How Our Experiences Affect Us

An example I like to use with my clients has to do with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  Imagine you're driving down the highway and all the sudden you notice a red car coming the other direction towards you.  With no time to stop, you collide with the red car and find yourself unconscious.  Now, fast forward a few months (or even years)....Ask yourself, what would happen whenever you see the color red?  Your body would freak out as if it were preparing for another accident, right?  Perhaps it would cause you to freeze, tighten up, feel sick, or even cause you to blank out. 
 
While that's an extreme example, it rings true to our everyday life on a similar scale.  Our body is taking in all the information around us through all our senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch/feel) and keeps it for future reference.  When we come across something that reminds us of something we've experienced from the past, our body remembers and pulls that information out and reacts the same way it did before, often with strong responses.  So basically, we are re-experiencing the same feelings and emotions as before.  While this is an amazing protective mechanism our body has, what if it is reacting from a limiting belief when we were say 4 years of age?  Would that be helpful for dealing with issues today if we were coming from that 4 year old perspective?  Absolutely not.  Our body, mind, and spirit are amazing at protecting us, and will go to all costs to do so.  It is our opportunity and journey here to learn how these beautiful "gifts" of protection have been helping us and consciously connect to the language our body is speaking to us and to consciously choose differently for the present. 

Begin to notice what happens to you as you experience life.  Do certain things or situations trigger you?  If you haven't noticed before, begin today to notice what happens inside yourself.  When you notice your body reacting with strong emotions, feelings, tensing up, or reacting differently, thank your body for that protection mechanism.  But then let it know it's coming from something in the past and is no longer valuable to you anymore.  Then you can replace it with how you do choose to live.  I am grateful for the "gift" of asthma because it was protecting me from a limiting belief and of "I can't fully take in life around me".  Now that I recognize where it came from, I choose to thank my body for the gift, and then choose to let life and air flow easily through me.

Here's to your beautiful protective mechanisms and mine,
Kathy