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We all have different voices in our head, cheering us on, tearing us down, helping us take leaps of faith, helping us remain the same, sometimes making us feel insane. Now I’m not 100% sure on this but I’d be pretty set to say that the entire population lives with these forces moving through them, and how they present may differ from person to person. Those who say they don’t, I would argue that they haven’t become conscious of the many parts of themselves yet and/ or there is a seamless/ unconscious transition from one to the other. Oh the joys of ignorance! In normal language one might say that you wear ‘many hats.’ Which is an interesting analogy actually because it speaks to the crown of the head but I won’t divert myself.
Jung would say there are 12 archetypal forces available to us at any moment. Astrology in basic terms also speaks to 12, Tarot speaks to 22 archetypes in the Major Arcana, Gene Keys speaks to 64, Human Design in basic terms speaks to 5, and so on and so on. In all of these energy systems there are nuanced expressions that I have not included in these numbers. Essentially there are many different energetic forces available to channel through us at any moment, and there are many different ways we can experience those energetic forces. Both from how they are felt from the inside, and how they are expressed on the outside. We also have magnetic forces in between the channels internally that can create friction, have harmony and anything in between. In Astrology this would be called ‘aspects’ and you may have heard of the terms ‘conjunct’, ‘square’ or ‘trine’, this all speaks to how the forces correspond to each other. Phew, It’s complex right?!
A book I have been reading recently is called ‘Embracing Our Selves by Hal & Sidra Stone’. Who are internationally acclaimed psychologists and founder of Healing Arts, one of the first holistic health centers in the USA. In the early 1970s they developed a therapy called ‘The Voice Dialogue Process’, which is essentially a process that allows the different versions of us chance to speak, thus bringing awareness to our shadow selves and unconscious operating systems, allowing for awareness, release and conscious evolution to take place.
What tends to happen is that some energetic forces (aka selves, voices, channels), are more socially acceptable than others (which is a whole other topic in itself). You’ve all seen a person who is shouting at the bus driver or shop keeper or ‘gobbing off’ in the street. Imagine if that was an energetic force moving through them, and in that moment they hadn’t learnt to become conscious of. The energy was using their vessel as a channel, as opposed to them harnessing the energy to channel consciously to serve them and their life.
Now imagine if when the same person felt the power and force of the energy rising within, they harnessed it and channeled it making the world a slightly better place, and that force and power went into creation, helping someone or working out for example.
We can also suppress energy. We generally speaking will have awareness to the forces that we suppress, usually because of a response that created fear, criticism and judgement of the expression. Sometimes we cannot help but feel the energy rise because it’s a channel that is open to us, so we have learnt to hold it in, bite our tongue. Like training a child to sit still at a school desk and we use the term ‘ants in your pants’. There is energy flowing through you, that is primal and natural and you have been taught to hold it in. However in suppressing these energetic forces they don’t just magically disappear. They just start running their operating system on the inside. The body has limited space and this energy will eventually find itself an area to stagnate and evolve internally. Everything is energy, nothing ever dies, it just transforms and that’s where aches, pains, ailments and disease can begin to form, because the energy has got stuck somewhere, become stagnant and ‘swamp like’.
So I’d like to to introduce you to 6 energetic expressions you may be able to identify with and recognise in yourself and others already. The Pusher/Perfectionist, The Inner Critic, The Pleaser, The Wise Self, The Vulnerable Child & The Disowned Selves. How these frequencies manifest themselves through you is subjective and can be dictated by your own present & past life experiences, parental and authority figures growing up and their own present & past life experiences (and their parents & authority figures so on), society, your awareness, your attitude, what parts of you have been celebrated and nurtured, what parts of you are punished and demonised & so on…
This is where you can start to identify generational patterns coming through because we are all a product of our environment unless someone chooses to respond differently and transform the lineage.
We are all born with an energetic blueprint, that is an accumulation of the above & more and if you work consciously with that blueprint you can learn to work with the forces of the universe, and make them work for you, as opposed to them controlling you. Doing this can vastly transform your life, relationships, financial situation, quality of life, and so on. Not just for you, but for your children and others to come in your lineage. You are a cycle breaker. Its important to note that energy itself is never inherently negative or positive, good or bad. It’s all just how you relate to that which is moving through you, how you respond to it, and then how it gets expressed, or not.
