Cognitively understanding something may not be enough to release all painful thoughts because trauma also gets stuck in our bodies. It’s important to look at the mind-body connection to understand our whole selves.
This is what Isha Vela, psychologist and Core Energetics practitioner, realized this after becoming direly ill during her second pregnancy. Although she was well studied in psychology (the cognitive part) old trauma kept resurfacing. This prompted her to discover that trauma also gets stuck in our bodies and we need to take a holistic approach to alleviate it.
In this episode, Isha talks to us about Core Energetics, shadow self and reconnecting back to your true self.
Topic Summary:
What is Core Energetics
How negative experiences are also stored in our bodies
Shadow Self, Higher Self and Shame
How to come back to your authentic self
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Key Nuggets:
We can understand something cognitively but trauma also gets stuck in our bodies. It’s important to look at our mind-body connection to understand our whole selves. This is what Isha realized after becoming direly ill during her second pregnancy. As a psychologist, she understood the psyche well but the illness revealed trauma that was stored in her body. This is when she became interested in Core Energetics.
Trauma (any experience, big or small, that’s beyond an individual’s ability to cope at the time) is a biological process - the body has its own language and own logic. We underestimate how disconnected we are to our bodies
Core Energetics
Core Energetics is a therapy that looks at mind, body and spirit. It works on the basis that we are born into our authentic selves, our core selves, but as we go through life we go through injuries that cover up this core self. Core Energetics is about working through the shadow self to come back to this core.
We can pick up negative messages even pre-verbally while we’re in utero (before we’re born). While we won’t have memories about exactly what the situation was, we may have an intuition about it. For example, if we were an unwanted pregnancy we might grow up with a sense of “I don’t think I’m supposed to be here”. Core Energetics helps release this energy through movement, breath work and vocal toning.
The spiritual side of Core Energetics is coming back to the light that you are and learning to show up as your whole self.
Shadow Self
The Shadow Self are the parts of us that say no to life (whereas the higher self are the parts of you that say yes to life).
We all have a shadow self and we often bypass it because it’s so uncomfortable to be around
You need to go through the shadow self to get to your higher self. This process is all about owning the parts that want to separate from your heart and your light.
Examples of shadow: hiding, not really putting yourself out there, judging others, rejecting others (so that they can’t get close to you), self sabotaging
There’s a lot of ways that we’re unconscious to how we relate to ourselves and others.
How Can We Better Cope With Trauma
Use shaking to let go of pent up energy
Embrace that we’re meant to feel a whole range of emotions and that it’s not wrong to feel the bad ones sometimes (highest of joys and deepest of sorrows)
One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:
Learning how to nurture herself and asking herself in a tender way “what do I need right now” and ultimately learning how to love herself
What is one nugget of wisdom that you would share with fellow seekers who are on this journey of growth and transformation?
Our capacity to sit with everything that is, is our path to liberation and freedom.
Our being-ness is powerful. There’s nothing that you need to do beyond that. Trust that just being is enough.
Links:
If you have any questions for Isha or want to learn more, connect with her through:
Website: www.embodiedquest.com
Email: isha@embodiedquest.com
Instagram: @embodiedquest