Coming Out Of The Spiritual Closet

This beautiful T- Shirt design by Ivy Chaya Shiffler for the Emerging Kind project sparked a debate on social media last week…

Barbara Ann Cooper says:

“Touched by some Emerging Kind Artwork the other day, I was invited to share my personal interpretation of what I might have needed as a baby to Emerge kind . 
So here is a mandala from my heart Chakradance this morning. 
Baby is connecting to Love for herself .
Connecting Star in her heart to a far star .( Divine in Heavens ) 
Connecting to a grounding star place in Mother Earth ( Divine on Earth ) 
Connecting to nourishment from Mum’s breast 
Connecting to a feminine angel 
Connecting to a masculine angel 
Supported by a hand from Mum 
Connecting to Heart’s desire and soul purpose for incarnation on earth 
In order to Emerge kind.” 

Ivy kindly offered to take Barbara’s concept and turn it into a T- Shirt design in the same way she had produced her own, using Adobe Illustrator and photoshop. This is the result:

The Emerging Kind team is celebrating the depth of thought and heart connections across the globe that have transpired…strangers on opposite sides of the world until that moment, Barbara and Ivy have together created a piece that speaks to so many of us.

After seeing Ivy’s reproduction of her creation, Barbara felt called to share her story with Ivy, and now with us all;

“I am more of an expressive artist rather than one that produces accurate life like depictions .
I was born with a hole in my heart. As a child I did not know why God did not make me properly and struggled to understand. I went to a Bach Flower Remedy Workshop and they invited a healer who made Archangel FlowerEssences from Rose . She came in and immediately without wordsand with all 18 stone of who she is, enveloped me in the most amazing total containment of a hug. I felt swaddled and tiny and as adult as I am, I cried like a baby without either of us speaking . She gave me some rose essence too. She wore a purple cloak and reminded me of Gypsy Rose Lee type Earth Mother sort . It was surreal . I settled back to being an adult .That night I watched a Dean Ornish programme on holistic care for coronary patients and visualisation . I cried again and went to get my stethoscope and the heart murmur I had from birth from the Ventricular septal defect had gone . Embryologically I knew it had done what it needed to do at birth and close ! I became aware that I could not bond with my mother because I had been a traumatic breech birth. This healer knew exactly what was needed. So that is why I love this painting of the doctor with the key connecting the star in the heart to a heavenly star !It touched me as so beautiful and I wrote to Remedios Varo ! 

Seeing a picture created by someone else is powerful because it rekindles that memory and so good to share . Ivy helped me again as that healer helped 26 years ago now and that is when I became a clown . 
Heartfelt thanks for rekindling that healing memory . I forgot it . Your picture reminded me” 

Thank you to Barbara and Ivy for demonstrating the healing power of art ❤

If you’d like to create your own Emerging Kind T -shirt design, please CONTACT US 

We are excited to introduce you to our first cohort of Peers who have bravely stepped up to create the network of Facilitators who will be holding safe space groups for those going through the spiritual emergence process. Today it’s the turn of Ellie Paskell…

My emergence process has gifted me with sparkling new eyes. Eyes which see that when I’m sad or raging I’m far more at peace than if the feelings are pushed down. The act of honouring my experience – of self respecting – creates life force itself; that which the very stitches of wellbeing are crafted from.

It’s been a mind wooshingly magical ten years. A time of awakening that has shown me unconditional joy and how to live with a gentleness and integrity I used to long for. Through it, I’ve learned to navigate life from the inside out and march to the beat of my own drum.

(Grin).

It’s also been kind of wild…

“Shoooooooooooof”

(There’s my head as my belief system spun on its axis).

“Boom!”

(There’s my bum planting, firmly on the earth).

“Eeeeeeeeee”

(There’s me knowing nothing would ever be the same).

(And breathe).

My experience of life has been transformed and what’s challenging about that is the self criticism that can arise. I perceive things differently now, meaning I don’t live within my old parameters of ‘good and bad’ or ‘worthy and unworthy’ but act from an innate wisdom. The body guides better than any book and has shown me to

Slow.

Down.

To stop doing so much and sense into what

Actually.

Feels.

Nice.

This new road is beautiful and I couldn’t be walking it without precious friends, family and practitioners at my side. Those who allow me to express my experience without trying to amend it to fit their own.

Criticism, censorship and shame play no part in wellness because the thought ‘there’s something wrong with me’ doesn’t make a person well. I used to think the mind and body were separate and that I was nothing more than body and brain. But things evolve, I must let them; allowing is where peace lies. We used to think the world was flat, that women shouldn’t vote and being homosexual was ‘something to be fixed.’ But things  evolve, we must let them; allowing is where peace lies.

Emerging Kind is creating a space for this allowing. While the health system is looking for new ways to support those in it, Emerging Kind is opening a door.

How.

Awesome.

#watchthisspace

Ellie will be holding space in Manchester, more information on where and when will be available on this website in the near future… Thank you Ellie, from the tEK team and community for your dedication to supporting others on their awakening journey ❤

To find out more about Ellie click here

A couple of weeks ago we invited the community to send in your designs to appear on our Emerging Kind T -Shirts…

Ivy Chaya – Shiffler from New Jersey USA has submitted a corker!

