Reframing Mental distress as a potential catalyst for positive change

Hannah Hardy came along to the CRAZYWISE film screening this weekend and felt inspired to share her story…

Hannah’s psychic experiences as a child didn’t concern her, it was the Western culture in which she was raised that made it into a problem. This is such a common theme, and Hannah has channelled the pain of her enforced childhood denial into setting up a service for children so that their natural abilities can be welcomed and nurtured.

Thank you so much Hannah, you most certainly should be very proud ❤

Hannah explains:

The vision of children.

It felt natural to me as a young child that I could travel beyond my body, that I could see and commune with spirits and I could see the hidden suffering in others. This truth felt safe to me as it was just that, the truth beyond our illusion. The difficulty arose when I realised that I was seeing things and experiencing things which others could not. I had no peer support and my family (apart from my father who is also very psychic) began to stigmatise my view of the world.

I remember being about 7 and realising that I needed a special nature of community support, but had no vocabulary to contextualise what I needed. As there was no fear connected to my heightened vision, I felt that I was experiencing something very special and felt a deep sense of sadness for others around me who were trapped in their own illusion of what they concieved reality to be, as I experienced it as expansive, connected and all loving. To survive amongst my peers I chose to play the game and conform to what society told me was normal.

Over the years incredible things happened which quietly confirmed my higher guidance such as several events in which my life was saved miraculously. For example, my guides telling me not to get the train I was intended to go on (the Potters Bar incident), someone in a pub trying to swing a chair at my head and it miraculously rebounding in the air. Another time I had my children in the car and was coming up to a give way with a blind corner and my guides told me to stop several meters before the line. At that moment an enormous lorry appeared from behind the blind corner and would have smashed into the car had I gone up to the line. I feel blessed that my life has been filled with this magic and these miracles.

I chose to conform and it got me through, but not satisfied, feeling a sense of incompleteness and lack.

In 2012 whilst living in France my young cat had an intestinal problem and the vet wanted to put him down, I was told to take him home to say goodbye and to bring him back in the morning. I cried with my cat and not knowing what I was doing I was guided to open my heart and to send my cat love. In the morning my cat had transformed, he was sprightly and glowing. I took him back to the vet who did the checks and scans. When the vet returned he looked amazed and just said “What have you done?!” my cat was cured. This event showed me that my higher vision was not an illness but a gift which began my journey in healing

Trauma healing.

We all have our own truths, as these exist they are real and need to be given the safe space to be seen and released. I visualise this as going to a still lake with a pebble, you throw the pebble in and it creates a ripple effect. In modern medicine they often deal with the outer ripples (often masking the problem). Through energy healing I am able to get right to the centre, to the point of impact, to bring the pattern back to alignment and flow. To allow the energy to flow with ease rather than ‘dis-ease’. In my healing practice I use muscle response to allow the higher self of the person to guide me to energetic blockages with the intention to support the person back to alignment so their energy flows harmoniously through all levels of their being. Trauma is held in our energetic memory, this trauma can be held from childhood, from past lives. And from our collective trauma.

From working with many people and witnessing many miracles, I increasingly understand that my role is to hold safe space of non judgment for the soul to witness itself and flow through. Many traumas are stored in our subconscious and act as ‘safety blankets’ meaning that we have carried them around for so long that we believe that we are defined by them- but they are just patterns which can be released. The more I clear my own hidden traumas and the traumas of others the more I realised that we are clearing collective patterns and that we are all connected in consciousness.

The power of compassion and connection.

This takes us back to the simplicity of healing, creating a safe space to remember compassion and connection, which can emerge anywhere at anytime, we have the power in this moment to change our past, present, future and our collective consciousness.

The building of community.

