Past Reality Integration --the power and peril of deep feeling

For many, their current life situation and level of wellness is strongly shaped by their past unconscious reality. This of course is psychodynamic psychology 101. The challenge has been, and is how to make this old, generally traumatic material, conscious,-- how to integrate it and heal.

Now, wellness behavior change is based on awareness and knowledge of the healthiest choices. Unfortunately, information is not enough and by itself almost never leads to real, lasting transformation. Enter past reality integration. You might be saying to yourself that this does not apply to me or I have done therapy and counseling. Great!, if you think you have worked through all your issues and integrated all your old stuff, or at least enough so that your life and relationships are functional and generally positive, then find a wellness coach who can help you build on what is working in your life and help you discover the ways and means to reach your wellness goals.

If on the other other hand , an honest look reveals that your wellness behavior patterns are best described by the rhetorical recovery question, "What is the definition of insanity?"--doing the same (or similar) thing over and over and expecting (or hoping) for a different result! Well, then you might be interested.

Try this. For one week, notice and write down when you experience a strong feeling or reaction to some event or person. This is usually and easily noticed in relationships with significant others or people in authority (i.e. your boss) Try/pray to be very open, humble, honest, and courageous to name your experience. Keep your descriptions simple, like scared, angry, sad, etc. Then write down what you did, either internally or externally in response to the event/person. Once you have noticed for a while, try feeling the feeling underneath the feeling-- the real old reality. Warning: this can be very difficult and seemingly scary. I say seemingly because if the level of emotion is very strong, the present moment situation is likely symbolic for you and triggering/reminding you of an old painful reality that you did not process when you were little. Remind yourself with positive self talk like: "I am an adult, and I am safe and these feelings will pass," or have a friend sit with you to ground you in your present situation.

Remember the feelings are not really about the current situation. Once you have done this for a while you will start to see the world as brighter, clearer and a place for your un-defended True Self to joyously participate! And a competent therapist can obviously be very helpful. If you are intrigued by what I have been describing, but really don't understand my meager explanations, try purusing Dr. Ingeborg Bosch's site and work Past Reality Integration. She is the expert and I have found her work to be brilliant and personally very helpful.

We are not caught in the iron grip of the past.
We are caught in the iron grip of the illusion that we need to
protect ourselves against what happened in the past.

Ingeborg Bosch

Peace, All Good and Happy Spring!

Health and the Abundance “Secret”

In some of my recent web wanderings, I have again been stumbling onto that great American health promise. We all know that with a change in attitude and a pinch of optimism, abundant health and particularly weight loss is just around the corner for you! today!…NOW!!

First what we have here is the classic capitalistic power of marketing and promotion. Second, this adult “rational” pitch is on top of a more powerful trigger to our unrecognized, unconscious childhood feelings of false hope and false power. So the choice to buy the product or service is really for a need from long ago and is therefore destined to disappoint and fail. We fail to act consistently in a healthy manner, as the “five easy steps to a healthy diet/exercise habit/sustained weight loss plan” don’t work for us.

Why do we “fall” for these pitches and promotions? In part we fall because our amygdala, which is that part of our brain, which stores our primal emotional scripts, hijacks our rational neo-cortex. Our neo-cortex is that part of our noggin which already knows the core content and information of the health plan offering. This hijacking happens quickly and depending on our level of tiredness “feels” urgent if not essential. We are into primal fight or flight and we must act.!

This illustrates why most behavior change initiatives fail and shows another view of how the false self operates and fails the True Self’s essential and inherent healthy character.


We are not caught in the iron grip of the past.
We are caught in the iron grip of the illusion that we need to
protect ourselves against what happened in the past.

Ingeborg Bosch

True Self and the freedom to choose health

The True Self ...what the heck is it and how does this unique essence in each of us impact our physical, mental, and emotional selves. This key question will be the focus of this blog. I thank you for joining me and sense that this relationship between you the reader and your humble servant :) will help each of us and those relations and groups that are part of our daily lives.

As I read somewhere your True Self is like a light. A pilot light to be exact that was turned on when each of us were conceived and incarnated. The challenge of course is that a pilot light is small and needs other fuel to burst into the true inferno that our lives, bodies, emotions, and thinking are designed for. Hopefully this blog will be fuel to burn away the demons, the held bodily pain, the incorrect negative thinking, and transform our little, fallen natures into a more highly functioning, healthy, present being grounded in "what is" and vulnerable to grace.

The freedom to make healthy choices seems at first pass to be rather simple process. We take in information about say the value of exercise, decide to act and we are off and running or cycling (my favorite) or anything else we fancy. And yet most people quickly discover that regular exercise, 3 or 4 times a week is difficult for most. What are the excuses or stumbling blocks that get in the way and stymie our efforts? The false self is the major stumbling block that informs and drives our thinking and our unhealthy choices. The false self wanders around mostly asleep and reactive searching aimlessly for programs and processes for happiness and health that ultimately do not bear any long lasting fruit. And yet that is where we find ourselves much of the time. We try this diet, we start this exercise program, we make this resolution or promise and we get excited or inspired for a short period of time. But the reality is that we are not providing our pilot lights with the appropriate fuel.

On of the most intriguing aspects of the True Self is that it really cannot be harmed like the false self. The True Self contains the appropriate amount of ego to be truly effective and yet connected to our deepest essence that is one with G_d.

When we seem to possess and use our being and natural faculties in a completely autonomous manner, as if our individual ego were the pure source and end of our own acts, then we are in illusion and our acts [health choices], however spontaneous they may seem to be, lack spiritual meaning and authenticity.
Thomas Merton (quoted from page 36 here)