Recently we started gently introducing Shadow Work into our groups and workshops. 
 
The reason for this is twofold.  The first is for participants to better understand the behaviours of others, thus avoiding some of the pain of taking things personally. The second reason is to give insight into our own inner landscapes through which we  step in to our own power.
 
If you spend any time in Facebook land you will witness projected anger, bile and generally unpleasantness.  People picking online fights because the other person is seen by them as less than human. Especially if they hold a differing opinion or represent something that is despised by the responder. All their bile and hatred of self then comes pouring out on screen.
 
Just this week I witnessed a prime example of this. One kind and caring young lady was concerned because she had picked up an injured rabbit. She posted online to a community group asking what to do with it.
 
Within seconds she was subjected to name calling such as snowflake, derision, laughter and hateful comments. She deleted her post. Yet, someone took it on board to put up another post about her claiming she was all things wrong with the world. 
 
Seems not many people these days understand that adage – when you open your mouth (or type on the keyboard) - you say far more about yourself than others.

She was obviously considered a prime target by a spiteful bully because she demonstrated something they could not – kindness and compassion. Like a pack of hyenas baying for blood, others of a similar ilk jumped in.
 
This begs the question of why they are demonstrating these sorts of behaviours.  Feelings of disconnect can lead to aggressive outbursts and picking fights. Ironically the basis to this is often a yearning for closeness. If you cant get close physically or emotionally then trying to trigger others will at least make you feel dysfunctionally close for a brief time. 
 
As people turn in droves to substances, yoga, meditation, mindfulness and a whole host of other distraction techniques, some are finding that fundamentally nothing quite hits the spot.
 
After all, at the end of the day they still got to live with themselves. Living with someone you don’t really like is just a terrible strain - so no wonder something gives. 
 
The Shadow is a term conceived by the famous psychotherapist Carl Jung.  It refers to  aspects of our psyche – those parts we are not consciously aware of.  Wellwood describes this as all our undigested experiences.
 
Babies are not born with Shadows. However. very early on we learn certain parts of our psyche are ‘bad’. Anger, frustration, gluttony and greed are all examples of the natural lived human experience. Yet, these are often the qualities that get trodden down and squashed into our dark, damp and mouldy internal cellars.

When left unattended, our shadows thrive in that environment.  Kept in the moist darkness of our psyches, toadstools can build up a force of energy that bursts through with a blinding toxic brilliance. A brilliance that threatens to poison everything we see as positive in our lives.
 
That is what you witness in facebook land. Toadstools exploding and shedding toxic spores over unsuspecting punters.
 
We can stop our Toadstools developing a life of their own by going into those damp dark scary cellars and letting in light.  We can’t destroy the cellars, but we can at least learn to nurture a less destructive fungi.
 
If you are interested in shadow work, then keep an eye open for our upcoming workshop on Detox your Toadstool.

Drums have been around for thousands of years and across all cultures,  so they are melded into our psyche. The first sound we hear in our mothers’ wombs is the sound of a drumming rhythmic heart beat. Put your hand over your heart and feel your own beating drum.

Feeling this type of beat recreated through a hoop drum can lead to a meditative state of mind, This is created through theta brain waves.  I was once part way through such a drumming session when an old man stopped me. His first words were  ‘look at your eyes you got to be on drugs’

​Drumming can help you meditate very quickly without the need for substances to alter the state of your mind. So drumming is particularly useful for those who have altered ways of being where the brain is affected. Conditions such as dementia. If the power of one drum can induce changes in brain wave patterns, just imagine what a group of drums could achieve.

A drum circle can involve anyone, literally anyone, even if they have never before picked up a drum. That is because drumming circles are about shared experiences. The focus is not on creating perfect music, but on having fun through making sounds that lifts the spirit.  

Circles are less about playing tunes and more about tuning in to our inner playfulness and need for social connection. No matter what age we reach, that inner child is always waiting patiently to be let loose.
​
The essence of what dementia teaches us is about being in the moment. There is no past and the future is uncertain so drumming together creates something meaningful. Something that  is fully present at that moment in time.

