Sluicing Out the Basement

Sluicing Out the Basement

Harmony. Concord. Peace. Stillness. Calm. Tranquility. Serenity. This is our core, this is our strength to weather whatever comes at us.

As we grown up, we come to see that all the freaking out we did when we were raw, young things, was pretty silly. We see how it made us feel worse, got in the way of finding solutions, upset the people around us, and generally strewed dischord all over.

Fomenting drama is only fun for the person fomenting.

I speak from experience. Creating drama was a family tradition. I could do hysterical sobbing for hours. Really and truly. Hyperventilating, shaking, all that stuff. Boy, I could get myself worked up. I said that I was sensitive. I came to discover that I was actually really insensitive, that all that drama was only for me, I imposed it on you, who didn’t enjoy it, and that it came about because of all sorts of unresolved trauma in my past.

I hate to break it to you, but we all have unresolved traumas in our past. Live is full of stuff, and some of it throws us for a loop.

So many of us want to pretend that isn’t true. We don’t want to think that stuff happened to us that makes us act like we do, that makes us hide our amazing true selves behind all sort of strange behavior.

We want to say, “That’s just how I am.” Or, “It’s human nature.” Or things like that. We don’t want to take responsibility for our own lives.

I like to think of it as cleaning out our emotional basements, and it really makes a difference.

There are so many different ways to do this, you can find the ones that work best for you. For some of us, remembering and feeling our way through the experience is best, for others, using bodywork techniques, and not remembering is the best way. The manner doesn’t matter. It’s the doing that’s important.

Imagine you are sitting in a space where you feel really safe, quiet, and peaceful. Now, imagine that space with people arguing, or maybe being violent with each other. Perhaps they are shouting, or throwing things, or otherwise hurting each other.

It kind of makes it challenging to maintain your peaceful self. Why do I choose to resolve my past?

(Ok, now clear your lovely peaceful space out again, blow away the bad vibes.)

This is the sort of stuff we keep tucked away in our emotional basements. Scary stuff with our parents. Feelings of betrayal by siblings, parents, friends, teachers, and so on. Resentments about junk that happened a million years ago, relatively speaking. Old angers, old griefs, all these things can clog up the line to our peace.

By getting help to resolve it, in whatever manner works for us, we strengthen our connection to our perfect self, our core self. We can enjoy life more, everything is easier, we have more fun, and take better care of ourselves, and our loved ones.

How have I changed from clutching my past to my chest to letting it really and truly go?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 07262013