Monthly Archives: January 2014

The power of neutral

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One morning minutes before a client was to arrive I found Finn – our 5-month-old orphan foal, stuck against the fence.  In equine circles, this is referred to as being cast.  When a horse becomes cast, it may feel entrapped and unable to regain its feet and can panic. As it flails and struggles, it can injure itself and the struggling horse can also hurt anyone who comes near.  This is not just a good time to become neutral, it’s critical for the safety of the cast horse and helping humans.  Situations like this have taught me the power of being neutral.

The story we give to a situation creates our emotional charge

We are instinctively good at staying neutral when a child falls down and runs to us bleeding.  We don’t panic and scream “you’re bleeding to death,” but rather we stay calm and focus on what needs to be done. We could all be more peaceful, content, and less stressed if we could remember to be that way and stay neutral in any challenging situation.  It is the story we give to it that creates our emotional charge.  Take traffic jams for example.  A traffic jam is just a traffic jam. It is neutral.  It just is.  Ask 20 people what they felt during a traffic jam and you are likely to get 20 different responses from angry, frustrated, anxious, annoyed, to unaffected, peaceful, and relaxed – depending on what they were thinking and where they were going.  For example, someone who is running ahead of schedule and doesn’t want to arrive too early might welcome the delay caused by the traffic jam, while someone who is on their way to attend an interview might feel anxious about missing a job opportunity.

Being neutral keeps us open and present

Being neutral does not mean being detached, complacent or passive.  It means being present to what is happening without limiting outcomes through judgement and stories.  Thinking about what could happen puts us in the future, or thinking about what should have happened shuts us down from seeing new possibilities.

Shifting into neutral

It’s nearly impossible to shift from feeling angry to feeling peaceful.  The gap is usually too big.  But it is possible to recognise that it’s our story we tell about the situation that creates the emotional charge.  With this awareness, we can choose to let our story loosen its grip and slip into neutral.

Having a neutral perspective is a higher state of consciousness

A neutral perspective instantly expands our awareness, creates a space for possibilities to emerge, and aligns our emotional resonance with Nature.  The reality we experience can only match our resonance.

Neutral = grounded and centered

A neutral perspective keeps us in balance, and we can stay grounded.  It’s from this mental and emotional centre that we have access to all our resources and wisdom to make better choices and take appropriate action for our highest good.

Finn after being stuckHere is Finn minutes after I helped him move away from the fence!  He doesn’t seem to have a problem with staying in neutral!

Information Night on PTSD, Stress and Trauma

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Learn how to naturally release stress,
heal trauma, & restore balance

INFORMATION NIGHT

Thursday, November 20, 2014 7pm – 9pm
Spring Creek Community House, 14 Price Street Torquay
Free admittance / registration required

“Trauma is the most avoided, ignored, denied, misunderstood, and
untreated cause of human suffering.” ~ Peter Levine, Ph.D. Healing Trauma

You will learn:

  • About trauma and how it affects the body
  • What causes post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • What are the symptoms of trauma
  • What nature can teach us about releasing stress
  • How we are innately designed to recover from trauma
  • How working with the body to release trauma enhances cognitive-based therapies
  • About two internationally effective approaches to healing trauma naturally
  • What steps you can take to release stress, heal trauma, and restore vitality and balance

Tension and Trauma Release Exercises

TRE is a profound self-help process that activates the body’s innate tremor mechanism, enabling a gentle release of chronic tension, stress or trauma (including PTSD) and helping regulate the nervous system to a calmer, balanced state.

In a safe, controlled way you will learn to self-regulate your experience.  TRE does not require talking about, or recalling past events.  Once learnt, TRE is your valuable, free, and easily accessible way to release the accumulated stresses of daily life and unresolved trauma on an on-going basis.

Somatic Experiencing® (SE)

SE develops and utilises the awareness of sensations in the body to help people re-negotiate and alleviate the physical, emotional and physiological effects of PTSD and other stress and trauma-related health problems – without re-living the event.

While gently guiding and pacing the process so you can safely assimilate the changes within your nervous system without overwhelm, SE can help restore a sense of aliveness, relaxation and wholeness in the aftermath of trauma or after periods of chronic stress.

Presenters

Wendy Leitmanis, TRE Level 1 Trainer, and Cindy Jacobs of Free Rein Australia share their collective expertise and these approaches to healing trauma.  Wendy and Cindy offer individual sessions of TRE and SE respectively, and will be combining their expertise to offer 6-week programs (1 x 2-hour session each consecutive week).