The Pusher/Perfectionist
The pusher can be thanked for everything you have managed to achieve in your life and it can also be thanked for that feeling of ‘never enoughness’ you have. That inability to sit still and just relax, the part of you that always has to go the extra mile and ‘do the most’. The Pusher can be debilitating at times, and it can also be very motivating. It is the energy you can call on when you just need to get a project finished, or it can overwhelm you to the point of paralysis. Combined with the perfectionist these two can become real tricksters within your field and can empower you to new heights or burden you to all time lows.
The Inner Critic
The inner critic is a real fault finder in all that you do. It knows where to stick in the knife and twist. It knows where you’re most sensitive spots are and it won’t shy from running it’s mouth. The critic loves to make you jealous, loves to put you in a space of comparison. It can also be very contradictory and will adjust just as you do, it’s a slippery one. Once harnessed through awareness, compassion and sheer will power, the critic has the ability to become a real ally in your life. Once the Critic is transformed, you have the ability to view life through a lens of objective awareness and therefore can become a friend with wise discernment.
The Pleaser
The pleaser cannot stand to be disliked. It tries to be everything for everyone and will often have you over extending yourself to the point of self sacrifice and possibly even burnout. The pleaser will struggle with confrontation and struggle to have you stick up for yourself. The pleaser will try to ease any form of discomfort it senses in another and is a real channel for empathy and unconditional love. The pleaser is to learn how to say no to others as is prone to being taken advantage of. It is to learn that in saying no, through the feelings of discomfort for both parties there is wisdom and lessons available to be found that evolve life. It speaks to how pleasing can actually be more detrimental in the long run and short term spouts of discomfort can lead to long term happiness.
The Inner Teacher
Everyone has an ingcling of the highest expression of themselves, either at any given moment or upon reflection. Your inner teacher is supportive, insightful, wise and discerning. Your inner teacher communicates with tact and can see the lesson for us to learn in all of our experiences. It supports us as a guide through life. The inner teacher is a wonderful counter balance to the inner critic. When you live life through the embodiment of the inner teacher you can been seen as wise, accepting and good at supporting others.
The Vulnerable Child
The vulnerable child is often where your sensitivity and innocence lay. It is the expression where I would consider your most authentic self is, where your needs are, where your fear is, where your imagination and creativity lay and also the source of your joy and unbounded love. I would say it is the centre point of your energetic blueprint. It it because of this self, that the other selves have been created as a form of protection from the harsh expectations of others and life on earth. The vulnerable child is often scared and hiding, seeking reassurance, approval, love and guidance from your inner teacher.
The Disowned Self
These are the selves that you have learnt to hide. That you have been conditioned to believe aren’t acceptable, are mean, are ‘wrong’, or ‘bad’. There is no reason why any of the above cannot be a disowned self. For example, you may have completely disowned your sense of play and imagination, speaking to the vulnerable child. The disowned selves are often the parts of us that we fear to embody because in doing so it could shatter the identity we have made for ourselves. ‘I mustn’t be shown to be childish because I am an adult. I mustn’t be shown to laugh and joke because I am a manager.’ You may even know what some disowned parts of you sound like, and you hold in and bite your tongue from expressing. Whatever your reasons are, it can feel very liberating, exhilerating, freeing and transformational allowing these selves to be found, felt and expressed. When they aren’t allowed space to be themselves and refined through expression and experience, when they are held in, surpressed and demonised by ourselves, overtime these energy channels will become like toxic poison and can manifest in ‘demonic’ ways.
As mentioned already, energy is neither inherently positive or negative, it just is & through bringing awareness to the different energy moving through you, you develop the ability to make conscious choices over your life, your responses, your spending habits, your eating habits, your lifestyle habits and you can truly transform your world with this work. There is also ‘space’ that exists in between all of the selves, and it’s in that space that true magic can happen, where you step into an identity-less world and you can experience a massive expansion in consciousness and be in the field where all exists, all at the same time. From that place, your world truly is limitless.
Understanding some of the different Parts of your selves has been very transformational for me along my journey. During my Hypnotherapy course we had a module on this topic and once we have awareness over the different parts of ourselves we can use tools such as Hypnotherapy, talking therapy, NLP, Mirror work, Drumming, Voice Activation, journaling etc to allow the different parts of us the freedom to express. Even turning the volume of certain voices up and down. Parts Therapy is powerful in itself and when accompanied by powerful tools, real transformation is able to happen pretty rapidly.
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Journal Prompts:
What are you critical of or do you judge in others?
What in others are you in awe of, inspires your and you overvalue?
The qualities that you judge or overvalue are your disowned energy patterns. The opposite of those are your primary identity.
I would love to hear how you get on with the journal prompts above and if you would like to share any lightbulb moments, hidden gems and/or insights that you wish to share.
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