From Soul Loss to Soul Retrieval
Whether or not we are the forgetful types, our pleasant and unpleasant experiences are stored in our cellular memory and spark our reactions.
Incidents, smells, people and situations can then trigger our memories, which, when unpleasant, can activate our fear response of fight, flight, or freeze. This fear can be real or perceived. Sometimes when this happens, parts of us flee to seek refuge in alternate realities rather than risk re-experiencing a difficult situation. (It is very similar to a child hiding somewhere they feel is safe when they are afraid).
In shamanism this is called ‘Soul Loss’. It can leave us feeling off keel, sad, depressed, anxious and hankering back to a time when we were full of vitality and happy.
Soul loss is very common, happening many times in our lives and is reversible – ‘journeying’ can lead us to find and retrieve soul parts. Most of all, its very occurrence is potentially full of gifts, or ‘honey’.
The honey within:
Behind our fear are our core beliefs, the assumptions we make from an early age about life, others and ourselves, for example: “life is a struggle”; “people can’t be trusted”, “I am not good enough” etc.
These assumptions can sometimes lie unidentified and/or be so powerful that they become like ‘magnets’ that keep attracting situations to us, perhaps without our conscious understanding. Repeated scenarios confirm the rightness of our beliefs and retrigger our memories with or without our conscious awareness.
So where’s the honey?
It lies in tracking the ‘nectar’ – the difficulty we are facing – and transforming into knowledge, power and wisdom as we change our beliefs and reactions.
Through Soul Retrieval we are able to work on our self-esteem and understand our fears. As we:
- Separate the threads of what was ours and not
- Reframe the experience from an adult or different perspective
- Make fear our ally, and
- Step into a more empowered role, perhaps as: protector, parent and coach to that vulnerable part of us.
Soul retrieval also helps reclaim our power from ‘out there’ to inside us. We put ourselves on an equal footing with others, find our boundaries and most of all, we reunite with our lost parts that sought to guard their gift and light.
Moreover, these parts often return when they feel safe to do so, whether because things have changed and/or because they feel reassured that our own way of being and responses also have. And as they do, they bring a gift with them – perhaps it is our renewed strength, our joy, our self-assurance, or our clarity.
We are our own wounded healer; the warrior seeking to free our own spirit and rise up strong. There are always many gifts concealed within our wounds.
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