When survival is threatened, the nervous system cannot regulate. Hunger and exhaustion aren’t moral failings; they’re physiological shutdowns. As Dr. Stacey Patton details, deprivation keeps people compliant, unable to think clearly or respond. Healing begins only when the body has safety, nourishment, and rest – the true foundations of emotional resilience.
Don’t worry. Be happy!
Whether it’s a secular or spiritual environment, so much of what we’re taught about how to manage our thoughts boils down to one message: “Don’t think those bad thoughts! Think only good thoughts!” And it’s a prescription for mental disaster.
I was emailing back-and-forth on a matter with someone who does tech work for our little team of Emotional Liberation merry makers. I was asking some questions about handling a particular thing that we had to deal with. His answer was an unvarnished:
“No that’s not what I said”
How do you present yourself to the outside world? Personally, I used to hide my emotional pain and look normal enough. Professional, successful, measured. But behind that facade lived my wounded self.
I frequently hear from folks who tell me that they’re going through or have gone through what’s called a “kundalini awakening”.
And they’re either really concerned about it or it’s a matter of fact as they share with me their experience and how it’s affecting their lives.
I follow what’s going on in the world of psychedelics very closely – as I believe that these medicines, when used with precision and care, can be an immense “assist” in a variety of ways. (They’re a tool in my work – but by no means the whole enchilada.)
The current trendy phrase for folks not getting back to you is “ghosting.” As in, “We went out a few times, and then they ghosted me.” But let’s not limit it to just dating – it happens in all sorts of relationships, be it professional, family, or friends. You might even be guilty of a little ghosting yourself, yes?
Back in the day, anxiety was the wallpaper and furnishings of my mind. I (somehow) soldiered through, but living in anxiety was a way of life for me. I’d panic in social situations, I’d worry about upcoming events (that paranoid feeling of suspicion and mistrust of people or their actions without evidence or justification), and I’d ruminate – focusing on repetitive thoughts of catastrophe.
I have a friend who by any measure of success has “made it”. He’s an acclaimed authority in his field; he makes good money and others clamor to work with him.
Yet, he feels as if he’s never caught-up. As a perfectionist he’s nose to the grindstone working nights and weekends but seldom claims victories.
Are there shades of this in you? If so, you may have a form of depression, what’s called cold depression, that’s the opposite of what we normally imagine depression to be.
I know what it’s like to feel anxious – back in the day, I lived with anxiety for decades. Crippling anxiety actually, and it was particularly overwhelming in social settings, where I would perceive everyone around me as superior, telling myself that I was unworthy to be there and out of place.