Due to my lack of peer support as a child I founded The Free Spirit School, a visionary group to support the avatars of tomorrow in a safe held space. The children range from 7-11 and I amazed at the ease, grace and joy in which they connect to their higher vision and share this with their peers. Normalising their higher vision, exploring ways to encourage compassion and connection and ways in which they are able to help themselves, others and to connect with their life purpose. We explore Indigenous spiritual cultures and how they connect the personal to the universal, we invite highly experienced holistic practitioners and it feels such a powerful experience in supporting the children to ground and trust in their own higher truth.

Hannah Hardy is a prize winning artist she is a shamanic healer. She has founded The Free Spirit Network and The Free Spirit School for the visionaries of tomorrow, which is about to be launched as a book and online course with a percentage of sales being donated to Survival International.

Stories heal. Hearing Demi’s story through her songs was all it took to turn Abbie’s life around, and now she wants to do the same for other young people who might be struggling like she was…

Here Abbie tells her story:

Growing up I was bullied. I began to self harm and feel incredibly suicidal, it was something that I would think about every day, from what car I could jump in front to what building I could jump off. It sort of became a way of life for me. I didn’t realise then but I had depression, I just thought there was something wrong with me as no one was talking about this kind of thing so I felt completely alone. This happened right up to the age of 18.

One day in January 2014 I was sitting in the car with my mum, Skyscraper by Demi Lovato came on the radio, it was the first time I’d really listened to the words, I was choked up, there was so much depth in those lyrics that I’d never heard before.

Later that night I was feeling triggered, I was numb and needed to cry, remembering how Skyscraper had made me feel earlier I searched it on YouTube, I cried. The words were so powerful to me. At the side were suggestions, Demi Lovato’s Warrior. I listened to this wonderful song and I just broke down, how could someone I’d never met be able to sing all the words and feelings I’d ever wanted to be:

‘Now I’m a warrior

Now I’ve got thicker skin

I’m a warrior

I’m stronger than I’ve ever been

And my armour

Is made of steel you can’t get in

I’m a warrior

And you can never hurt me again’.

Another suggestion came up of Demi’s Believe In Me, I clicked it, once again she sang the most powerful lyrics but this time is was everything I was feeling right now, all those words I just couldn’t say:

‘I don’t wanna be afraid

I wanna wake up feeling beautiful

Today

And know that I’m okay

‘Cause everyone’s perfect in unusual ways

You see I

Just wanna believe in me’.

One more suggestion came up at the side, ‘Demi Lovato opens up about cutting’

My world was turned upside down by this video, how could this Disney princess silently go through so much? That night I realised that if Demi could go through all this and more in the limelight then I could too and come out better. That night I didn’t hurt myself.

Of course it hasn’t been an easy journey, I relapsed a few times. I met Demi in September 2014, she was sweet and hugged me tight.

I relapsed again in the October of that year, but I have not hurt myself since, I am proud to say I have been self harm free since October 17th 2014.

In January 2015 I posted a video of my story to that wonderful song that made so much difference; Warrior. Is has racked up around 50 thousand views and I am so proud.

Ever since then I have been making videos online on my Facebook page Abbie Foster’s StayStrong. Spreading the messages of recovery & positivity far and wide.

I also work with a few charities such as Fixers, Respect Yourself, The Missing Kind,  The Being Me Campaign & more. I am also working with the BBC radio and online to share my story.

Thanks to Demi and her story, I am able to make a difference & I am forever thankful to her for this and much more.

Without her opening up I wouldn’t be here and that I’m sure of.

I want to continue making a difference as much as I can, I want young people to know that their lives will get better & they will feel stronger. Just like I did.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Have a beautiful day 💕

Abbie 
Abbie Foster’s StayStrong

Well done Abbie for your dedication to help relieve suffering ❤

Follow Abbie on Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/AbbieFostersStayStrong/

and YouTube 

The 17th March 2018 saw over 120 people gather at the Puppet Theatre in Norwich to watch the inspirational CRAZYWISE film, talk with Producer Phil Borges, and be entertained by the Norwich Rock Choir!

