked with for over a decade. It works with the chakra system and the subtle body. Many of its teachings, insights and downloads have made their way into the shared wisdom of my Soul Alignment Sessions.
Start by creating the space to be comfortable and uninterrupted for about 40 min.
1) Sit in a comfortable position and breathe into muladhara at the coccyx area or your root chakra. Give muladhara your favourite earth red colour and remember the feeling of your personal ground, including your body, your schedule, your home, your purpose. Breathe that space into your root chakra. Visualize it, feel it. Repeat the bija sound of lam and stay in this space until you are ready to move up to chakra two.
2) Breathe into the sacral area of chakra two or Svadhisthana. Give this area your favourite orange colour. Let it represent your creative energy in the world and visualize a beautiful body of water. Notice the water as stillness and flow in your life. Let it meet your creative energy as well as any anxiety, worry or doubt that arrives in the moment. Repeat the bija sound of vam. Stay in this space until you are ready to move up to chakra three.
3) Breathe into the naval area of manipunna. Visualize your favourite colour of yellow and let this space represent your will. Imagine a contained bonfire and the soft glow of the light at night. Let the heat remind you of your will in the world and the will you bring naturally to any situation. Allow the fire to transform the places where your will feels small, powerless or big and bullying. Repeat the seed sound ram. Stay in this space until you are ready to move up to chakra four.
4) Breathe into the heart space of Anahata. Visualize your favourite green colour and let this space represent your capacity to give and receive love. Imagine the touch of a warm soft breeze meeting your skin and carrying all that you need in the moment. Immerse yourself in the air that gently rustles leaves, carries sand from the sahara to the amazon and oxygenates every cell in your body. Notice where the flow of air gets stuck in your mind and body and allow that area to receive. Repeat the bija sound of Yam. Stay in this space until you are ready to move up to your throat chakra.
5) Breathe into the throat space of Vishudda. Visualize your favourite shade of blue and let this space represent the sound of your voice and the sounds you take in from other voices, music, nature and life. Feel the sounds as a vibration in your body and notice the sounds that draw you and those that don’t. Repeat the bija sound of ham. Stay in this space until you are ready to move up to the centre of your forehead.
6) Breathe into the space of Ajna in the centre of your forehead. Visualize your favourite shade of indigo. Let this space represent the light you see as truth in yourself, in others and in nature. Visualize many places where you see this illuminated light in the world. Notice what feels like a veil covering your light, where the light of others seems distorted and bring your Soul’s light. Repeat the bija sound of sham. Stay in this space until you are ready to move up to the space of your crown.
7) Breathe into the space of Sahasrara at the crown and above. Visualize a soft silver colour flowing into gold and then into white light. Let this space represent your connection to the divine and the interconnectedness of all things. This includes the divine past, present and future for you and all of life. Allow this space to surround you and to connect with all the other chakras. Invite the healing presence of divine knowledge to flow through you and around you. Bless your day and invite your most vulnerable parts to be present for integration and healing. Repeat the bija sound of om. Stay in this space until you are ready to return completely to your physical body in your room.
In this integration practice, each chakra has a physical location in the body, a bija seed sound (resonance), a visualized physical location in the world and an elemental bridge that bridges polarities. After years of daily practice I now consider this practice a form of sacred medicine.
Modifications- Your Organic Process
There are are many chakra system lineages. Chakra names vary depending on the tradition or lineage you choose to use. Chakra energy systems are found in the most ancient sacred texts and are still used today in Hindu, Tantric, Tibetan, Mayan, Tsalagi (Cherokee), Incan, African (Zulu), Egyptian and occult Christian (Zachary Lansdowne) cultures. Choose the one that feels most aligned with who you are.
For a complete overview of the chakras I recommend Anodea Judith’s work or Cindi Dale’s Subtle Body Encyclopedia. Here is a very brief overview named according to the Hindu lineage:
Chakra One - Muladhara- Physical coccyx, bija sound lam, element earth
Chakra Two - Svadhisthana- Physical sacral, bija sound vam, element water
Chakra Three -Manipura- Physical navel, bija sound ram, element fire
Chakra Four - Anahata- Physical heart, bija sound yam, element air
Chakra Five - Vishudda, Physical throat, bija sound ham, element sound/ether
Chakra Six - Ajna, Physical third eye, bija sound om, element light
Chakra Seven - Sahasrara, Physical pineal, upper skull and above, no element
Each chakra acts as a wheel, disc or funnel of energy moving from the macrocosm through several layers or sheaths of our auric field into the more densified microcosm of our physical body. The totality of this system, including many thousands of nadis and meridians (not shown here) comprise our Soul’s energetic template or blue print.
Entire books are written on the energetic systems of the subtle body with each chakra having its own meaning, symbol, colour as well as other atributes such as a person’s age and stage of development, positive and negative egoic functions, instinctual qualities, action organs, ruling planets and archetypes, spirit animals, personality traits and characteristics as well as spiritual gifts.
This blog is not intended to touch on the depth of the chakra system, but rather to offer you a daily meditative process of integration and healing I call swholeness.
All healing modalities bring the union of opposites. They aim to bring together the parts of our energetic system and our soul that has split off or fragmented due to the human experiences that separate us from our authenticity and true nature.
By nature the Soul is inherently drawn to people, places and things that hold or represent an energy it is searching for. The human part of us has no choice but to consciously or unconsciously be attracted to the people, places and things that have something our Soul needs for wholeness. This is part of our Swholeness.
