“Sometimes we have to lose almost everything before we will wake up and see the bigger picture.”
As I reflect back on this year, it seems that many of us have learned some exceptionally hard lessons about our health, our boundaries and our relationships. 2011 has been laced with energetic, mental and emotional volatility. The overall theme was one of clearing out old patterns, engaging more deeply in our soul’s purpose, getting motivated enough to change, grieving the old and finally letting go and moving forward. The focus of our health issues have been in the first, second and third chakras; the three chakras that I mention in my book that are in the most need of healing at this time in the new world paradigm.
Our personal evolution quickened in 2011 as well, so that when one level of learning was over, we would have one or two weeks respite and then it would happen all over again. In the past ten years of working with clients and attending to my own healing, I found that we were allowed a period of two months to two years to integrate learning on a deep level beyond the intellect – right down to our cells – before a new lesson would begin. This process is what I call: Learning to Walk our Talk. However, our rapidly changing world and the shift in universal consciousness is no longer allowing us this luxury; it has been a “learn it fast or else” atmosphere in 2011. It seems that we are desperately being urged into a high speed awakening so that we can see the bigger picture of our collective human crisis.
This year I have seen the largest amount of acute digestive issues in clients (chakra three). I know that there is a direct correlation between the above theme of this year and these acute digestive issues. Our overall digestion is where we sift through our daily experiences and our food/drink choices for the good and the bad. Our body takes in what it needs and releases what it does not need. But this process does not often go smoothly and we literally become stuck. The gallbladder is the leader in this process because it houses and represents the ability to let go of the feelings of resentment and revenge that are created when we feel disempowered. We can choose to transform resentment and revenge into willpower to change our inner and outer reality. Biologically, the gallbladder stores bile produced by the liver. Bile is released on demand when our digestion needs help to emulsify and digest fats (lipids), it helps to support the enzymatic action of lipase in the pancreas, it neutralizes stomach acid (so that we do not get heartburn or ulcers) and the bile salts in the bile also kill certain harmful microbes in our food. So bile has many important functions in our body.
If bile flow is impeded in any way, then our digestion is severely affected. Toxic bacteria from our poor diet choices collect in the gallbladder, and other parts of the digestive tract and limit the amount of bile flow into the duodenum (a part of the small intestine) This can cause gallstones (which I find in almost every client to some degree), contributes to constipation, bloating and gas, and eventually to toxic infection.
Bile is also impeded by repressed emotions and stress. The emotional equation for 2011 went something like this: Take resentment (the main emotion stored in the gallbladder), that one feels on a daily basis but generally suppresses. Multiply this by the stressful emotions of one’s day that gathers in the digestive tract (frantic eating, angry exchanges, fear, fatigue, frequent holding of boundaries with others, rushing around) and double that feeling by adding in the stress and tension that one feels about our increasingly chaotic world. And finally add to this feeling the daily learning and consciousness that we are all being asked to integrate at a dazzling and dizzying pace. Are you starting to see the bigger picture? It is no wonder that our digestive issues are at an all time high!
So what is the core learning from these heightened digestive issues in 2011? My experience tells me it means we need to seriously slow down and learn to hit the pause button. We must actually take the time to work and walk through our discomfort and look after our physical self. Make healing ourselves and our world a REAL priority. Not just sedate our digestive woes with alcohol, caffeine, Tums, sugar and more food. Not distract ourselves with materialistic holidays, electronics, throw in the occasional meditation or yoga class and frantically carry on in the hope that we can outrun our shadow selves. I predict that if our culture does not learn to add this process of deep reflection into the fabric of life, our digestive and overall health issues will become collectively worse in 2012. We will be hearing about more deaths, more cancer, more terminal and sudden illnesses that seem to come out of nowhere (although I am sure the body was screaming for a long time but the brain was not listening). The ultimate house cleaning has begun and is starting to gather momentum.
Not very inspiring or hopeful? It all depends on how you look at it. 2011 has been a HUGE wake-up call from our own bodies to start or continue to sift through the shadow parts of ourselves in earnest and to see it as a priority. It’s kind of like sifting the lumps out of flour before you bake with it. No one wants lumpy cake or bread do they? (My teenage son said this was a lame analogy!). In sifting we eventually transform our resentment to anger and ultimately forgiveness. Forgiveness is the key emotion we need to profoundly embrace as we move into 2012.
Forgiveness allows us the space to integrate new ways of living inside ourselves and on our planet. Forgiveness empowers us to live our highest purpose and flourish. As I say in my book: as we heal ourselves, we heal the world. So keep moving forward, keep healing yourself, keep changing and most importantly, keep forgiving. This is the most precious gift you can offer the world as we say goodbye to 2011.
So what is in store for 2012? I am calling it: The Year of the Heart. Stay tuned; depending on how much we let go of what no longer serves us as human beings and willingly learn to live deeply from our hearts will determine the collective report card that humanity gets at the end of 2012!
Peace always,
Samantha