During the event we asked the audience to consider the question;

“What resources would you most like to see provided by mental health services in order to support people better?”

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE IDEAS PEOPLE SHARED IN AN OUTCOMES REPORT

A visual depiction of the outcomes…

With huge thanks to all the Attendees, KindaListening, Norwich Rock Choir, NSFT and Norwich MIND for your support in making this such a successful event ❤

Transcendence: A Spiritual Emergence Showcase

This exhibition will be held in NYC on May 12 as part of International Emerging Proud Day 2018.

We are currently accepting inspired artistic expressions. Visual, musical, and poetic submissions that were inspired by the spiritual emergence process will be accepted through April 15.

Please send entries (jpg images, audio files) and a brief description of the piece to Katrina at events@thecuriousspirit.org

Entries that are not selected for the NYC live show will be included in a virtual multi-media gallery both in NYC and possibly at Emerging Proud events all over the world.

Because transcendent experiences are non linear and ineffable, creative expression offers a non-threatening way for these experiences to be shared. Many who have been through spiritual emergency have been traumatized by erroneously being diagnosed and treated for a mental illness. The hallmark of spiritual emergence is that, while it may sometimes display regressive ailments due to repressed trauma coming up to heal, it can inevitably lead to a higher level of functioning. This event is intended to normalize, build community, and offer resources for those undergoing spiritual emergence/spiritual emergency.

Thank you to Tee and Katrina at The Curious Spirit for this inspired work and your continued support of #EmergingProud! ❤

Here’s a sneaky peek of what we have in store for those of you joining us for this unique event in Norwich on Saturday:

There’s still time to grab your seat! BOOK HERE NOW 

In line with NSFT’s ‘Sustainability Transformation Plan’, We’ll be asking all attendees the question: “What resources would you most like to see provided by mental health services to support people better?”

Come along and have your say… All voices matter ❤

There’s still time to grab your seat! BOOK HERE NOW 

We are really excited to announce that we’re soon to launch the first Emerging Kind Online Peer Support Group!

To watch the film for FREE between the 19th March and the 9th April,  CLICK HERE, click on ‘Rent’ and input the password: EmergingKindFreeview  These are the kind of experiences that Ellie will be providing space to discuss and support to integrate. Thank you Ellie, from the bottom of my heart and from all of the peers who need a space to feel validated and heard, you really are an Emerging Kind! ❤ 

Amy’s story is sadly common for women; self- depreciation and self- loathing can lead to compulsive and destructive behaviours. But Amy managed to turn her life around, and now she inspires others to do the same. Here is Amy’s emergence journey:

How I started to heal my relationship with my body.

I remember being 12 or 13 years old, about to go and meet with my boyfriend at the time. Looking in the mirror and dissecting everything that was “wrong” with me. I had facial hair, my nose was wonky, I had crinkles under my eyes, my teeth were crooked, I was too big, my shoulders were way too broad.

This was my reality. It only grew worse from there. The never ending black whole of self-criticism, self-judgment and self-rejection followed me around, feeding on my self-talk, every day it grew and grew, until eventually it was so heavy it was unbearable to be with.

I had always turned to food for comfort. Whether I was stressed, anxious or even just bored. Food was my number one source of relief. It provided a temporary release of pain and a safe haven for the intense emotion that oftentimes felt too much for me to hold in my body.

When I was 18, things got real bad. My skin was red and angrily inflamed with severe acne. My eating was out of control I was spending so much money on processed, empty foods. I was stuffing myself until I could barely move. I felt embarrassed and I felt ashamed.

I felt like I was a terrible human with no willpower and what I saw in the mirror confirmed that every single day.

I just remember thinking “Why is this happening?”

