November 2001 - News in Psychic Counseling

 

COPING IN CONTEXT

My birthday was September 11th.  Probably still is.  Unless I decide to change it knowing that day will forever be a day of mourning and my chance of any gifts is reduced to zero.  I don't intend to rehash the trauma of that day here, but rather want to suggest some ways of coping, perhaps from a slightly different perspective.

I've never known so many people to be so depressed and upset at one time.  Many of my clients are in serious emotional shock.  Friends and neighbors report strange emotions they've never felt.  Several doctors have reported significant numbers of people coming for treatment of depression, anxiety, and shock.  This is serious stuff and we need serious attention to our individual psyches while the nation attends to the global stuff.

Herewith, some practical suggestions if you're having difficulty coping:

Turn off the television!  No kidding.  Dr. Andrew Weil, the current medical guru, has a list of 10 things to do for good health, and the first one is Turn off the Television.  I suggest it for a specific reason.  Your subconscious is watching it on different terms than your conscious mind is.  Remember, the subconscious, that child-like emotional part of us, does not know the difference between reality and imagination.  When you watch the planes crash and towers collapse, your conscious mind knows you're safely at home watching a television screen.  Your subconscious is ON that plane and UNDER that collapsing building.  There is a part of you that has been traumatized.  And in this situation, it may have happened a hundred times.
But you want to be informed.  So I suggest you get your news primarily from a print source.  The subconscious does not understand words, only pictures.  Reading the news is not nearly as 'real' as having a building collapse on you visually.  At least turn your eyes away from the screen.  Remember you used to do that in the scary part of the movie.  Well, you did it for a reason.  You couldn't stand to see the terror.  Know that the same thing is true for the same vulnerable part of you today.  Look away.  Think of what you would want a child to watch, and then treat yourself as that child.
“Detalks” yourself.  It's like detoxing.  Get it out of you by talking.  The Bible says it this way: In the beginning is the word.  That is meant very literally, and is the first step in Tarot.  To be able to speak something, it has to be brought up from the subconscious, which in effect gets it out of you.  Therapists know this. The first 20 minutes of any therapy session are a waste of time while the client 'detalks' themselves.  Then they get down to serious work.  Find someone to tell your fears to and you will be less fearful.
Intentional self-kindness.  Go ahead.  Be hedonistic.  Pamper yourself.  Do something juicy just for the hell of it.  Get a massage.  Soak in the tub with bubbles and candles around.  Go have that fancy dessert you stay away from.  Treat your 'inner child' to something just for fun.
Intake.  What are you taking into your body?  It's a serious question all the time, but never more so than when you're stressed.  Are you giving all those traumatized cells the very best treatment?  It's NOT the time to decide to quit smoking or drinking coffee, which only adds more stress, but can you cut down.  Can you make a conscious effort to ingest something you know to be health giving?  Consciousness is what it's all about…  be conscious of what you take into your body.
Talk to your subconscious.  Probably best to do it when you're alone!  In the Huna system I teach, we dialogue with our child-like subconscious.  On Sept. 11th 'he' was so traumatized that I had to finally go to the hot tub and imagine holding 'him' to calm him down.  'I' of course was not afraid…  I'm a strong adult…  but 'he' was terrified after watching towers fall probably 100 times.  Holding him helped the most, and then I could talk to him and describe pictures to him of better and safer times.  Give your kid what it most needs, and you can find out by asking them.
Counseling.  If you are having serious trouble functioning in your work, difficulties with your sex life, or tense times in relationships, you may need some help.  Millions have already, so don't be shy about asking.  Perhaps just a few counseling sessions will bring you out of that hole.  Maybe a simple pill will do the trick until you're more stable.
Take a vacation!  Go somewhere.  Change of scenery.  That can be to go walk in a different park; hike a new trail; go to the coast; take a winery tour.  Or it can be to go to Palm Springs.  The south of France is nice they say.  Take some kind of appropriate action to nudge you out of the doldrums.

Finally, it has helped me to put all of this in context.  It doesn't excuse it, but helps explain it.  I'm a student of medieval history, particularly the Crusades.  This is just the latest one of them!  Even President Bush called it a Crusade.  The first one started in 1098.  Both sides called the other Infidels.  The Christians liberated Jerusalem from Moslems.  For the next four hundred years it went back and forth.  Walled cities were seiged for months.  Water supplies were contaminated with animal dung and poisons.  Villagers at the town pump didn't have a Center For Disease Control to call to check the well water, so they all died.  Princes and Popes rallied the Knights Templar types to the cause, and they were funded secretly by wealthy landowners and princes who had much to lose.  So on the one hand, it seemed like all of the people of the middle ages were involved with fighting terrorism.

On the other hand, reading accounts of ordinary life, it was really nothing like that.  Yes, several hundred, even a few thousand men were Knights Templar who were paid handsomely to go 'over there' to fight.  And yes, some walled cities were destroyed.  But for the most part, the average person went about their very rudimentary life of tilling the soil, making shoes for the kids, coping with disease, perhaps burning a few witches.  I can hear most of them saying the medieval equivalent of “Whatever!”  Life goes on.  It's all in a greater context.  Deep breath…

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