Archive for healing codes coaching
Grief, Grace, Gratitude, and Grit
Posted by: | CommentsMy mother left this earth on November 19, 2020. Marie Boos Filakovsky was 88.
There is grief. It’s showing up as lethargy, insomnia, fatigue, and sadness. I am always amazed at how strong the mother-daughter bond is.
Mom and I had a complicated relationship. The product of Childhood Emotional Neglect herself, she passed that on. She married a good man, my father, and lived out the 1950s script of a good Catholic girl, wife, and mother.
Mom and me, Aug. 2017
I never knew who she really was.
Until she was 78.
That’s when I started giving her custom Healing Codes. And I watched her change.
The changes in my mother solidified for me the power of The Healing Codes.
I can still remember the day she asked me how I was doing—and meant it. Before that, our weekly calls were mostly about her. It didn’t feel like she really was interested in me. Until that day.
From then on, she opened her heart more and more. I discovered to my astonishment that she had a tender, sensitive heart. For most of her life, she had hidden it under layers of socialization. Once she said to me, “You are giving me what I should have given you,” i.e. emotional support.
Then she had a stroke. And a second one, in 2017. After that, communication was very difficult. In a way, I lost the mother I’d just found.
A few weeks ago she was put on palliative care, and it was really difficult not to go out there. But with COVID-19, I just couldn’t risk flying out, for her sake and mine. I was told that it was too taxing for her to talk on the phone.
It was so hard, being cut off from her in her last days. Read More→
Asking for and Receiving Support (Why Is It So Hard?)
Posted by: | CommentsWhat is your earliest memory? It may hold the key to the identity you have built for yourself (which perhaps you may want to amend).
My earliest memory is from when I was around 3 years old, and my family was visiting my grandparents. My grandmother asked me kindly, “How are you, Diane?” To which I replied, “My name isn’t Diane. I’m The Lone Ranger!”
I don’t know where that came from. Perhaps when I was hospitalized for the first 6 weeks of my life and operated on for an abdominal obstruction, my little heart came to believe that I had to go it alone in the world. Then, when I watched The Lone Ranger show, that whole “save the world by being different, by fighting for the right thing, by doing/seeing things your own way” took hold.
(I recently watched this program on Youtube. I couldn’t get through more than two.)
Somehow the “Lone Ranger” icon stayed in the culture, and with my subconscious mind for a long time. Growing up, I didn’t have much support for being who I was. I was truly a Lone Ranger, but one who figured out how to get what I need and learn what I need to know. Without any help from anyone (because then, it just wasn’t there).
The approach served me well. Or so I thought.
Until … It didn’t. Read More→
Simple brain trick to quell fear and anxiety
Posted by: | CommentsA week ago I learned something fascinating about the brain, and have been experimenting with the practical aspects of it ever since.
The results are amazing.
(If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I’m an inveterate learner, and I love to pass on to you what I’m learning in a way that will enhance your life and your healing somehow.)
What I learned, from Dr. Jim Wilder, a neuroscientist: Fear and curiosity run on the same brain circuit.
So what, you say?
So what is this: Since these two emotions run on the same brain circuit, you cannot experience fear/anxiety and curiosity at the same time.
Soooo, when you feel fearful/have a fearful thought, if you catch yourself and switch to curiosity—poof, the fear is gone!
I have been trying this myself. There is a certain ongoing situation in my life that triggers feeling threatened and fearful. I have actually been praying about how to quit feeling fearful. This is my answer.
Now when the trigger happens, instead of the usual, “What does this mean? What will this require of me? How can I cope with that too?” . . .
I switch to: “I wonder what prompted that person to say/do/think that? I wonder why it triggers me so much?” (This “why does it trigger me so?” is a question you can ask yourself to find out what underlying memories might be making the current situation worse. Then, of course, you address those memories with a Healing Code. In this situation,I actually know why I get triggered, and have worked on healing that. But the ongoing situation still has to be dealt with, and asking the first question helps that.)
Another way to engage in curiosity is to use the “I wonder what would happen if …?” formula.
“I wonder what would happen if instead of defending myself, I apologized?”
“I wonder what would happen if I prayed for that person/situation?”
“I wonder what would happen if I did (or said) nothing this time?”
“I wonder what would happen if I reacted in the exact opposite way as I feel like reacting?”
(I wonder what will happen if YOU try some of these things. Let me know!)
Switching to curiosity really does work. Not only does it take you out of the fear vibration, but it moves you into a much higher vibration of possibility, discovery, even joy. There is a great expansiveness and openness about curiosity.
I am finding new solutions to problems when I switch from fear/overwhelm/anxiety to curiosity. It’s been fun, amazing, and—I highly recommend it!
Try it, and let me know what happens by adding a comment. Sharing our stories encourages others and also opens up all of us to new possibilities.
And if you would like personalized help with healing the blocks to curiosity and expansiveness, I’m just a few clicks away at HealingCodesCoaching.com.
The 3 C’s of Healing
Posted by: | CommentsEver since I embarked on this healing journey, for myself and others, I have been fascinated, perhaps even obsessed, with what makes people heal (and, conversely, what prevents healing).
Since many of my clients are making great progress, I have been studying what they are doing. Are there any key ingredients to their healing that caused major transformation in just a few short weeks?
Turns out there are. I have boiled it down to 3 C’s: Courage, Compassion, and Commitment. Read More→
Why Healing Your Heart Matters
Posted by: | CommentsYou don’t need me to tell you that we live in very troubling times. It’s all around us, and we can’t escape it. Political polarization, uncertainty, job loss, the pandemic, social media nastiness (which I avoid totally), natural disasters, racial injustice, violence. Even if you limit your news intake, as I do, you still can’t avoid the negative energy all around.
