Woodland Pathways Counseling

03/28/2023

Boundaries are clear kindness towards yourself and others.

09/24/2022

Yes!

09/24/2022

08/01/2022

Somebody needed this gentle reminder today. Remember you are always surrounded by love. 💜

07/26/2020

Including your spouse? Love is a funny thing. We’ve heard all our lives that it’s "patient and kind, not envious, boastful or proud. Love doesn’t dishonor. It isn’t self-seeking, easily angered or resentful. It always protects, trusts, hopes perseveres and never fails." Oh, and th

07/26/2020

protect your kids, understand internet p**n use and the damage that occurs

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10/16/2019

Great advice and it’s the only way to a healthy emotional life.

Let the waves of activation in your autonomic nervous system rise and fall. Anxiety and hyper vigilance come from hyperarousal - the sympathetic branch is activated and can get ‘stuck, ‘then we stay super vigilant when we don’t need to be. Or, we can get stuck in hypoarousal or a kind of ‘low’ depressed type of feeling. But if we catch the emotion before it overwhelms us and becomes a mood or state, and notice it as a sensation/feeling in our body, we can notice it, and name it (metaphors help: prickly like cactus in chest, heavy in belly like a bowling ball, fiery in throat like a bonfire) then it can move through. It takes about 90 seconds if you let raw body sensations come and go. And there might be waves of activation and release. But this ability creates the gap we need to respond versus react, to be flexible and not rigid. Mindfulness teachings tell us you’re already the one who knows. So perhaps practice allowing, if accepting seems too much. Breath by breath. What we resist persists and suffering is pain plus resistance so let it come out, move through: return the energy to the earth, air, land, or water, and get unstuck. Maybe it’s not even yours. Maybe it’s your ancestors. Practice this when your adult brain/prefrontal cortex knows it’s in a safe place and you’re not disassociated or regressed: perhaps at home, in a safe space, with people you trust on a retreat, etc. Just try to practice this bit my bit. Raw sensation is often quite unfamiliar and uncertain more than terrible in present day but we get triggered and think it’s when our trauma happened and our body freezes up or shuts down. We think uncertain or unfamiliar is bad: can we instead be like children and be friendly and curious about what’s happening with the sensations in our body, not judgmental? That said, I don’t really recommend trying this and letting your guard down when you’re in a constantly traumatic environment like a violent neighborhood or abusive or neglectful home! When threat is active, be mindful of that!! So, practice mindfulness with discernment. Try it a molecule at a time.