Teal Swan

Self trust can be summed up as the assured reliance on your own character, ability, strength, and truth. This sounds straightforward enough. The problem is, most of us have spent our lives listening to our parents, our government, our teachers and our bosses. We have been raised with the idea that we do not know what is best for ourselves. Instead, we are taught that other people who “know more than we do”; know what is best for us. Because of this, we choose what we think we are supposed to choose. We try to live according to what our society says is “right”. We allow ourselves to be who we are told that we are; and we are caught in an endless struggle of seeking approval and reaching for recognition. The result is that we loose trust in ourselves.

When we are thinking, we are not present with all of ourselves. We are not present with our bodies. We are not present with the way we feel. We are not present in the world. We are not present with other people. We are only present with the unfolding of thoughts and wherever our attention to those thoughts take us, regardless of whether that place is positive or painful. And this happens so unconsciously that we don’t even really know what we are thinking about specifically unless we decide to specifically observe our thoughts.

There is nowhere for the energy to turn but inward towards the self. And so they are expressed upon the self. In this episode Teal explains how to stop cutting and how to help someone who is cutting.

Cutting is one of the most misunderstood human behaviors. And like any addiction, cutting is an extremely difficult thing to stop. We can become addicted to the chemicals that our own body produces in response to certain things with the same veracity that we become addicted to a street drug. And as soon as we associate the action of cutting with the corresponding feeling of relief (which is the result of endorphin release), we create neuropathways in our brain that automatically compel us to seek relief when we feel negative emotion by cutting.

We live in a universe of polarity. This time space reality was created to enhance universal expansion. Polarity is what enhances that expansion. We come to know white by knowing black. We come to know freedom by knowing imprisonment. And so we come to know goodness, by knowing what we call ‘evil’.

All too often, we say yes to others whenever we are asked to do something, but deep down we feel resentful even though it was our decision in the first place. We suppress those feelings of resentment, but emotions like resentment are energy and energy has to go somewhere. So it does, those negative feelings express themselves through your body and begin to corrode at the bond between you and the people in your life. What we really resent is the fact that every time we are asked to do something, we feel faced with decision to do what would make us happy and be a bad, unlovable person or to do something we don't want to do and remain a good, lovable person. We develop the habit of never saying no because we want to be loved.

We set ourselves up for failure by never saying no because we commit ourselves to a life lived for other people and not for ourselves. This isn't sustainable, because it takes a toll on our energy, body and relationships.

People who suffer from anorexia have deep and often suppressed trauma involving feeling out of control. When we are children, we are essentially out of control in our lives. We are at the mercy of the adults in our life. Our degree of safety is about how much we can trust them to be in control in a way that takes our best interests to heart. All too often however, we come into environments where it isn’t about our best interests at all, it is about their best interests, even to our detriment. We begin to feel as if we are simply a tool for their self-gratification.

When you were young, you came into a society. Socialization is a must in an un-awakened society. In an un-awakened society there are collective social and cultural values. When we value one thing, we often condemn the opposite. For example, self-sacrifice may be a social value and selfishness is condemned. We deem one good and the other bad. In order to keep the social order, we socialize children, which basically means we train them to behave in a way that is acceptable to the society we live in. We indoctrinate children with our social and cultural values and reward them when they adhere to those values. We punish children when they demonstrate behavior that contradicts our social and cultural values. So as a child, if we want our needs to be met, survive in society and have a chance at feeling things like love and belonging and contribution and safety, we have one option… to adopt those values of the society we are born into and hold ourselves to them!

The throat chakra is about the discovery of your individual purity and your individual truth and then the expression of that truth and purity which you find. For the throat chakra to be in a state of health, you must not only accept but own your originality and speak your truth according to that originality. The throat chakra governs the seeking and sharing of truth. It relies on inspiration. It is also the chakra that governs listening, communication, personal integrity and personal honor.

At the most basic level, your body is made up of energy. That energy organizes itself into the physical body you are looking at in the mirror every day. But before that energy organizes itself into physical body parts, it organizes itself into meridians and chakras. These chakras are centers of energy that lie along energy channels and each one holds a very specific vibration and has a specific purpose. Each chakra is a specific expression of Prana (otherwise known as life force or source energy). The chakras look a bit like funnels of energy or vortices. They both absorb and emit energy.

The excess weight is only an outer effect of a deep inner problem. You have excess fat because you are subconsciously convinced that you need that excess weight. And despite all of the steps you try and take to lose the weight, your body is doing its very best to give you what you need... it's convinced you need the weight.

So the question is:

Why do I need the weight? What is the positive intention for it being here?