For some of us, especially if we have the trait of High Sensitivity, the energy is palpable; we may even feel it physically.
A
uthors Dr. Lise Van Susteren and Stacey Colino wrote a book about it, calling it Emotional Inflammation. It’s a state “not unlike post-traumatic stress disorder, but one that stems from simply living in today’s tumultuous world.”
Some symptoms include sleep problems, hyperactivity, persistent grief, or inescapable worry about the future.
In such a climate as ours now, we need to be especially intentional about our own healing. Because healing the heart matters. Read More→
What Makes Living Things Resilient
Posted by: | CommentsThis week we had to face that fact that our beloved big black cat, Joey, the last of our pets, was too sick to treat, and had to put him down.
This is the first time in 20 years I have been petless, and I can hardly stand it. So I’ve been looking at descriptions of adoptable cats in local animal shelters.
This description struck of one particular cat struck me, and I’ll tell you why after you read it:
“Buddy is a 4 year old Superhero that possess abilities beyond those of ordinary cats. He can use his purr-powers to help your home become a better place. He wears his black & white logo with pride. He has other powers too, which include winning every race to the food bowl, out weighing most of his lap-cat competitors at 17.5 lbs, and able to make you love him in a single leap of faith! Buddy recently experienced a major life change when his beloved human was transferred to a senior home. Because he was so loved and cared for, he has bounced back like Superheroes do, and is ready to save a new human with his unconditional love.”
That last line struck me: “Because he was so loved and cared for, he has bounced back. . . .”
That is what love does, for humans and animals: it makes us resilient, even in the face of loss. I feel drawn to Buddy; maybe he’ll be our next cat? Already he’s given me a lesson in resilience.
Coaching question: How can you draw on the love you have received in your most important positive relationships to help you “bounce back,” especially during these exceptional times? How can you offer love to another to help them become more resilient?
If you would like help healing your heart issues and opening up to love and be loved, check out my coaching at HealingCodesCoaching.com.
Tips to Navigate the Roller Coaster of Now
Posted by: | CommentsI was talking to a friend for the first time since this global shutdown came upon us.
“How are you doing?” she asked.
I answered, “Well, you know . . . it’s up and it’s down, good days and bad days, and today is not such a good day. The roller coaster ride of now.”
She repeated my sentence word for word, laughed, and said, “You have just nailed it.”
Up and down . . . good days and not so good days . . . the roller coaster ride of now.
And—the thing is—it doesn’t seem to matter what’s really going on.
For instance, a lot of great things are happening in my personal life right now. And in my clients’ lives. (Stay tuned, I have some real miracles to report!) I am focused on the positive, especially after last week’s revelation about how God searches out the positives and expands them. I am genuinely excited about coming into that space with him and allowing him to do that in my life, my relationships, my work.
And yet . . . yet the angst of the world’s suffering still seems to break in, even when I don’t watch the news much. It’s probably a factor in why I’m still easily triggered, like I was on Mother’s Day. Read More→
How to Fully Process a Feeling
Posted by: | CommentsDo you know how to fully process your emotions?
I sure didn’t, for most of my life. I grew up in a family where emotions were never talked about. (I now know it’s called Childhood Emotional Neglect.) Sometimes people were angry or sad (hardly anything else), but I never saw anyone work through any of it, not even when something really tragic happened. I got the sense that feelings were a great inconvenience to other people. So I just stuffed them.
Making things worse, for me, was that I was born with the trait of High Sensitivity Processing, shared by 15-20% of the population. One of the four main aspects of the trait is “emotional responsiveness.” As a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), I was literally wired to be emotional. Yet it was a language that wasn’t spoken. No wonder I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere!
It wasn’t until I met April, in my twenties, that I got a clue that emotions might actually be useful. April was the first truly emotionally healthy person I had ever met up to that point.
I got to know April really well from being in a small group at my church with her and her husband Bob, among others, for many years. She would regularly ask, “How do you feel about that?” or “How are you really?” And you knew she really cared, so you opened up to her. No surprise that she went on to become a licensed social worker, and a very successful therapist.
I recently saw April, and she spoke openly about what it’s been like to grieve the loss of her wonderful husband, Bob, with whom she had been in love since they were both 13. Bob was very special to my husband and me, as well.
Talking to April again, seeing how thoroughly she was processing her grief, reminded me how important it is to know how to feel and work through emotions so that they are fully processed. I hope what follows will help you in your own healing work. Read More→
What Happens When We Believe a Lie?
Posted by: | CommentsDo you believe a lie?
Of course you do. We all do. We all believe many lies.
And every lie we believe is the source of an issue in our lives.
According to the account in the first book of the Bible, Genesis 3, the whole world is under a curse because our first parents, Adam and Eve, believed a lie. They believed the serpent’s lie that God was holding back from them by not allowing them to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
This worldview says that we were never meant to know evil. We were only meant to enjoy the goodness of all the other trees of the Garden of Eden that God had given them “freely to enjoy.”
When Adam and Eve “fell” because they believed the serpent’s lie, all of creation was affected.
The human race has been living by lies ever since, which is why the world is not perfect. When we believe a lie, we are affected in every area of our being: body, soul, and spirit. Starting with spirit.
God had said, “In the day that you eat of [the forbidden tree], you will die.” Adam and Eve did not die physically that day. They did die spiritually.
What did that look like? Read More→