I discovered 2 things:

1. Eating Psychology and Mind-Body Nutrition, that helped me see my body was not the enemy, it was not out to get me. I learned that both my soul and my body were communicating to me through different symptoms and habits. This was key for me to really start to heal my relationship with my body and embrace my soul. I started to understand that my body was doing the best it could with the internal and external environments I was providing for it.
2. A quote that changed everything for me:

“What if like isn’t about becoming anything, what if it’s about Unbecoming everything that isn’t you so you could be who you were meant to be in the first place”– Unknown

I realised that for as long as I could remember I had been being and doing what I thought people wanted me to be doing or what they expected of me. I realised that I had no sense of what emotional intelligence was, what my purpose in this lifetime was. I had no idea who I was and so began the process of Unbecoming and UNlearning the limiting beliefs I had embodied and told myself every day. Things like “I need to be pretty, flawless and thin to be someone in this world”

I started asking questions like “what do I really want?”  “Why am I here?” “How best can I help other people?”

I couldn’t possibly have spent any time on these questions before because all my time and energy was concentrated on self-loathing. It was spent on wondering why I wasn’t as pretty, as flawless or as thin as the other girls and women around me.

My mind was consumed with toxic beliefs that made me feel worthless, powerless and undesirable.

Healing our relationships with our bodies doesn’t come from obtaining the “perfect” body because there is no such thing. It comes from being kind to ourselves, from appreciating all our beautiful imperfection and understanding that our bodies are our ally in life, not our enemy.

By no means is my binge eating eradicated completely or is my life a self-rejecting free party. It’s a life-long journey of recovery and some days are easier than others to be kind and compassionate to myself. But the freedom that self-acceptance has provided me is tremendous and has inspired me to help support others on their journeys.

Welcome to the #EmergingProud community Amy! ❤

Amy will be joining a group of brave #Emergees to share their stories on International #EmergingProud SoMe day in Norwich on the 12th May 2018. Pop by and talk to her!

Amy is a Certified Eating Psychology Coach, specialising in Compulsive Eating, Cultivating a healthy body image culture and empowering women to transform the relationships with the food they eat and the body they’re in from one of shame and guilt to one of nourishment and pleasure.

She is Founder and Director of the social enterprise SoulShine which aims to empower people of all ages to live their fullest and most authentic lives.

Find out more information at www.soul-shine.org.uk

Join Amy’s Facebook group: “Embrace” Yourself & Your Body with SoulShine

Facebook: @soulshinehealingAmy

Instagram: @soulshine94

Twitter: @soulshineyou

Even the most famous spiritual figures are speaking out. This week saw Oprah talk about  how childhood trauma impacts people’s live, and Teal Swan made a video expressing her anger at the current mental health paradigm. I couldn’t agree more, it’s SBBS (spiritual bypassing bullshit) to deny strong emotions, and can keep us stuck in non- action.

We need people to speak out in order for necessary change to occur. In order for people who are already traumatised, not to be re- traumatised by a system that focuses only on the problem and not on the solution.

In actual fact, if you have been diagnosed with a label of pathology:

“There is nothing wrong with you….your behaviours are adapations which occured to keep you safe in trauma.” 

As our society progresses, diagnoses won’t exist at all. Touché Teal, Touché ❤

Loraine Van Tuyl #EmergedProud last week with her personal journey that led her to publishing her memoir;

In part 2 of Loraine’s blog, we get to hear about her new project; a guide book and online course entitled: Soul Sanctuary Alchemy…

SOUL SANCTUARY ALCHEMY

Emerge with Grace and Guidance from the Sacred 7 Directions

Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states that we have to go through.  Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it.  This is a kind of death.

–  Anais Nin

A quick introduction of Loraine’s Soul Sanctuary Alchemy holistic healing model from a WomanSpeak gathering:

Loraine expands on this to tell us more about her work:

The only constant in life is change. Some changes are subtle and hardly noticeable (like the continuous replacement of our cells); others are more dramatic and miraculous.

