OVERVIEW OF HEALTH
I went to my friend’s full moon ritual party on a Sunday night. We howled to the moon and burned pieces of paper with our words on them and an owl came to watch us, which made us feel like we were in the movie Hocus Pocus. I naturally dibsed being SJP, as I love her.
After our witchy ways we cozied in on the couch with a hot tea and got talking passionately.
One of my friends is an energetic healer, transformational coach and photographer, and my other friend is an art therapist, creative and health promoter.
Check out their work here if you’re curious:
http://www.beatamazur.com/about/
The discussion was inevitably about health and wellbeing. We talked about how this cannot be gained through one modality, that ‘health and wellbeing’ is in one way broad and multifactorial and at the same time individual and nuanced. For example, you could be in peak physical health but have a troubled relationship will money which can impact your sense of wellbeing. There are a million combinations, some more common than others.
Lauren gifted a beautiful image of a person sitting down at a table and being presented with ‘the doors’ of health and wellbeing. From there the person is supported through which doors they think/feel they would like to walk through and explore or explore again from a new perspective, all to move them closer to what they define as their own health and wellness goals. From there they are connected with the appropriate practitioners and support systems. Ahh the dream ☺
Before presenting ‘the doors’ It’s always interesting to me to be aware of the following when reading lists like this:
1.What keeps jumping out at me to be explored that are new?
2.What are the re-occurring doors to be explored for me? How and who can I explore them with?
3.Purposfully staying aware of the internal voice.
SHORT PERSONAL STORY ON THE INTERNAL VOICE:
I would always short circuit into overwhelm territory when reading lists like this or any kind of self-reflection work, as looking at your darkness is bloody hard. This would sabotage the whole process and, of course, all subsequent change and growth. “I’m so fucked up! Where do I start? Shit! I have so much to work on!” This was the mental chatter; we all have some variation on this chatter. Thus, the Hard Soft approach was cultivated. Hard, acknowledges that reflecting on yourself is painful and confronting, and soft says things like, “You don’t need to take any action on the things you find. We all have things we’re working on. You’re doing a lot of good things too, it’s okay, you’re okay.” Hard says, “Okay, let’s think of one action for two of the areas.” Soft says, “I know it’s difficult to take action, so let’s take it slow.”
Below is an inventory of the said doors. The doors, and rooms they lead to, live in the same house, being you. They all engage and relate to one another, for example the physical door may affect the mental door and vice versa, or the sex door may affect the emotional door and so on. I acknowledge that each of these rooms requires a lot of further exploration and description, which I hope to write on, but for now I offer you this frame work.
Remember: Hard, Soft, go gently, you are not broken you are just understanding more deeply.
The Physical Door: This is your relationship to the physical body: How you nourish it: what you eat, what you drink, what you ingest (e.g. drugs recreational or prescribed), how you move and breath, how you sleep, how you rest and recover and any underlying health concerns. How you feel it: Sensations come through our physical body, some can be obvious like before a race you get sensation in your belly and you heart starts to race. Others can be subtler and the reasons unknown to you, but as you cultivate a relationship with those sensations you will become better at knowing what the sensations mean to you, your body and your environment.
The Mental Door: This is the door for developing mental skills. These are the skills for thinking, reasoning, problem solving, self-awareness, and self regulation (your ability to understand, feel and manage your impulses and emotions)
This is also the place for asking the big questions. What do I believe in? What are my values? What am I working towards? What is my mission in this life at this moment? Am I living my daily life in a way that reflects these beliefs and values?
The Relationship Door: How you are in relationship to yourself, others and the world. The relationships we find ourselves in or don’t find ourselves in are a great way to see ourselves and our own patterns.
The Energetic Door: This door is not as obvious to us like other doors. It tends to get woo woo status. But alas we are energetic beings and hold a lot of emotions and experience in these invisible-to-the-eye layers. Getting to know what they are and how to look after them may be a door to explore. Learn more here: Desy, Phylameana lila. "Five Layers of the Human Energy Field." Learn Religions, May. 9, 2019, learnreligions.com/layers-of-human-energy-field-1729677. We not only take on the energy of own path but those of others, those of the planet and those of the cosmos.
The Emotional Door: Getting to know how to feel, what you’re feeling and how to express your emotions through your words and body, in a way that is sustainable and helpful to you and others.
The Money Door: Your relationship to and with money.
The Work Door: This is your relationship with the work you do. Be it homemaking, working for someone, caring for someone or running your own thing.
The Creativity Door: This door calls on your innate ability to create, imagine and make. Creativity is vast and comes in a million different forms and is unique to every human; For example: writing, visual art, communication skills, open-mindedness, problem solving, dance, cooking and singing just to name a few. Creativity is a doorway to express your inner world.
The Sex Door: Everything ‘sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation and sensuality’. Your sex is determined by the genitals you have; gender is expected behaviours society puts upon you based on your sex. Gender identity is how you feel inside and how you express your gender through clothing, behaviour and personal appearance. Sexual orientation is who you are attracted to. Sensuality is the ability to feel pleasurable sensations through your senses. Sex is also the place of intimacy with yourself and your partner.
The Spiritual Door: For me this door is where you get your sense of the bigness of life. The emotions that come with this for me are an understanding or contemplation on, Love compassion and kindness. These can be explored in a multitude of ways and are different for different people, see below.
The Nature Door: What is my relationship to the natural world? Am I doing my bit to help the planet I am fundamentally a part of?
The Social Door: Who do I feel connected to and supported by, be it an individual or a community? How much or how little social connection and support do I need to feel satisfied? Does that community feed me or leave me depleted and why is that?
Here is some Soft space to take in what you may have found.
I would like to offer you the three lessons I have learned thus far from my own journey through the doors…
1. Being able to see, sit and hold with softness my behaviours thoughts and emotions when they are ugly and painful and when they are glorious, is a worthy practice, even though the Hard sometimes feels like Jim Carey in Ace Ventura when he walks in to the room with the animal heads all over the walls.
2. Is it working for me? If I don’t feel/see an internal shift or external shift I know I have three options: understand deeper, apply deeper, or move on.
3.What is in my awareness right now? I can’t see what I can’t see, so I work with what is right now.
I’m still exploring my house full of doors, cleaning out rooms, sitting in some more comfortably now than before, though some are still simply uncomfortable, and might remain so. I know there are boxes yet to unpack and sort out, and some I have been in for many years learning and re-learning and diving deeper. And I’m sure there are ones I am not even aware of yet.
Door exploring has seen my dilapidated house become a house I can stand to live in and then into a home I am now hanging art in.
I hope this has given you something.
Much love and understanding in the endless project of becoming.
Nicole x
RESOURCES FOR EACH:
The Physical Door:
dave bio chemical
fanny breathing
Jess
The Mental Door:
The Relationship Door:
Ester perel books
The Energetic Door:
bea
The Emotional Door:
bea
brene brown
The Money Door:
Bear foot investor
bron book.
The Work Door:
ester perel hows work
The Creativity Door:
john cleese
big magic
fleassy
The Sex Door:
jaiya
dancing erros
The Spiritual Door:
on being
the spiral