Our Quality of Life is a result of our ability to Imagine and Create the life we desire.
The community we build must be imagined before we are able to create it.
The Positive Mind movement is an advocate of this skill, motivating people every day to create the life they desire via the ability to imagine it, to sense it, to feel it!
What is not mentioned very often in the Positive Mind movement is something that many people struggle with.
“Disconnection.”
When we are disconnected from one or more aspects of ourselves the Positive Mind movement becomes a tool that we use to actually abuse ourselves and others. It supports a disconnection rather than a deep inner connection.
Trauma directly affects the imagination.
Not just at the time of the trauma, for the balance of one’s life.
When I think about this, my mind goes to the education system. I have been educated out of my imagination. As a small child I was accused with making things up, I was degraded for tapping into my imagination. Teaching me that safety is only found in absolutes and I lost flexibility.
40 years later along comes the “Positive Movement” telling me to “Picture the life I want!” The TV commercials, programs and sitcoms all began promoting “What the life I want would look like!” Magazines and the lifestyles of the rich and famous all created a desired image. These all were followed with an outline, ‘the plan’ that would set me on the path to get those things!
There truly is no malice intended in the “Positive Mind” movement, I see the benefit of it every day.
I also see another side. The side that includes ‘Bypassing’ and ‘Gaslighting” what I mean is that for many the ‘Positive Mind” movement is ignoring an inner battle, one that many will not speak about and many are not even aware of.
The inner battle is with an aspect of the Sub Conscious Mind that had been degraded for tapping into its imagination, vs, the aspect of the Conscious mind that is convinced regarding the positive mind movement to ignore the degraded aspect.
This battle manifests via the ‘bypassing’ tactic and the ‘no pain, no gain’ perception…
What was not revealed was; the kind of pain that is manifesting for many, is a pain that is, far greater and lasts far longer than the pain one would experience if they went into themselves.
If they honored the feelings, the experiences for what they were, the degraded aspect may be transformed and integrated into their lives today...
“Imagination is Play for the mind” Bessel Van der Volk.
I never new how to “Play”, I pretended at playing, attempting the ‘fake it till you make it’ mentality, that never worked for me. Sometimes I was good at this kind of playing. According to the world around me, the one I grew up in and the one I lived in at the time, I was very good at imagining the worst all the time.
I find it very revealing that I could never “imagine” good, play or fun. Yet I could “imagine” horror, pain and a depth of hell in a millisecond.
The deeper I go into the study of trauma, the greater the clarity. Its my perception that ‘Imagination’ taps into your amygdala. If your amygdala does not have “play” memories, it has no ability to create “play” in your mind. Yet the ‘Logic’ center of the mind can logically convince us of play. What it looks like, how to do it, how to participate and the follow through of it.
What I found always missing was the feeling aspect of play.
My community around me and my family knew just how much of a feeling person I am and yet I could not feel play, feeling play was beyond my comprehension.
I was not feeling or engaging in play. I was always separate. I have gone through my entire life like this. I could feel pain, I could not feel joy, happiness or connection, let alone play.
“Trauma affects the imagination. The imagination is playing in your mind”
Bessel Van der Volk. The body keeps score.
The only imagination I had was inescapable terror and the inability to see any way out. Bringing me to my constant seeking of possible solutions. I have stayed stuck in the fear I knew, even though my world did not portray this. Like many I was unable to make the past into a story of what happened long ago. I relieved the experiences every waking moment of my life. I became ‘too much’ for many people. Re injuring my psyche on a daily basis, being pushed away and dismissed by those I loved as they could not deal with my reminder of what they believed they had put away. I was told I had to let go of my past. Believe me I tried every moment. It was just not as easy for me as it was for others.
The “Speak your Truth” movement gave me a voice, one that hurt others! Which was never my intention. If I continued hurting others, I would end up isolated and alone, so, I saw no way out of my predicament and life continued.
I had been to many counselors, many therapists, but not working with an informed trauma counselor, was what hindered the integration of my trauma, and hindered the shift needed for my truth to shift, and no longer harming others when I spoke it.
Trauma informed therapy is key to integration, yes, but what gets missed in many cases is Soul informed trauma therapy. Soul Retrieval. I was first introduced to this in 2000 at a lecture hall in the Misericordia Hospital, Edmonton AB. Dr. Jane Simington was presenting her work and I wept through the entire presentation. This was the first time I heard my true language. The language of my Soul.
It’s this therapy that opened me up to “play” This therapy lessoned the controlling aspect of my imagination that only knew terror… (remember, we stay stuck in the fear we know)
With Soul Retrieval and trauma informed therapy I began to be, to open, and play became a tiny part of me.
This is just in the beginning and I am hopeful for tomorrow…
Soul pain is real and soul loss interferes with one’s imagination, this creates absolutes in one’s mind.
Absolutes resist flexibility that is critical to the quality of life.
Soul Retrieval of the degraded aspects of me brought a deeper connection to imagining life outside of terror, pain, sorrow and grief…
Opened me up to creating a life, and the work it requires to manifesting this life.
I am able to create a connection to myself, to those in my world and so many more than I could have ever imagined.
I have been studying the Mind, Body and Spirit Connection for over 23 years and the more informed I am regarding trauma, the more integrated I am becoming. Expanding my imagination, including healing and exploring play.
This work has fired creativity and launched hopes I could never have fathomed. I have been shifted into an opportunity to envision something other than terror, hopelessness and isolation.
‘Mental Flexibility is the hallmark of the imagination and critical to the quality of life!”
Bessel Van Der Volk.
How many of us think in absolutes? 100% Right and/or 100% Wrong. To me this is a result of trauma, not great big trauma, or even world trauma. But a degrading experience regarding using one’s imagination, combined with other traumas caused a disconnect from one’s imagination.
“Failure of Imagination is a loss of Mental Flexibility” Bessel Van der Volk.
I am able to be part of a community of people who desire connection and work towards obtaining this connection on a daily basis.
I am forever grateful for this work and the gifts of it.
My quality of life is a direct result of my imagination…
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