The birth of a baby is one of these miraculous events that’s celebrated worldwide. People from every culture marvel when a fresh-out-of-the-womb newborn quantum leaps out of her or his mother’s warm, dark womb. What was once a tiny blob of flesh and bones has transformed into a separate human being who instinctively knows how and when to breathe, eat, look, love and cry on her or his own.

After the dust of this big commotion settles, life continues to be a series of exciting physical, linguistic, cognitive and developmental growth spurts that most parents welcome with gusto. Their loving arms and devotion make the huge transition and the tremendous amount of information, change, and learning, that we humans need to integrate the first years of life, much easier.

Fortunately, we also have a natural proclivity toward exploration that is apparent the minute after we are born. As soon as we have reached a certain sense of mastery in one area, we move on to the next developmental task despite the fact that we will at first fumble and stumble at attempting the new skill.

Acquiring all this physical, linguistic, and cognitive proficiency within the first decade of life is demanding. In Westernized, modern cultures, it can become all-encompassing especially if survival fear and existential angst pervade and propel most of its members to play the keeping-up-with-the-latest-trends-and-technological-advances game as well instead of unravel it altogether.

For most of us, our sense of identity and willfulness have set in by adolescence, and we begin to experiment with controlling and directing life in our favor. Once we achieve mastery in important life domains, we run the risk of becoming rigidly attached to positive outcomes.  This causes us to get stuck in our daily routines, world views, and limiting stories about ourselves.

Our soul nudges us to transcend our earthbound existence––like a caterpillar, turn inward, be held in a chrysalis, dissolve the old self, and transform into a butterfly— but we no longer trust our natural instincts and resist deep yearnings to embody our fullest potential and highest truth, especially if they challenge logical, 3-D reality and all that we’ve known.

Have you ever had a dream that is so real, Neo? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the Dream World and the Real World?  Morpheus

So we try to outsmart mystery and forget along the way that the challenge of leaving a comfortable state of mastery to one of risk is a vital ingredient to feeling alive and invigorated. Our creative spark and life energy are fueled by the friction and alchemy that exists between certainty and uncertainty, safety and danger, the known and the unknown, routine and adventure, and the loss and gain that we consciously or unconsciously experience every moment of the day as evolving beings.

Many cultures and spiritual disciplines have built-in rites of passage to assist young initiates with this transition. Indigenous tribes and earth-wisdom cultures in particular honor the many opportunities for growth that are inherent in transition and loss, and intentionally challenge the mind, body, and spirit through fasting, shamanic journeys, isolated meditation, vision quests, and other ego-dismemberment tests and rituals aided by plant medicines. These ancient traditions are based on the premise that learning to surrender to our changing nature, much like the seasons of the earth, is necessary for our spiritual flourishing.

Our contemporary world, in contrast, has increasingly placed more value on technological advances that enable us to predict and control our natural world, health, and life style. We forget that the safety and illusion of mastery and stability can block our access to creative adaptation, freedom, and innate strengths, stifling our spiritual growth in the long run. When our focus shifts from our inner compass to outward success defined by careers, power, money, possessions, and an avoidance of all growing pains and discomfort, we often respond with symptoms of anxiety, depression, addiction, and emptiness. Natural cycles, dips, and role shifts may lead to feelings of incompetence, worthlessness, failure, and intense stress. A vicious cycle may develop when we try to beat these feelings by responding more frantically to external demands instead of making inner changes that support us.

Instead of dreading times of transition and/or feeling stuck in dysfunctional patterns, it is possible to learn how to welcome the ebb and flow of positive and negative changes unique to your life and the rich time for inner work that they provide. Creating a crystal-clear chrysalis— guided by As Above-So Below, the 4 elements, air, fire, earth, and water, representing wisdom, protection, grounding, and soothing—makes it much easier to free-fall into the wisdom held within our sacred 7^th direction, our heart and embodied connection to Source. These structural pillars of support allow for self-exploration, an opportunity to conquer nameless fears, and a chance to reconnect with your boundless, wise self. To resist these natural life-death cycles of change is to deny yourself and the world the gifts of the transitional process––to emerge from the temporary fog with a deeper appreciation for our true nature, our collective potential, and our powerful connection to the harmonious ways of the earth.

