How we support ourselves

I came across this tree last week. One branch is broken, and instead of falling off completely, it's hanging on and acting as a support for the rest of the leaning tree. Without it, the tree likely would have fully fallen over in the recent pre-monsoon rains.

I thought about how often we do something similar as humans too: prop ourselves up with a story or survival pattern, sometimes even relying fully on that story in order to function. This is how we survive; trauma responses are a loving effort towards ourselves to survive. At some point, when the situation changes, we may hopefully have time and space to reassess. What if we were given new helpful stories and support to thrive and grow without needing cut parts of ourselves off in order to survive?

In shamanic healing there is a recognition that many of us have parts of ourselves that may need reintegrating in order to feel fully ourselves. The modern way of life is deeply challenging, and even with the most supportive of environments, it's common to have some level of disconnection. Soul retrieval is a shamanic process by which parts of ourselves that may have dissociated due to difficult situations or may be living a distorted version of reality can be reintegrated. There is a difference between supporting ourselves in a distorted manner in order to survive and supporting ourselves from within, with wholeness of Self.

To learn more about shamanic healing, you may contact me for a one to one session in Auroville.

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