By Tara McGee, MSW, RSW, Dip TiRP Psychotherapist, OCSWSSW, IAYT
We are all dependent on the planet and nature that surrounds us to survive. We require air, water, food, resources for shelter, clothing, tools, gravity and fire to transform matter into different forms (like BBQ!). Our access to the elements of earth, air, water, fire, ether are essential to our survival and are not only parts of the earth, but also make up our bodies. We take air, water, and earth (in the form of food) into our bodies and our bodies create heat to fire metabolism and to keep us warm when the external temperature is low. The earth is not just outside of us, it is literally us.
Most of humanity has become dissociated from our most basic connection to our reliance on and more importantly, our relationship to nature. This dissociation is a turning away from who we actually are at a physical, physiological, energetic and psychological level. No longer do we hear the trees, nor are we aware of where to find our food and we disregard the air we breathe each time we turn on a light switch or hop into our cars. We don’t know what to eat when we walk through the forest and we don’t understand how to predict the weather and the movement of the seasons. The spiritual and inter dimensional communication between all beings has also been disrupted and in fact, many people do not even know that there are ways to communicate with and resonate with all of creation. In the past, all people interacted with the natural world they lived in and subsisted with on a daily basis. Because of this proximity physically and psychologically, the relationship with nature is embedded in our neurophysiology. This connection, though many of us have disconnected from it, is still available to us and is part of what our bodies, minds and spirits remember.
Reconnecting to the source of our survival, wisdom, and spiritual world through the Comprehensive Resource Model’s™, (CRM™) sacred place visualization and resultant eye position is a step towards turning back towards our Self and our inherent connection to the planet we live on. Because the planet literally IS us and we ARE it, there is no separation. Remembering this interconnection is essential if we want to remember who we truly are beyond the dissociative defences that most of us live within.
This remembering activates the calm, nurturing aspects of the Mid Brain Periaqueductal Grey (PAG) and helps us bathe the nervous system in the seeking/affiliation neurochemicals activated by the Mesolimbic Dopamine System. These neurochemicals allow us to feel attuned to, soothed, secure and to step into a sense of belonging. When we remember our place in nature, it is like a homecoming.
Using the Sacred Place visualization allows our nervous system to bypass the trauma response that people who have experienced relational trauma or attachment wounds might experience when they consider visualizing humans as attachment figures. Often it is other people who have perpetrated upon us and this can cause distrust towards people when we are starting out with resourcing our nervous systems. Ideally, through psychotherapy work, we build back trust with other humans who we discern have our best interests at heart. However, Sacred Place visualization is a great place to start with getting used to having our nervous system in the resourced or positive valence we are looking for.
Sacred place is a wonderful way for us to remember that at the most basic level we belong here on earth, we are part of the earth and we can collaborate with the earth not only to receive from her, but also to return the favour and assist her. This reciprocal relationship in turn feeds and nourishes us and our families, communities and those beings we love. This reconnection goes a long way towards reducing the massive level of dissociation humans have developed that keeps them disconnected from a conscious relationship to the planet, which we are made of. When we reconnect with the planet we live on and depend upon, we also reconnect with ourselves. This is the goal of healing and Sacred Place visualization is a great way to begin this process.
I invite you to enjoy the Sacred Place visualisation recording.
Warm Wishes, Tara