Blog
Humans are wired for resilience
The star of the astonishing 2020 documentary My Octopus Teacher was a creature who could shapeshift in an instant to protect herself from threat—changing color to disappear against a rock wall, swaying gently to blend in with a clump of kelp, or retreating into a crack to regenerate a lost limb. Most astonishing of all, however, was the close relationship that developed between the octopus and the filmmaker when she felt safe enough for connection after months of his quiet observation.
What has changed? What have we learned?
After a year of living under the dark cloud that is the coronavirus pandemic, we’re still struggling with uncertainty and trying to maintain hope. In spite of increased vaccination rates, the infection rates continue to be high. Being vaccinated does protect us from severe expression of the disease, but not as much against contracting or spreading the disease. This means we still need to be vigilant with safety practices and avoid exposure as much as possible.
Healing the body by addressing the mind and spirit
There are many factors that affect our health: physical, environmental, social, emotional. To fully understand and heal a condition, we must untangle and address all of these factors. For example, even if a case of back pain was caused by an overt injury, there may be an emotion or a pain memory that, left unaddressed, prevents the original injury from healing.
Treating traumas of the soul
One of the things that kept me busy during the pandemic shutdown was an online German auricular acupuncture course on identifying and treating soul trauma. Soul trauma refers to psychological wounds and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Most of us have experienced some form of shock, trauma, injury, or abuse in our lives. There may even be an event that we are not conscious of, such as birth trauma, that is still having an effect on our whole being.
A global pandemic is no retreat
What a strange few weeks we have experienced. It has taken me over two weeks to feel settled enough to even write anything meaningful. I have spoken with many friends, clients, and fellow practitioners, who have been experiencing similar patterns of anxiety, lack of focus, and frustration. It seems that the new and unknown territory we’re wading through causes us to experience a feeling of chaos. The thing is, isn’t the future always unknown? Certainly, our usual, day-to-day lives have a routine and familiarity to them that helps to keep us grounded, and more able to cope with the unexpected.