Boundaries and Work

You might add more twists if the first three chakras are in greater need, or more backbending if it's the upper chakras, or more inversions if it's the top two chakras. If you find areas of the body that feel closed off, you might work more with the vayus and the breath. If you've discovered that thumping, crossover techniques, and weaving figure eights on and around your body makes you feel more alert, you'll add more of those to your practice. Keep in mind that less is more. In Eden Energy Medicine, we learn about the connectivity of the body's energy systems. The body-mind truly is holistic. There are frequently many systems or parts of systems that are out of balance. For example, it is not unusual for someone to have three, four, five, or more meridians that are under- or over-energized, throwing off all the meridians, as well as affecting other systems and the overall health of the client. Ogden explained it this way: Continuing to neurocept danger, [trauma survivors] often experience intrusive fears and phobias, waves of shame and despair, impulses to desperately seek help, fight, flight, freeze, or shut down, that sabotage their efforts to function. This, as I covered, is one of the paralyzing costs of trauma: a horrific, overwhelming event comes to play out indefinitely in our bodies and minds. The emotional brain continues to sound the alarm, thwarting survivors from being able to accurately assess when they're safe. For many, this danger is not simply an issue of faulty neuroception. Oppressive conditions mean that safety is not granted to all people. But faulty neuroception does happen, and it can amplify this dynamic. It becomes exceedingly difficult to ascertain when one is safe and one is not. Relationship is a powerful domain to work with neuroception. Survivors are often hurt in relationship--sometimes directly, and other times because people weren't present for them in a moment of intense distress. As an avid reader of the classics he eventually found that the NeiJing SuWen (remember that written Chinese is difficult for Chinese too! He was relieved that this was the case, for within his professional circle there is only truth if it is to be found in the classics.

This attitude still persists today and it is backwards: Acupuncturists need to embrace anatomy and physiology, stem cells and genetics, bio-energy and electromagnetism, but we need to do it with intelligence. The classics were written to pass down information through turbulent primitive times. It is testament to their power and truth how well they have succeeded. Now we must build on them. HOW CANCER MOVES Cancer is defined by two factors. First, it is uncontrolled multiplication of cells and, second, these cells invade other tissues. The latter point is critical: tumours that do not invade are called benign tumours and will not kill you. You're delegating it, but in such a way that you have no knowledge or awareness of it. She has a point. I genuinely want to figure this out, but I also want to argue, because, having grown up in a dictatorship, it feels delicious to `talk back'. And it also feels unsafe to agree with everything she says, in case I'm doing it just to be `good'. And we need them to be shared across all of you, so that they can be integrated and worked through. So while you stay just as `you', then we don't access them and they remain stuck. And stuck is a powerless place to be. I feel all the ouch-ness of this last statement, so I ignore it--for now. It's being siloed. And hence is stuck. Not everyone will be empathetic. What negative consequences do you think can happen if you tell someone?

Carefully consider all possible negative reactions you may receive from anyone you decide to tell about your BPD. We discuss the possibility of stigma and discrimination in the preceding section. In addition, some people you tell may feel afraid because of their own ignorance, and, as a result, they may treat you like you have the plague or some other contagious illness. Others may worry that they don't know how to interact with you anymore, and, in turn, they may avoid you. Some may want to help, but they may feel petrified at the thought of doing the wrong thing and making things worse. Still others may view a personality disorder as an excuse for bad behavior, and, thus, they may believe you're using your diagnosis to rationalize your inappropriate actions. Ava's story demonstrates some of the negative consequences of revealing BPD to the wrong person at the wrong time and place. Unfortunately, she was caught off guard and suffered from her disclosure. Sometimes I tried to persuade myself that I was happy by thinking hard about it and picturing myself as successful and admired. Other times I had moments of clarity, where reality broke in and I saw myself wasting my life in a profession I didn't really want to be in and one that did not want me. Developing a Deep Satisfaction from My Profession Then, slowly, a rather wonderful thing happened. I started to gain a deep satisfaction from my work and realized that I was, in fact, at least reasonably good at it. I came to feel a deep affinity with my patients, especially dogs and cattle, and I developed an ability to interact reasonably well with their owners. The professional-client relationship during a consultation is not informal (which would be terrifying to me) but is semiformal, so it can be managed. Also, I absolutely adore dogs and own one myself, so empathizing with clients who have dogs is not a problem; I only need to think about how I would feel if my own dog were sick or injured to put myself in the client's shoes. I moved to the Isle of Skye to pursue my studies of Scottish Gaelic (one of my autistic special interests, I now realize), and this necessitated me finding work as a locum (freelancer) all over the north of Scotland, as there is no regular employment for me in Skye. Watch how your hands move spontaneously during greetings, farewells, and reaching consensus with others. Before you know it, your hands can explain the point you are making and help prove your sincerity and worry.

Whether you express love, anger, joy, or frustration, your hands can convey a message. This section will discuss how to use both hands to support spoken language and add substance to the message. You will discover how to pose to convey authority and dominance and show openness and compliance. You will see how other people imitate the actions or situations they describe, thereby enhancing their meaning. When you think that no one is watching, you will find signals that your hands and fingers are unknowingly showing. How the Hand Speaks For thousands of years, people's status in society has determined the priority of maintaining the right to speak when speaking. The more power or authority you have, the more you will be forced to remain silent when speaking. I shouldn't have enjoyed his attention. The horror of it is hot and rancid and I hate myself for it: stupid, stupid, stupid girl. I look up, surprised. What does she mean? I have worked in child protection. I know what grooming is. Grooming is. My thoughts stick together in clumps in my mind and I can't make sense of them. Whatever grooming is, it didn't happen to me. I realise, suddenly, that I don't actually, really, know what grooming is. The drug may initially destroy 95% or more of the cancer cells. But the cells the chemo does not kill are the ones left to reproduce.

The smart cancer cells become resistant to that drug. Regardless of what we throw at them, they figure out how to develop resistance one way or another. Cancer stem cells are even stronger and more resistant to conventional therapies than normal cancer cells. The patient has already undergone at least one course of chemotherapy, complete with myriad side effects that can include nausea, hair loss, weight loss, muscle wasting, extreme fatigue, organ damage and more --only to learn that the cancer is not in remission or it has returned. In these cases, the only option most doctors can offer is another course of chemotherapy with a different drug, administered in the hope a different drug will trick the genius cancer cells into dying on schedule. The vicious circle has been set. Some of the cancer cells will die, but, until now, there have always been survivalist cancer cells that will hide out in the physiological wilderness and come back again another day. Doctors try another form of chemo. But the body is beautifully orchestrated, and you don't need to spend the entire session correcting each of the disrupted meridians. Often, if you correct and work with one, it balances and strengthens all of them. And balancing and strengthening the meridians, in turn, balances and strengthens other energy systems. This elegance is at work in all we do. The body wants to find balance. This is its natural and most desired state. And it wants to find its balance in the most efficient way possible. You don't need to practice Energy Medicine Yoga for hours (though you certainly can, and you'll feel great! You need to find the areas or systems that are not working optimally and start to bring attention to them. And if you take the time to do a daily practice and keep all of the major systems of your body working well, you can keep the dance of living in a fine balance. In the container of relationship--especially with a trauma professional--another person can help us generate safety. In my work with Sam, for instance, helping him develop a sense of safety--both in his life and in our relationship--was a vital and immediate focus: I was able to track and attune to his emotions and empathize with any specific fears that were triggered by our work together.