Personally and professionally my healing practices bridge light with dark; energy with matter and emotion with symptom.
Here are three practical examples of swholeness:
Consciousness meets shadow in a writer’s paradigm - This person’s shadow showed up as writer’s block. During our session this writer realized his inspiration was being usurped through a conditioned set of internal expectations that actually had nothing to do with him and everything to do with the projection from someone else in his life. Our session became an aha moment that gave clear insight, new direction, internal confirmation, conviction and renewed energy to create with. This conscious moment in meeting the shadow freed up his Soul’s inspiration to write.
Psyche, Soul, Self reveals itself through a dream - This woman had been working for two years to change an unhealthy relationship dynamic. She was presented with a lengthy series of dreams that with my help revealed her Soul’s truth. In her dreams she repeatedly meets old boyfriends in different scenarios but instead of engaging with them she decides to jump off a cliff. Repeatedly. While mid air she realizes she isn’t panicking and despite multiple cliff jumps is not dead. One of the take aways was clear… she’d rather jump off a cliff than go back to her old patterns. Often dreams are punny:)
Note: Everything in a dream is a symbolic representation of energy that is ready to relate to you and vice versa. The dream field acts like a movie screen. All the energy that is projected onto it is yours to integrate and make conscious. It's a way for your Soul to directly speak to you through the sacred languages of metaphor, pun and symbolism. I love the dream field and have been working with this ancient wisdom for decades.
Emotion and collective fields of energy as symptom- Your body is always acting as an alchemical cauldron for healing. This cauldron holds our genetics as well as our unprocessed personal emotions and collective energy fields. These contagion fields, which act through the mirror neurons in the brain, arise from all kinds of sources including weather patterns, siesmic shifts, moon cycles, power grids, political fallout, national team wins and planetary alignment. Ultimately collective energy fields create vibrations percieved by the nervous system and translated into emotion and feeling in the body.
For example: I used to teach yoga at several studios around the city. Invariably after arriving at one studio someone (sometimes multiple people) would share a body symptom they were having that they wanted me to consider before teaching them/the class. Then I’d go to another studio and someone else, completely unrelated would share the same symptom. ie. my pinky hurts I might need to modify, I have a sprained ankle, I tweeked my neck, strained my hamstring, tore a ligament etc… At first I found this a curious “coincidence.” But after over a decade of this consistently happening at all the studio’s and with symptoms that were not common I started to call it, “symptom trending.” I’ve come to believe that, “symptom trending” is the result of collective fields of energy that act on the body. In my experience symptom trending flows in waves.
Whether we have an aching back, dislocated knee, GERD, neck tension, metatarsalgia, frozen shoulder or cancer. All our physical symptoms have an energetic component within them. Since we can bring consciousness to our buried emotions and release them, it’s a great place to accelerate our healing.
As well as working with tens of thousands of bodies through teaching yoga, I have personally healed from a staggering number of bodily symptoms. I wish I could claim bragging rights for this, but I can’t. Here are a handful of the symptoms I’ve healed from that don’t include migraine: metatarsalgia, heel spurs and plantar fasciitis, sprains, strains and breaks (ankles, knees, tailbone), a dislocated elbow and knee, three lumbar herniations with nerve compression, a spondylolisthesis, one frozen shoulders the other with severe impingement, trigeminal neuralgia, chronic neck pain and the list isn’t done. I’m only sharing this information because if we work together on relasing emotional charge through symptom management, I want you to know I’m not only coming from my training and decades of work with people, I’m coming from my personal experience of healing.
Negative emotional energy that we have been unable to make conscious can show up for any number of reasons including trauma (too much, too soon, too fast) age (too young to express or process) timing (there hasn’t been an opportunity and there’s only so much time in the day) or life circumstances. Psyche needs to feel safe enough and for long enough to open up. Even though the process of swholeness is my passion, purpose and my business, I still have to work hard at it. There is no shame in discovering negative emotional charge as symptom. It is simply the human experience of spirit in matter and matter in spirit.
Coming back to the privilege of becoming who you truly are in this lifetime. I trust that you have felt the wildly sublime moment of your Soul’s expression at least once in this lifetime. Because you too have this experience you know I’m not exaggerating or spouting dogma when I remind you that a Soul connection feels amazing! In many cases even better than sex, better than your favourite meal, better than eight hours of uninterrupted sleep, better than the vacation of your dreams, better than street racing, better than your greatest high and greatest imaginings.
Since you already know this truth in your bones and I’m only reminding you of what you already know I hope you will reach out and share a personal paradigm , experience, vision or dream for us to work with.
Miracles land right at the meeting place of light and dark, conscious and unconscious and that’s where I want to meet you. Let’s meet right in the middle.
Your Next Step:
If you feel called to connect with your Soul’s purpose, power, and passion, I’m here to guide you. As a Sacred Seer, Soul Alignment is my calling. I help bridge the gap between your current awareness and your Soul’s deeper messages.
Drawing on ancient subtle body seeing, evidence-based practices, and decades of Soul-centered wisdom, I support clients in aligning with the powerhouse of their Soul — so they can live their purpose with passion, in service to people and the planet.
When you're ready to decode your Soul’s messaging, through a dream, life paradigm or personal vision, I invite you to connect with me through a one-on-one Soul Alignment session. Together, we’ll discover the secret language of your Soul so you can live aligned with life. Discover the Secret Language of Your Soul Here.
