What if I told you that there is a way to live surrounded by chaos without being overwhelmed or thrown off centre?  What if you knew a way to walk into the lion’s den and rescue the lambs, without fear or worry?  What if you had discernment, but no fear?

The global turbulence happening right now can be frightening and disempowering.  Wars, political unrest, climate change and social division can feel overwhelming and derailing.  But there is a way to prevent absorbing fear so that it that doesn’t drain you, put you into brain fog or trigger you.  And it’s a good way to be, not just in turbulent times, but in life generally.

There are two sides to it.  You need to clear out the fear that is currently in the body through mindful practices, including slow breathing, grounding, gentle movement, supportive relationships and compassionate self-care.  And you need to have strategies in place to prevent absorbing fear going forward.  So what is a good strategy to avoid absorbing fear? 

Victim to Survivor

Psychiatrist and holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl, said that there were two types of people who survived the holocaust.  The first were those for whom their entire lives had been excavated.  Entirely energetically emptied out, these people had experienced the holocaust as a personal attack on them and they internalised that as their identity.  They were stripped emotionally of any capacity to process what had happened but they felt that the sufferance of what they had endured had been done ‘to them’ and so ‘became’ them.  They identified so thoroughly with the persecution, torture and depravity of those who were targeted that they became the ‘persecuted’ and the ‘tortured’.  In other words, they internalised what had been done to them, as them.  They had identified with the mindset of the persecutor and became full of the fear that the persecutor inflicted.  These people identified as ‘victims’.

The second type of person who survived the holocaust said ‘everything that has happened here is not mine.  I am not responsible for what you, the nazi, did.  All of the shame, the horror and the indignation is on you, not me.  I am not the reason you did this, you are.  This was not done to me, because you do not know me.  You cannot see me because of the veil of evil that you have put over your own eyes.  This was done to whatever evil interpretation you have of who I am, but that interpretation is not real.  The murder was real, but the reason you gave for it was not, and I do not internalise it as true.  You alone are the evil that we have seen here and we see it all.  You alone own the evil that you meted out to innocent people.  I leave all of your evil here, with you.  And I go now to take up my life again and rejoice at being free and to have survived.  I am a survivor.’  

These two positions, both equally valid, actually reflect either ends of the spectrum of the healing journey; healing begins at the position of victim and ends at the position of survivor.  The ‘victim’ says, ‘this was done to me and I am shamed and diminished by what you did, my identity has become this horror for me to process’.  The ‘survivor’ says ‘this was done through me, not to me. You did this, this is your shame, not mine.  Nothing that happened here is mine. I am not diminished, I am intact, stronger for this experience because I endured’.

While the two positions are valid, one reflects an egoic perspective (this is me/mine) and the other a more evolved perspective (this is not me/mine).  One is not right or wrong, they are just different ways of seeing.

But they also differ in one crucial way.  The victim internalises the horror as their identity; they identify with the suffering imposed.  And the survivor does not.  This has a valuable lesson for us all.  Whatever we identify with, we absorb into our bodies for us to emotionally process and internalise and it will make us suffer.  If we cannot process it in a healthy way, it will show up as pain or incapacity in the body.  Alternatively, if we do not identify with whatever is outside of us, we don’t absorb it into our bodies and, so, we are not burdened by it.  Whatever we identify as, we hold in our bodies.  Whatever we do not identify with, is outside of us.  Identity holds the key to absorbing, or not absorbing, fear when we live in chaos. 

So, to live in chaos, and thrive, we must not identify with what we see outside of ourselves.  An example of how this works is in the healing of inherited wounds.

Healing Inherited Wounds 

A people subjected to genocide, or a war, or a natural disaster all carry the wounding of that experience.  But sometimes the wounding is not directly experienced by the client and is instead inherited from previous generations.  

The real reason we suffer when we take on inherited wounds is because we identify with the suffering within them.  Whatever we identify with, lives in the body.  If we carry inherited wounding from previous generations there are several ways to heal that, but one way is to dis-identify from it, that is to dis-identify from the suffering of that group and belong to a group with the same identity who do not suffer.

When we remove ourselves from the suffering that that group owns, the pain of that suffering is released from our bodies.  This can sound easy but can be extremely difficult to do; it can feel like ‘turning my back on my people’.  

However, a reframe of that perception can be ‘showing my people a better way’ and releasing ‘identifying with the suffering’ becomes easier.

Our ancestors want us to thrive, not suffer.  Especially if it is they who actually endured the suffering in the first place.  They were strong, they survived, so that we could live.  They want us to live with joy and purpose and in peace, especially because they could not.  So, once we do the work to help the client dis-identify from the suffering of their people, the associated pain in their body is released. 

Identity and Boundaries

So, whoever and whatever we identify as lives in the body.  If there is suffering in the history of that identity, we carry that pain in our bodies.  And, conversely, if we release our identity as a ‘suffering member of that group’, we show our people a better way and the pain is released from our bodies in real time.

