Brief Therapy Solutions
You can sample brief therapy solutions covered on this page,
by enrolling in one of 2 new groups, simply click on the links and sign up:
www.massage.meetup.com/376 or www.larp.meetup.com/160
Shadow
Shadow work involves work on some aspect of self that you are out of touch with,or that is not ‘seen’ by your conscious self. Anger can be a shadow module, either in the way it is expressed in inappropriate fashion, or not expressed or not understood. Sexuality has abundant shadow components, as does issues surrounding control, or power, or taking risks, or abandonment, which can drive fears, anger, aggression, agitation at those we see as 'powerful' or ‘controlling’ or 'sexual' or 'angry' or ‘impotent’ or ‘abandoned’ or ‘risk taking’ etc.
Some obsess about power, others avoid it. Some rage obsessively, others avoid anger. Power as a shadow 'driver" can be individual or collective and can obliterate our choice to choose differently. Fear has countless shadow elements, often manifested in the inability to take risks, or to weigh risks objectively.
We don’t often see the inherent social bias that fuels certain kinds of 'collective shadows' - those carried by a large number of people in a group, who seem to get reinforcement and tend to keep their shadow 'drivers' going. (Conrad Black's 'shadow' driver, operating in his relationship to power, was likely not something he took great pains to unpack or understand or that the people around him dared to point out to him) We all, myself included have 'weak spots' or 'blind spots' in our claim to understand ourselves and our motives for better understading how we arrive at our choices. Because the majority of our choices involve emotions, and since our emotions are a product of our subconscious, it is helpful to approach shadow work by engaging the subconscious, through modules such as hypnosis.
What we don't see, we project, or introject, or retroflect onto our environment. And thus, if our style is to project (as that is mine) we believe THEY possess that horrid trait, that WE are free of. If we repress our drive to be physically attractive to others, or if we are out of touch with our sexuality, or cannot access our anger, we will project that onto others around us, judging and condemning THEM for what ultimately we are unaware we desire for ourself. If we repress the drive to develop spiritually, we may behave in a way that says to others that physical attraction is all that matters. For most, the shadow module is something we don't THINK we need to practice, because it’s not conscious to us. (Societies and subcultures don't often see THEIR OWN shadow drivers in action) Yet, "shadow" can be insidious precisely because it is hidden from us, buried in our unconscious.
If left unchecked, it can seek to destroy us, or seek to, or at least deprive us of a fuller life than would otherwise be ours if we could reign in even some of our shadow projections, and have that energy freed up to act, for the present moment, rather than reacting to what occurred 15 or 30 years earlier, over and over and over, being merely reflexive and not open to life's situations. Shadow components left unchecked serve to sabotage opportunities for adventure, or change, or growth, and can also suffocate us with boredom and sameness. Therefore it is well worth exploring and working on our shadow modules so we can keep spiralling upwards to higher levels of awareness, integration, newness, creativity, and success. We must continually die to our small selves in order to move into larger aspects of us, letting go of what no longer serves us. Often that work is easier done with a trained professional.
www.massage.meetup.com/376 or www.larp.meetup.com/160 are brief therapy environments where you can experience these modules for yourself.
Mind
The mind module Includes the brain, and cognition processes, but is larger than the function of the physical brain, or mere 'mental computing'. Mind is the great projector, what we project most in our ordinary lives. You could say that "Mind leads". The Mind module is likely what is engaging you to keep reading this essay, either to pick it apart, or to google a related subject.
Practicing Big Mind for example as a therapeutic module engaging the mind, allows us to 'hold more' of our experiences, beyond what the rational, or small mind can allow. It allows us to see the fragmentation of our psyche, the various voices that are disjointed and competing and conflicted. Big Mind process helps to unpack the judge, the controller, the sceptic, the dreamer, the damaged self, the voice of the child, etc..
While our rational mind says "I’m over it” …Big Mind will help us realize the extent to which these voices are still highly operational in our psyche, shutting off what the future could potentially hold for us.
Big Mind practice also allows us to see the parts of us that are afraid, or hurt, and the parts that seek to sabotage ourselves in order to justify some old antiquated idea of self limitation, or ‘needing to be safe’ which may have been set in place 15, 20 or 30 years previously.
Big Mind aims to be one with everything that is arising, as it arises,- it sees no separation in our psychological apparatus - and is designed to provide opportunities to take perspectives, higher perspectives than we might otherwise consider, and to tame the lower perspectives, or at least shut them up temporarily. Big Mind is not locked into lower perspectives, as is fundamentalism, or ethnocentric thinking. While it can hold those perspectives, and does, it is not locked into them… Lower perspectices might reinforce for those in gay life a belief that “ Everything revolves around sexuality” (Well it does, doesn’t it?) . Big Mind allows us to continually take new perspectives, - bigger, bolder ones, - and to see through the eyes of 'others', to transcend smaller notions of self and of ‘the world’ while at the same time remaining inclusive and respectful of ‘where we have been’ and where others are, and where we might choose to go for ourselves. Big Mind holds space for all that arises in us, including the urge to 'stay small' as well as the urge to ‘play large’.