When playing a drum, or a percussion instrument in a circle – the music of all those playing enters the mind and body through sound and vibration. It resonates in every cell where it flows throughout the entire body to be released through the heart. Drumming is a whole-body experience.

Multiple people drumming together connects those individuals through coordinated beat and rhythm. This connection entwines into a vortex of energy that manifests as a collective consciousness.  Whilst one drummer is having a personal experience, they are also experiencing being part of something much bigger than self.  Loneliness and feelings of isolation can melt away as the group moves together with a common purpose building a shared energy. Thus, they enter into hive consciousness.

The role of the facilitator in a drum circle is to provide a welcoming environment, present activities that are fun and manageable, and maintain balance.  A drumming circle can take place anywhere – indoors or out. A beach, woodland, residential, home, hospitals, school., or community hall are all just examples.

 I have been part of drumming circles sat in trees, on a beach, by a river, on a mountain, within a herd of horses, by an ancient burial mound,  sat round a spitting bonfire, inside a medicine wheel and whilst walking a labyrinth.  

Anyone can take part whatever their level of ability or presumed challenges.
Drumming circles are all inclusive, They are  relatively easy to set up, they work well in larger numbers, they can take place anywhere and they provide open access to music making.

Drumming inspires creativity, self-expression and a sense of community. It is like being part of a flowing conversation with listening and giving back to create a common bond.

Drums truly are a gift to humanity.
​

Re-wilding your Mangy Mutt
Monday 2nd to Friday 6th September 2019
Isle of Wight
(Venue to be confirmed)

You are the master of your destiny or so it seem.  That is until you are bitten by the Black Dog and then slowly but slowly everything becomes about this mutt.

He walks alongside you by day and sleeps with you during the restless night. He feeds on your joy, passion, contentment and motivation. He gobbles down your sense of purpose and doesn’t have the decency to at least chew over your positive thinking before that too slides down his cavernous hole.

Black Dog dumbs down your senses.  You can hear things but not listen, see things but not in focus, touch things but not feel.  All sense of smell and taste is diminished as our options seem to fragment.

Eventually he leads you into the Shadowlands all the time projecting feelings of despair. He knows this place does not feed your soul but if he can keep you here, he will not only survive – he believes he will positively thrive.

This canine critter does not limit himself to any gender, age, race or social class. He is passive as long as he is fed and stroked. Happy to lay at your feet generating a choking stench, his whole purpose in life is to narrow your world.

We end up giving everything to this mangy mutt. Whilst he scratches away at fleas, we sink further into Shadowland fearing we will never return.

One of the biggest challenges we can face in life is to turn this smelly, parasitic canine into something beautiful. To render him once again to his former fragrant, sleek and shiny self. To spend time grooming, worming and befriending him so he can take his place once again as our best friend.

We can start this process through applying some Wolf Medicine.  Rewilding your Black Dog  involves nurturing him so he moves towards becoming the ultimate prime survivor – the Wolf.  Whilst he is busy licking his parts, he has absolutely no idea what an amazing creature he really is. No idea that deep inside that hairy exterior he is a powerful, loyal, prime strategist who looks out for each member of the pack.  Wolf Medicine helps your Black Dog move from mangy mutt to alpha leader through a process known as super sensing.

As we sink into depression so our sensory perception begins to shut down. Scientists call this neurogenesis. This is where the growth of new neurons in the brain are caused by a neurotropic factor however, in depression this does not happen. For example, it is well known that depression dulls the sense of smell. Research has shown that those with depression have smaller olfactory bulbs. Losing our sense of taste can be an early sign of depression and people with depression exhibit reduced brain responses to visual stimuli. 

As the world we experience though our senses shrinks away so does our ability to stand in our own power. The world looks and feels grey and dull. Yet all is not lost, we can change our neurochemistry and pimp up that black dog in the process.
 
The Black Dog Theatre

The Black Dog Theatre experience is geared towards offering you a chance to learn more about rewilding your mangy mutt. Wolves have super senses and it is those senses that make them extreme survivalists. As depression narrows our view of reality so our sensory experiences become more limited.