Identity is key here.  How we identify determines which energetic fields we choose to let into our bodies.  It was Gabor Matte who said, “There is no developmental trauma without attachment”.  What he meant was that it is the attachment a child has with its parent that causes the child to suffer if neglected.  If the child is not attached to its parent, and the parent neglects the child, the child will not suffer.  It is how the child identifies that enables the suffering.  And so, often, the neglected and attached child, will seek to become ‘unattached’ from the neglectful parent to ease the suffering.  When that happens, the child sees the parent in a new identity.  Instead of ‘loving mother’, the child sees the parent as ‘mother in name only’, or ‘not a parent to me’ and that child’s pain is released.

And it isn’t just the physical and emotional bodies that carry that suffering.  How we identify can impact our relationships, our children and even our bank balance.  How we identify is crucial to how we live.  And contrary to what most people think, all identity is entirely fluid and chosen.  We choose who we are.  And, unsurprisingly, most healing processes only require removing that which we are not, so that we can see and accept our true identities clearly.  So, for example, we are not the “pieces of trash” or the “subhuman animals” that our persecutors said we were.  We are people who survived atrocities.

Discernment

So, knowing that ‘how we identify’ allows energetic fields into our bodies, shows us how the mechanics of boundaries work.  Whatever we identify with is internalised.  Whatever is not ours, remains outside of ourselves.  Pristine boundaries are essential if we are to be free of the chaos in our environment.

But how?  How can I have pristine boundaries when the fear is so great?  How can I protect myself from the fear induced by the raving catastrophising by extremists with power?  How can I protect my children from the threat of war?  How can I know if I should watch less news or what is the appropriate response in unprecedented times?   The answer is two fold: don’t let another person’s fear or incitement into your body (dis-identify and detach from that energy field) and use discernment (for what you do attach to).  

Dis-identifying and detaching from an energy field is as simple as saying, “you are not me”, “you are over there and I am over here”, “you are not my identity”.  If you had been unconsciously attached or entangled in that energy field, saying these words will bring instant relief.  Using discernment with everything you’re allowing into your energy system, from the food and media you consume, to the relationships you allow in your vicinity, speaks to how heavy you will find your energy body feeling.  If you are discerning and only keep the energy frequencies in and around you in accordance with your true energy frequency, you will feel light and energised.  If you do not, you will feel sluggish and drained.  

High Frequency Consciousness

Low frequency consciousness has as much impact on our bodies as low quality food.  Be discerning in everything you consume.  Everything is quickening now and becoming more and more sensitive and revealing of what it truly is.  Once where we had friendships that were imbalanced, they could continue for years, but now everything is being seen for what it is and our tolerance for imbalance and injustice has worn thin.  Everything is being clarified and revealed for what it is.  And this is a good thing.  Because we get to choose who we are and what we will and won’t tolerate and this keeps our energy frequencies high and this brings clarity and drive.  This also requires of others to do their personal work and not be ‘enabled’ by our compliance.

High quality consciousness, pristine boundaries, dis-identifying from what is not ours and having discernment are also ultimately essential for the evolution of our species.  This is because where once all frequencies of consciousness could co-exist, perhaps unhappily but could be tolerated, now they cannot.  Imbalance, injustice, over-caring, disrespect and disregard now are less able to be tolerated.  

The awakening that many of us are experiencing is like the empath realising that their partner is a narcissist, that with discernment narcissism can be identified and it is to be avoided at all costs.  People, more and more, are forging groups with others of “like-frequency” and releasing those who aren’t.  

To stay clear of the chaos, step aside of it and allow it to do what its doing and remove yourself from its impact.  If you feel that you cannot do that under the government you’re living under, move country.  If you feel you cannot live under the conditions of your city, move city.  If you feel the strain of the friendships and relationships you once tolerated, let them go.

The more you release what holds you back, the more goodness will flow into your life and the more high-resonance people you will attract around you.  The low frequency people will find that they cannot tolerate the high frequency people either. And so the great polarisation on the planet right now isn't between left and right, or even between the billionaire class and the rest of us, but between those who are high resonance and those who are not.  Politics and power are not resonance determined.  I believe some very wealthy people can put their fortunes into very good causes, Chuck Feeney being one example.  I believe some very good people are in politics for the right reasons, for example, Bernie Sanders.  Politics and power are not determinants in themselves.  But high frequency consciousness is.  And that is the polarisation we are seeing in the world now.  Either we are under evolved and think of ourselves as the most important person in the room, or we are more evolved and see us all as equally valuable within the ecosystem to which we all belong.  

High frequency consciousness helps us to remember who we are and our true identity and the upheaval that is happening in the world now is helping us to do that.

Blessings to all on the path.