Mind is the module that we use to catch and hold much of our spiritual material. The Mind module "catches" and holds spirit. If we don't work Big Mind, we won't be able to hold or catch much of our spiritual experiences, and thus, our interpretation of spiritual material will not stick. So Big Mind practice is useful in that you can learn to 'hold more' of your spiritual experiences. The insights are retained, and you aren't relying solely on 'another drug trip' or the toxicity of alcohol or recreational drugs, or casual sex, to relive an experience, of 'feeling connected' to something larger than yourself.
Big Mind can be a one session exploration or can take several session, consecutively or over a period of several sessions, with other content introduced in between our sessions.
www.massage.meetup.com/376 or www.larp.meetup.com/160 are brief therapy environments where you can experience these modules for yourself.
Spirit
While most of what our spirit modules teach is eastern in origin, there are also very good western approaches, like contemplative Christianity, (Father Thomas Keating) or certain tenets of Judaism, such as Kabballah.
Spirit is evoked in those qualities and in the vernacular that is 'everyday' , even pedestrian, but is nonetheless hard to pinpoint or to approach methodically. There is a spirit of justice, a spirit of fairness, a spirit of playfullness, of irreverence, a spirit of provocation, etc. Spirit is behind devotion, or gratitude or playful seduction, though devotion, and gratitude are core components of any spiritual practice. Shadow qualities of spirit might be found in the spirit of envy, or of jealousy, or of control.
Working with spirit, as a therapeutic module is often about peeling away layers of conditioning and 'going deeper' to the part that "knows", but doesn't necessarily know how it knows. It is about what animates us, what moves us, etc. Spiritual practice is also a discipline, like any other.
It speaks to an awareness of self and others beyond rational, political, intellectual, or logical terms.
Whether your sense of Spirit emanates from a tradition of faith, but is beyond religion, or is based largely on scientific understanding of 'energy', ie atoms, molecules, molecular chemistry, Spirit module when being worked therapeutically means that big 'ahas' begin to pop in the other modules. Spirit amplifies the other modules, it is the "speed ramp" or spark plug that brings more traction into all the other modules. Therefore spirit can amplify a hockey player as much as a theologian. Spirit is omnipresent. It exists in everything and in everyone, at all times, but often as unconscious manifestation, and is often, like certain muscular areas, weak or atrophied.
www.massage.meetup.com/376 or www.larp.meetup.com/160 are brief therapy environments where you can experience these modules for yourself.
Body
There are infact 3 bodies, the gross, subtle body and causal body.
The modality of massage is engaged primarily with the physical body, it’s pains and pleasures.
The gross or physical body is rather self explanatory. (Yes, it can be gross, you should see the guy I worked on last week......)
Your gross body includes your bones, fascia, muscle, joints, lymph, blood, etc.
However, your emotional body is your body too, your subtle body. It too needs to be nurtured, 'worked', and engaged, etc.
All of your bodies require regular attention and maintenance. That means your chakras, your etheric body as well as your blood, lymph, your organs, muscles, glands, etc.
When our chakras are open and in alignment we can take in the energy of others without alot of complications and or resistance. When we think positive thoughts of others, they are more likely to reflect that energy back to us. But when our energies are blocked, we can’t take in, and we can’t expunge. It is very challenging to be ‘balanced’ in all the chakras, however if we can manage the subtle body aspects of self, through 'skillful means' we learn and grow and garner satisfaction from the adage that we are infact 'getting better' as we live our lives.
Managing our physical body is very time consuming, or can be. Some people place all their effort on the physical and suffer emotionally. Others deny attention to their physical body and only emphasize the spiritual currents – those that emphasize an up and out of the body approach to living. We need our physical body to be healthy, as it gives us a lot in return for investing in it. We also need our chakras (energetic portals between the physical and spiritual planes) to be ‘open’ and ‘clear’ not ‘open’ and cluttered’. When our chakras are cluttered with energetic debris, we can’t feel our feelings accurately, we lose site of the fullness of our life. We can’t find our centre and feel distinctly ‘out of touch’ with our environment. When our chakras are blocked we can’t evolve, there is too much sameness and routine and we stagnate.
Once you've awakened all 3 bodies, you have a much larger capacity to take on different perspectives, to 'frame' things in more expansive terms. You actually sense that infinity is held in a blade of grass. Therefore you may have more of a sensory understanding of why you are alive. You may also have a better sense of why you work for a living, what it all serves, etc. Thus, your perspective shifts - your 'community' becomes the world and the world your community. You begin to see God in all people, your priorities in life begin to shift. Things begin to take on different hues and textures, and you see the formlessness of all that is around you. You can recognize the world arising in you, that you are cause as much as effect, etc. The nature of illusion that eastern philosophies speak of becomes more obvious. You become all things and simultaneously no-thing.
www.massage.meetup.com/376 or www.larp.meetup.com/160 are brief therapy environments where you can experience these modules for yourself.