Through a series of five sensory portals, the Black Dog Theatre will help you explore how your senses can help you. You will learn a little more about how to super sense, thus gaining insights into how truly powerful you really are.

This is a hands on and fun taster session that will shine a little light into that tunnel of darkness. It will illuminate the path for your mangy mutt to move towards reclaiming its power. You will go away having created your own sensory toolkit.

Come and join us anytime during our week-long celebration of Wolf Medicine in 2019. The Black Dog Theatre will be open for taster sessions for visitors all that week.  Venue to be advertised shortly.

We look forward to welcoming you and if you find the theatre taster session meaningful then come and join one of our Wolf Medicine courses. Create your own wolf pack of social support.

Details are on our website www.naturetherapycic.com
 

This months blog is bought to you courtesy of Vectis Radio and an interview about nature therapy with presenter Joan Ellis

http://www.vectisradio.com/latest-shows/joan-ellis-meets/

So long since I contributed to this blog. It seems time can just float away without us even noticing. Although to be fair, although I have been quiet in blog world, I have still been delighting in writing, just a different style of writing and for a different audience.  

The style of writing is for a book, rather than a blog or funding bid, and the audience is children. I have taken ten legendary people and adapted their stories into tales for children to get outdoors in nature and enjoy exploring the legend.   

After years of writing academically in such a way that stifles all creativity, I feel like I have been let out of a strict uptight school. A school where all the teachers wear mortar boards and capes and carry a bendy switch to terrify you into saying your nine times table backwards.  

Instead of sweating over what on earth algorithms mean and how to spell it, I have been busy running across fields, climbing trees and feeling the wind in my hair. Being out of school means I can once again find my inner child so we can write, create, play, laugh and enjoy together what writing should really be all about – having fun.  We must seem an odd couple roaming the forest, down land, and hanging off cliffs together. An over excitable pensioner with a dodgy hip pumped up on coffee, and a small gregarious grubby child running ahead screaming with delight.

The Heritage Lottery fund provided a grant for this book – but it’s not just any old book.  Oh no. it’s a community book.  What this means is although I have drafted the ten stories for the ten legends, it has now been passed to a group of wonderful volunteer families who are trying the stories out for size.  I am just the catalyst for this to happen and have been overwhelmed by the response to it, not least my own response.

Currently the volunteer families are roaming across the countryside visiting the sites where the legends took place to see what can be added to the stories to make fun filled and, most importantly, free days out. They are adding secret treasure, hiding fairy doors and doing all of this for other families who can’t afford expensive trips to theme parks or days out on the mainland.

The stories involve some of the most beautiful stunning locations the island has to offer. They also includes dragons, witches, kings, smugglers and superheroes. The island is alive with the most wonderful tales, some of which have survived for centuries.

However, there has been a down side.  I seem to have fallen a little in love with each of the legendary characters.  To be able to write their stories, I needed to be able to feel them so very deeply, as if they were part of my very being.

Perhaps they really are part of my being. They were legends I grew up with, told to me by my parents and grandparents over and over again.  They were, and still are, as real to my childhood imagination as my grand-daughter’s cuddly toy duck is to her.

This project has breathed life back into the legends again.  I just hope I have done them justice and that new generations of children will fall a little in love with their stories too.

The work of nature therapy is grounded in sensory experiences using nature as a tool.  However as a researcher I am always compelled to look more deeply into the realities that are presented to us through our senses. 

Plato, c429-347AD, is considered one of the most eminent philosophers in recorded history. He too was fascinated by sensory experiences and was the first to consider non physical realities.  Our work with adults at Nature Therapy CIC is about helping people reconnect with their inner selves through connecting with nature.  We promote enhancing our sensory experiences as part of this. Be that through mindfully walking and smelling the aromas that drift to us,  or through creating such masterpieces as soundscapes.

However,  I am also aware of the realities that exist outside of bodily experience. By confining our existence on this ball hurtling through space to just five physical senses, we are really doing ourselves an injustice.

