Heal Your Self with Writing

A child growing up in an alcoholic and/or abusive environment may create a wall around himself for protection. Such defensive methods may actually ensure surviving emotionally and physically through challenging and threatening times in our lives. Years pass, however, and though we are now safe, these walls and other defense mechanisms may sometimes sabotage both our personal and professional lives. The wall is no longer needed yet it remains. It has become habitual. The first step is to become aware of what we have built around us, and how this invisible wall prevents connecting and leading a full and meaningful life.

Your limitations are not set by who you are but rather who you think you’re not. The people who are put in high regard and given much respect are those who are confident enough to believe in themselves. And it is far easier to believe in yourself if you are being an authentic Self.

Today’s Age of Information is a poor substitute for the callings of spirit. Information is not — nor ever was — wisdom. Knowledge is more than the naming of names, and survival more than material sustenance. In olden times a shaman would interpret psychological illness as a separation from soul. His job then was to retrieve the severed soul and unite or return it to the one possessed or ill.

In this way, the shaman becomes a bridge between the two worlds of earth and spirit. The shaman is an ear for his community. He discovers where their suffering lies, and speaks to that.
What has this to do with us today? Since the Industrial Revolution, we have been split off from spirit. The price of outer, industrial success removed us from our connection to the land and its spirit. It vastly increased the pace of life, thereby affecting our quality of life and personal relationships. It replaced value on family and health with monetary value. It lessened our instinctive responses and gave us instead mental development.