We think Ivy’s design speaks for itself, but when I asked Ivy to explain what her design portrays for her, she said:

“To me the unconditional love and nurturing that comes from our first home, the mother, shows us the healing love we all have within, allowing each of us in our own way to wrap our arms around the world…We have the potential to wrap our arms around each other and and around ourselves, to unite, to hold one another up, and heal as one. It speaks to the idea that we are never alone, and that love is all around us…”

We love to receive your artwork, and Ivy always delivers powerful pieces. We agree that we all have the potential to birth love for ourselves and for the world (and that it can be a painful birth process!) If you’d like to see more of Ivy’s work…

FOR IVY’S FACEBOOK ART PAGE CLICK HERE

Don’t forget to CONTACT US with your designs, you might see yours in our official Emerging Kind store, and receive a free T- Shirt!

We met Susannah Derrett at the Emerging Proud launch event in London on the 12th May. She was inspired to support our campaign, and pledged to raise money by dedicating herself to gruelling training over the next 4 months…

Susannah took part in the Brighton & Hove triathlon in Sept and raised £335 towards the Emerging Proud project; the Emerging Kind, to help fund international Peer group facilitators to be trained to hold safe spaces. 17 donors contributed towards her funds, as well as many of her colleagues at a charity lunch she organised. Unfortunately the cold sea got the better of her on the day of the triathlon, but she survived hyperthermia!

The Emerging Kind team and community are immensely grateful to Susannah for her incredible efforts and kindness; it’s thanks to the generosity and belief of people like Susannah that we are able to offer training to more volunteer Peers in early 2018.

If you’d like to donate to support our project and perhaps even help save someone from suicide, you can DONATE HERE.

Thank you Susannah; for emerging kind for us! ❤

“Sharing the very deep heartfelt soul connections as we joined as One at the end of our last training session, in the quiet of the moment came such powerful and true unconditional LOVE, my heart swelled – I have come home.”

Each of the Peers training to hold safe spaces for people going through a difficult spiritual emergence process were asked:

“What does being part of the Emerging Kind project mean to you?

Today we introduce you to Jenny from Saltburn, UK:

Ever since first hearing in October 2016 of Katie and her desire to bring together those amongst us who are ‘#EmergingProud out of our Spiritual Closets’ I have been filled the most amazing heartfelt, passionate buzz! Though Katie quietly plodded away to make what she felt was to be her ‘little’ film to contribute in an awareness-raising campaign to help normalise spirituality in mental health and spiritually transformative experiences in society, I sensed the enormity of this campaign, inherently knowing that this was HUGE!

I cannot express my love and gratitude enough to Katie and to all who have and are still are bravely #EmergingProud to make this change happen Worldwide. I also emerged proud with a snippet of an experience of dropping body to ‘go home’. Since the launching of her film on 12 May 2017 much interest and research is now on-going. With Katie’s dedication, and now the amazing sponsorship from Hugh Callacher, Founder of The Missing Kind charity she has secured funding for the Emerging Kind project enabling training to be provided for Peer Support Facilitators for Spiritually Transformative Experiences (STE’s) across the UK, soon to be Intercontinental.

Our experiences come in all sorts of ‘guises’, all unique, valid and very real. Since being part of this whole experience, I realise that all my life I have been having STE’s as a normal part of who I inherently am, only now realising these to be my ‘human be-ing’ experiences.

All my life I have just ‘fallen’ into things in what appears to be an upside down, back to front way of ‘be-ing’, i.e. my soul and spirit already ‘know’ yet now I realise that I have to learn in the ‘human’ to be able to converse with and help others to understand. Relationships, love, friendship, work…now I realise that what I inherently know in going with the flow in my life IS soul and spirit living, living from the heart. Challenging life experiences happen for me to learn and evolve if I allow myself to fall into others ‘human’ traps of ‘fear’ (false evidence appearing real) rather than following my own truth in being my authentic self.

I feel honoured and deeply grateful to have been accepted into The Emerging Kind group to train as a peer support facilitator as I have always known that we are all here to help each other, and what better than to help support others going through similar spiritual experiences. It is so important to have a safe space to share our experiences, a space where we feel validated and cared for, among others who resonate with empathy and compassion of our soul and spirit.

Sharing the very deep heartfelt soul connections as we joined as One at the end of our last training session, in the quiet of the moment came such powerful and true unconditional LOVE, my heart swelled – I have come home. 

We’ll be introducing you to more of the Peers over the coming weeks, as well as sharing updates on the project; stay tuned!

Would you like to support the Emerging Kind project to train more Peers to hold safe spaces for people going through a challenging transformation process?

Any profits from merchandise purchased in our ONLINE STORE will go to project costs, plus this weekend you won’t need to pay anything for postage!

Help us by spreading the message and creating safe spaces that could save lives…

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE STORE

Don’t forget to send in your T- Shirt designs; you could see your personal design in our store very soon!

Tonight there will be a double feature of Crazywise and Emerging Proud at the California Institute of Integral Studies…

CLICK HERE FOR BOOKING INFORMATION