Course 1: Soul Sanctuary Alchemy – Transform Initiation Frustration within a Crystal-Clear Chrysalis

Do you experience INITIATION FRUSTRATION, often feel lost, alienated, triggered by external circumstances, off, down, confused, too big, too much, too powerful, ashamed of this and simultaneously not enough? Yearning to encapsulate, transform, integrate, and apply all of you and your potential into a dynamic whole, but feel BOXED in everywhere you go and receive just part of the answer?

I often did and this morning I felt inspired to draft a vision of what I most needed back then:

Soul Sanctuary Academy – Emerge and Expand with Grace and Guidance

Soul Sanctuary (definition): A vast, one-size-fits-all embodied compassion container supported and guided by the 7 Sacred Directions and your dream team of personal guides to integrate transformational and soulful experiences that are often pathologized, misunderstood, repressed, and/or rejected. A very simple and limited overview of the Sacred 7 Directions are: the As-Above-So Below dimensions (Tree guide), the 4 elements: Air -Wisdom, Fire – Protections, Earth – Grounding, Water – Soothing, and the 7^th direction, our Sacred Heart.

Common conditions, arenas, and activities reported by clients that reveal and trigger unintegrated material and energy (from most to less frequent):

Depression, anxiety, romantic/close relationships, present-past life trauma and PTSD, psychotropic meds, professional promotions/growth, entrepreneurship, pregnancy issues/parenthood, synchronicities, psychotherapy, mental health training, dissertations, all yoga, kundalini awakenings, peak experiences, all meditation practices, all artistic/writing disciplines, prayer, spiritual callings, emergencies and initiations, anomalous/mystical experiences, miracles, near death experiences, psychic bleed-throughs, shamanic journeying, Depth Hypnosis, all hypnotherapies and regression work, crystal healing, medical mysteries, sweatlodge healing, water immersion therapy, nutrition/superfoods, flower essences, Qi Gung, Reiki, acupuncture, Emotional Freedom Techniques, EMDR, Holotropic breathwork, plant medicine, frog medicine, psychedelics, parenting or identifying self as an indigo/crystal/star child, contact or walk-in/braid-in with other energies and multidimensional beings.

I have discovered in my practice that even when these extreme experiences are held with compassion, the container and guidance are not big and powerful enough to fully integrate them (our ego-mind’s limited container is often not fully aligned and overrides our intuition and inner wisdom, which disrupts the process). This blocks our ability to fully actualize and embody our Goddess potential.

I have experienced 95% of these, at least to some degree, myself, and am 100% experienced/comfortable free-falling into these experiences after clients have set-up their soul sanctuaries. I have helped at least 5 clients who told me that they went deeper and resolved blocks that they weren’t able to with ayahuasca.

Soul Sanctuary Alchemy has offered a 1 degree shift in perspective and tools to contain and make sense of each of these experiences, and has led to a 180 degree shift in ease and grace for clients dealing with the most extreme and intense experiences.

NOT JUST FOR CLIENTS: I also benefit from this ease and joy. The moment I end a session, finish my notes and close my office door, I switch gears and am able to be fully present with what’s next, often energized and filled up with high, healing vibrations that uplift instead of drain me.

Hand-on-heart honest-to-Goddess-truth. It inspires me to reach out to you, write posts and start a Facebook group 😊 because this gift of life and healing is something that all of us deserve to enjoy and NEED if we want to touch as many people as possible without compassion fatigue and burning out. ❤ 

I’ll be chatting with Loraine about her life and work in a couple of weeks, but in the mean time, you can grab some free gifts by signing up to her newsletter at:

www.theSacredHealingWell.com