15 Tools to Living Wisely in These Crazy Times! – Part 1

Soul River of Life Pencil Crayon Drawing by Ingrid Cryns

Soul River of Life
Pencil Crayon Drawing by Ingrid Cryns

To live ‘wisely’ in these times, it is important to develop tools that help to ground and centre you for the many dramatic shifts that are occurring around us on a variety of levels – including emotional/spiritual/energetic as well as physical illnesses. To be ‘Resilient’ to these changes, it requires a body and mind to be strongly grounded in this reality while remaining open & flexible to be able to quickly shift or change as required.  Resiliency work is about building up your healing systems and healing team to assist you through difficult times on many different levels. In this 2 part blog series, I will give you 15 tools to help you navigate these crazy times.

Below is what represents the breadth and depth of holistic and healing modalities that I have personally explored and continue to highly recommend. I often still use many of them myself at different times on my own soul work journey. Some of these methods are also regularly included in my webinars, presentations, workshops or group retreats. Here are the first 7 tools to support your soul to grow with courage and clarity;

  1. To begin with, please start with signing up for my Newsletter on the right side bar.  This will not only keep you in touch with many current trends in how to live more wisely,  but you will receive a 7 page download of a very comprehensive collection of 15 other tips to help manage overwhelm and high anxiety called; Calming Chaos: 15 Soul Secrets for Holding Balance in These Crazy Times. (If you are already on my email list and do not have this download, just send me an email and I will send it to you then).
  2. Donna Eden’s Energy medicine – is a really great body of work that helps to balance the right and left sides of your body and energy system as well as keep you in a good daily balance and increase resiliency.  I highly recommend to learn how to do the 5 – 10 minute daily routine
    1. 5 minute routine –  Video
    2. triple warmer calming technique – Method 1 & Method 2
    3. Basic Energy Medicine Kit
  3. EFT – Emotional Freedom Technique – is such a handy self-help tool to immediately shift an intense emotional reaction to something and to help change old habits
    1. Basic Protocol 1Basic Protocol 2 & Basic Protocol 3
    2. Free Google ebook by EFT Founder, Gary Graig – The EFT Manual
    3. for anxiety – Free download – Audio & script
    4. for insomnia – Basic Instructions & Good General Article
  4. Meditation – there are a  very large variety of methods;
    1. Tibetan buddhist forms, teaching heart centered & present moment living;
      1. Shambhala.org
    2. Zen meditation forms.  The following is a more modern influence with integrates western psychology awareness work with voice dialog and Zen Buddhist consciousness work toward enlightenment!
      1. Big Heart, Big Mind – bigmind.org
    3. Hindu meditation forms
      1. Sahaja Yoga – great free online video courses are very helpful here
    4. Shamanic journeying forms
    5. Guided audio and/or visual meditation forms
    6. Walking meditation
    7. Body felt sense tracking
  5. YOGA, YOGA, YOGA – I can’t say enough about the importance of stretching and strengthening the body slowly and carefully through the various forms of yoga.  My personal favourites are Moshka & Hatha forms, but there are many others that are also very good
  6. Tong Ren – is a fascinating long distance healing method
  7. Access Consciousness – wonderful consciousness clearing and inspiring work

I can support you to find ways to get in touch with your un-conscious or shadow self through symbols and dream work interpretation or unique emotional art drawings.  And I can help you to heal the pain of your deeper soul wounds that will create a greater congruency of your body and mind through body psychotherapy. Click on the green contact tab below to the right and let’s begin to heal your unique soul story together!

The Soul vs Spirit vs Self

Heart Rock - Painted Art & Photo by Ingrid Cryns

Heart Rock
Painted Art & Photo by Ingrid Cryns

I like to define ‘Spirit’ as the life force essence of your physical body & personality in this lifetime.  It is intangible, invisible and made up of something that is hard to quantify scientifically or define absolutely.  Some religions say that the spirit is what possesses the body and if you don’t have a belief in their religion, then you may not believe in having any ‘spirit’ at all!  The Spirit is seen as a form of energy  that connects one to God, the Source or the Mystery – that magical link that gives us life that we don’t truly understand in the end how that is really possible. If you are an atheist or existentialist, then do you have a spirit or a soul, even if you don’t believe in this?  I say that you do, despite your belief system that denies its existence.