It is a little known fact that our senses are actually socially constructed.  Don't be silly I am hearing you shout how do you socially construct smell?  Just think for a minute about how one smell is appealing to one culture whilst to another it is nauseating. The Chinese delight for one hundred years old eggs springs to mind or incredibly stinky rotten cheeses and fish for others.

In fact how we even define our senses is socially constructed. In western culture we generally accept  we have five senses whereas science currently confirms we actually have thirty two. In other cultures they may only define two senses as in past and present, or seven senses,  or even fifteen senses. All according to how they have constructed their unique social and cultural realities and language.

As science is evolving and beginning to confirm a lot of what the ancients knew to be truths,  it is becoming more and more apparent that we have a sense, or even senses, that exist outside of time and space. Indeed this sense system is so well known - even if it is not recognised in all fields of science yet -  that it has been affectionately termed our Sixth Sense.

Our work in Nature Therapy CIC, although focused on the five physical senses, fully acknowledges we have a higher self or a sixth sense that helps us in times of need. We call this our Spiritual Sense as it connects to a bigger picture. Our Spiritual Sense is fed by our physical senses and in turn our Spiritual Sense nourishes our bodies - but if we start to deep listen to the process -  then we can begin to trust our instincts more.

We do not advocate any specific religion as we believe each and every person has to find their own pathway on that journey. But, we do advocate people finding their Spiritual Sense, however they may express it, as a way of connecting wholly with themselves and others.

Energy Vampires

As a follow on to my blog on the experience of living off grid up a mountain for three months, I want to share some of the things learned about senses on my return to a more concrete and busy existence.

The first impression was one of feeling totally overwhelmed by people and lack of space.  I live in a beautiful rural area in the UK but not as rural and remote as in Portugal. However I found I was unable to go into the small main town for some weeks without feeling crushed. Goodness only knows how it would have been if I had to return to a city.

Town visits were out of the question for some weeks. I did try on several occasions but found myself going right out of my way to avoid it - the main reason being queues.  Often I find the person behind me in a queue generally likes to invade my body space to the point they will even touch me. Now don’t get me wrong, I quite like being touched in the right circumstances, but I find the total stranger who likes to be that close enough to make physical contact is the individual who is often an energy vampire.

Energy vampires are the very people from whom I pick up negativity and absorb it as my own. Even though I have learned over the years some effective ways to protect myself, that type of unwanted contact can still leave me feeling low and exhausted. As if my very essence has gone down the plug hole, swirling and gushing into the sewer, never to return.  

Not all energy vampires consciously feed off others and they are not all doing it with malicious intentions.  Often they are just lost souls who find it hard to connect and relate to others and their only known method of getting their own needs met is to suck you into their whirlpool.  This can be through close contact subconsciously absorbing what they need from you -  or through talking at you. Once you start to empathize you are feeding their deeper needs but not in a way that is ultimately healthy for them – or you.
 
In the mountains there was no unwanted touching, other than by biting flies and mosquitoes and which I admit I find preferable to energy vampires. What I was surrounded by on that mountain side was my own.  I didn’t have to spend time sorting through buckets of assorted bits and pieces  to see what was mine and what was some one else’s I had accidentally bought home and really didn’t want to feed and keep. The trouble being once you have taken it - you can’t give it back with an ‘oops I think this is yours’. There isn’t even a dump to take it to. Instead you are left holding it or even worse you chuck it at some other poor unsuspecting passing soul.

In the Wolf Medicine programme I work alongside other Highly Sensitive People. So, I try to teach them about energy fields, what they themselves put out, how to protect themselves, and when to use their own unique sensitivity to help others. As this work progresses I am becoming more and more mindful that addiction and some mental illness is very much aligned to sensitivity.  There is a growing body of research starting to confirm this.

I realise this blog might make me sound like a miserable old grouch but to be an effective therapist and teacher - you need self-awareness, honesty and strategies to avoid compassion fatigue.  It has taken me some years to realise what works for me and what doesn’t. We are all different in how we sense and experience the world and my role now is much more about helping others protect themselves - especially as they move into caring roles.

The next blog will explore the impact of immersing yourself in nature on another of our senses – that of smell.