We are used to needing to push forward and produce or “work on” things, even in therapy. Healing, however, occurs when we become passive. It is something we receive, rather than being something we make happen. In order to become passive, we have to feel a sense of safety.

Silence/contemplation/meditation are paths to healing. Our organisms (bodies) are usually bent on helping us avoid difficulty and keep us feeling “put together” in our environment. If we become “meta” to ourselves and the responses, then we have opportunity to encounter ourselves and things we have been avoiding and make some shifts in our responses. We need to feel safe and connected to do that.

As organisms (bodies), we respond to our environment automatically without conscious awareness. The ways we do this make up various parts of our experience as humans and even form elements of what we think of as our personalities. We tend to think of these responses as “problems,” but there is no reason to pathologize or judge these adaptations that are useful in helping us survive and regulate ourselves. We need to become present to them and take a neutral stance to understanding the way our organisms organize themselves in our environment. Just notice the ways you have adapted.

We’re another year older and have become more focused on our collective experience of stress and trauma. All of us experience difficulty which has an effect on our bodies over time, even as we are unaware. De-pathologizing our adaptive responses to difficulty and setting ourselves free from blame are the first steps to getting to healing. Healing is becoming connected again with ourselves and others. The book referenced is The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté.

Trauma theory is helpful in understanding how our nervous systems respond in stressful situations. We can also learn to navigate the different levels of nervous system activation, even when dangerous and life-threatening events occur. We tend to avoid these difficult things in our lives because we do not believe in our ability to experience intense sensations or understand how to complete the circles of activation and deactivation that occur naturally within us. It is in these intense activations that we can experience surrender, reckoning with our own death and spiritual awakening.

In his book In An Unspoken Voice, Peter A. Levine identifies four portals to spiritual awakening, as in the Buddhist and Taoist traditions. They are death, mediation, sex and trauma. In these experiences, humans experience profound surrender, and our nervous systems, which normally seek safety and control, are overwhelmed. Perhaps we can practice this type of surrender as a way of life.

There are layers to our human experience – perception, thought, emotion and sensation. It is important to pay attention and understand what is happening at each of these levels, but they, in and of themselves, are not the fullest or deepest experience of existence. There is a deeper sense with which we can connect – “underneath” all these layers. There are different ways to access it and different things to call it, but our spiritual practices will lead us to the same place.

Effective teachers are guides which help us find our way to truth, not just dispensing "answers." And when we suspend judgment of everything we do and think, we can experience our inner reality as it is and move toward healing and shaping it.

Religion puts forth right belief and right action (morality). If we stay in a dualistic mindset, it will not allow us to explore and know reality and ourselves deeply. We can have practices which allow us to take in what is, and give us better ability to have freedom in shaping behavior.

We discuss our belief systems' role giving structure to our morality and ability to know what is true. These are structures that are helpful for a time and then it is helpful for our spirituality to move beyond them, into a non-dual way of knowing and experiencing God and reality.