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The Soul – Speaks in the Poetic Language of the Senses

SOUL Drawing - Oil Pastel by Ingrid Cryns

SOUL Drawing
Oil Pastel
by Ingrid Cryns

Our senses are how we take in and receive the world; through our eyes (sight), our ears (sound), our touch (hands or skin), our smell (nose) and our taste (tongue/mouth).  Our body’s senses are also how we can find clues as to the distinct characteristics of our soul. Our body may be experienced as the medium of a painter’s pallet on the canvas of the soul.  Or, the depth of meaning through a poet’s expression of words can be seen as a window into the soul. The soul speaks in the colourful and poetic language of our body’s multiple senses.

Not only is our body able to teach us information about what we may like or dislike through our senses, it also has a unique quality of combining two or more senses together to cross-reference clues as to what is good or healthy for us or what is something we should be warned about to stay away from.  This can sometimes be understood as a ‘sixth’ sense! That intangible quality that we can’t put our finger on ‘why’ we might not feel comfortable about something. However, our body is giving us that ‘gut’ instinct feeling to protect us from something. Learning how to decode these messages and how to listen to them in ways to empower yourself is what the work of Building SOUL is all about.

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The Soul – Essence of Life Force Within Us

Masculine Feminine SOUL - Drawing by Ingrid Cryns

Masculine Feminine SOUL
Drawing by Ingrid Cryns

Dictionaries often define the soul as an intangible quality within, an essence of your life force energy. It is a highly critical component of your being, without which, if not properly nourished, understood, or responded to, can create mental or physical illness and possibly even death.

In 1907 in an effort to prove a material existence of the soul in the body, Dr. Duncan MacDougall of Haverville, Massachusetts, USA, did an experiment and weighed 6 patients during the various stages of their terminal illness.  He weighed each body before, during & immediately at the point of death.  He reported a measurement about three quarter’s of an ounce or 21.3 grams, as the consciousness, the soul essence, left the body.

The soul has a direct inter-relationship with thought, words, will, emotions, feelings and action.  We can’t see it or touch it as by its very nature, it is invisible.  It is the glue that holds us together and also fuels the life force energy of our aliveness & vitality.   It is reflected in our being as an emotional, animating & passionate aspect.   Music, art, poetry all capture the emotional, right brain, more feminine aspect AND our soul nature.

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Don’t Give Up! It’s Never Too Late To Change!

Power of Intent - Abraham HicksSometimes, being in the personal growth business, I might have a greater desire than most people in my continuous quest to walk my talk. While I have accomplished many wonderful dreams and plans, I can also find myself blocked at times at not being able to make it happen! But the good news is, it’s never too late to change, so don’t give up! Being flexible and learning how to adjust with the flow of life is a practice and an art.  If there is one thing that is constant in life – it’s that change will always happen in some form.  We truly have choices in how we might choose to look inwards to see what we can change or perhaps learn to also accept what maybe we can’t change in our internal or external worlds.

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What Is Bioenergetics or Somatic Relational Psychotherapy?

Reich BookWelcome to Building Soul! You might be asking… Soma – what?  You may recall this term from the name of the drink that was used to put masses of people into a subdued and controllable altered state in the book, “Brave New World ” (1931) by Aldous Huxley.

The actual origins of the term ‘soma’ is from the Greek or Latin root of the word ‘body’.  Bioenergetics is a somatically based psychotherapy is a form of therapy that works with helping you connect your conscious awareness to the physiological feelings states that are held in your body, hence the phrase somatic relational psychotherapy.  This is an incredibly fascinating body of work (no pun intended!) that has in fact also been developing since the 1930’s, when Huxley’s book came out!

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