As we emerge through these unprecedented times of great change, it’s helpful to know that, as humans, we are naturally designed to adapt to changes in our environment. We’re also naturally designed to process our emotions. Once we understand this, we’ll begin to realise that we can change how we feel and think and in turn positively affect our reality.
We Are Naturally Designed to Adapt to Change
‘Your brain is plastic. You have the power within at any age to be better, more capable, to be continuously growing a progressively more interesting life.’ Dr. Michael Merzenich, neuroscientist
Thanks to research in the field of neuroplasticity we now realise that the human brain is capable of reorganising its structure, function and connections in response to learning, life experiences, even injury, enabling us to recover and adapt, especially so when we feel threatened in any way.
Simply put, neuroplasticity means that built within our nervous system is the ability to respond to internal or external stimuli. We absorb our environment in through our senses, we then process this information based on our beliefs and perceptions.
Dealing With Change
‘Just like children, emotions heal when they are heard and validated.’ Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, neuroanatomist
The whole world is going through drastic changes right now. How we experience these changes will very much be dependent on our beliefs and perceptions and how we handle any perceived threats. Our collective experiences will influence humanity as a whole and inform the generations to come.
In a concept, termed as the ‘90-second rule’, neuroanatomist Dr. Bolte Taylor explains that when something we perceive to be threatening happens in our external environment, the body is flooded with chemicals. It takes less than 90-seconds for those chemicals to flush out of the body. This means that for 90-seconds we can:
- watch the process happening
- feel it happening
- and watch it go away
‘The moment you change your perception is the moment you rewrite the chemistry of your body.’ Dr. Bruce Lipton, developmental biochemist
Perception not only creates our experience of the world around us, but it allows us to act within our environment. Influenced by ourpast experiences, culture, religion, education, values, beliefs, and present circumstances, perception influences how we feel, think, act and behave. It determines our habits and the patterns that inform our personalities and eventually form our reality.
We Grow And Evolve Through Change
‘Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.’ Sigmund Freud
It helps to understand that these challenging times we live in are triggering our suppressed emotions leaving us feeling vulnerable. When we’re feeling vulnerable, the world takes on a threatening stance. As a result, the stress response in the body (fight-or-flight) kicks in, as a form of protection. Stress then becomes the filter through which we view the world. When left untreated, stress breaks down our willpower and greatly affects our ability to deal with our emotions.
It’s worth remembering that we can apply Dr. Jill’s 90-second rule to emotions that have been brought up to the surface, regardless of how old they are. It’s through releasing our suppressed emotions that we find our inner strength and our true potential can fully emerge.
‘It’s not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best handle change.’ Charles Darwin
The one constant in life is change. Yet, for most people, change means stress as they try to deal with the emotional tension or mental strain involved within change. Even the things we love in life can cause us stress. It helps if we can acknowledge that things are changing and that we’re likely to feel emotional as a result. Dealing with our stress helps us develop both a physical and psychological sense of self-control, thereby making it much easier for us to handle change.
Processing Our Emotions
‘Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.’ Albert Einstein
We know from neuroscience that the brain believes whatever it sees and the subconscious mind does whatever we tell it to do.
I now want to introduce you to my ‘Onesie Technique.’ This technique is based on the belief that our emotions are stored in the body and when triggered, they surface as emotional energy. This simple technique enables us to a) acknowledge the emotion b) feel the emotion c) step out of the emotion, d) heal the emotion, e) watch it go away. This ties in nicely with Dr. Jill’s 90-second rule.
Exercise: Onesie Technique
- Recall an emotion, or memory, relating to an event you wish to heal and release.
- Imagine the emotions surfacing in your energy as a ‘onesie’ of energy.
- Imagine yourself stepping out of the onesie of energy and stepping into your heart centre into a beautiful stream of light within.
- Get a sense of how good this feels to do.
- As you stand in this beautiful stream of light within, imagine your pure soul essence above you as a beautiful laser. Imagine yourself lasering the energy of the onesie as you set the intention to transmute the energy in light.
- Imagine the energy of the onesie dissolving in light.
- Get a sense of how it feels to be emotionally free.
- You may need to do this several times, as there may be many emotional energy layers to the memory.
This technique forms part of my online training course, Stepping Into Your Light.
It helps if we can view our current situation as that of a chrysalis of change. As the caterpillar radically transforms itself into a butterfly, we too should aim to emerge from this chrysalis of change with brave new form and wings that make us fly.