Soul Loss - What Is Soul Loss and How To Recognize It (Part 2)

The word "soul" may mean different things to different people. For me, soul means our vital essence; the part of us that is wise, connected to Source energy, connected to the Tao of Life itself; our soul is that invisible, intangible spiritual self.

So, when I speak of soul loss, I do not mean that we have totally lost our vital essence (although it sure feels like it). It just means that we have lost the connection with the wholeness of who we really are. When one is suffering with soul loss, their entire life feels fragmented, broken into pieces with many parts missing, and yes, lost.

How do we lose our soul? The ancient shamans and bomohs (Bahasa Malaysia word for spiritual healers) would say that the soul was stolen, or spirited away or frightened away by humans or supernatural forces. However, in my practice, soul loss in my clients are due to traumas such as abuse, loss of loved ones, surgery (both minor and major), accidents, illnesses, abortion, miscarriages and even chronic, prolonged day-to-day stress. Soul loss could also happen by witnessing violence either in real life or through the internet or tv. All this makes soul loss a common phenomenon, and an unrecognized epidemic that is infecting the whole world today.

"Soul loss can be observed today as a psychological phenomenon in the everyday lives of the human beings around us. Loss of soul appears in the form of sudden onset of apathy and listlessness; the joy has gone out of life, initiative is crippled, one feels empty, everything seems pointless"
- Marie Von Franz, Jungian psychoanalyst

Perhaps soul loss is the reason why we have so much addictions now. Addictions are not necessary drugs or alcohol. It can come in the form of chocolates, books, endless need to shop and shop and eat and eat, and social media like facebook. Do we need to constantly check our social media status every 1 minute?

Here comes that important question. How does one recognize soul loss? Going through these questions can be helpful:

1. Do you have a difficult time being "here" in your body?
2. Do you get sick easily and frequently?
3. Do you suffer from chronic depression?
4. Do you frequently feel numb, empty or a sense of being dead? And that life is meaningless?
5. Is addictions (ex alcohol, food, drugs, sex, gambling, etc) an issue for you?
6. Do you have a difficult time handling the stress of day-to-day living?
7. Are you easily overwhelmed?
8. Do you chronically feel weak and tired?
9. Do you have difficulties moving on with your life after the death of a loved one; or a loss if a significant relationship in your life?
10. Are you always ill as a child?

If you answer yes to many of these questions, you may be dealing with loss of the soul. That spark inside you may not be accessible to you, and there is a disconnection with Source, that vital, pure essence of who you really are.

One must seek help when there is a soul loss. Seek out professional therapists and healers who know of such things and who are able to bring those missing parts back. These are the healers who can help you reconnect to your vital essence so that you will be whole again. And the Tao of Life flows smooth and clear.

(The photo above is taken by Eng AH from his hotel room during his recent trip to Japan this winter. I chose this photo because when one is suffering from soul loss, it sure feels like winter time.) 

Lessons From The Silver Whales and An Oyster

We are almost done with the first month of 2016. And from the look of it, this year would be more challenging than 2015. Almost daily I received news of gloom and doom in the financial world, more terrorist attacks (with the latest Jakarta bombings, Malaysia is on high alert now - something unthinkable in my childhood days), political turmoil (local and abroad), and most recently, our Malaysian AG has cleared the PM of all wrongdoings - much to the anger and frustrations, and a sense of helplessness and hopelessness of majority of Malaysians.

This page is not meant to be a political page nor about the negative going-ons of the world. But I mentioned a little of politics, and these happennings due to what I want to share here; an insight I gained from my latest mandala.

Dear Malaysians, be like these two silver whales. Although things look dark and gloomy, we can still stay strong and balance like the whales, unperturbed with their long journey across the oceans; swimming across huge ocean floors with their family, courageously humming and singing their songs. 

Be like this oyster. Oyster's talent and skill is to turn sand into bright, shining, precious pearl. And oysters do this daily, despite whatever challenges in the ocean floor. They do it quietly, silently and with great resilience.

Hence, in 2016, we can be like these two silver whales, dreaming our dreams inside an oyster. And when we do that, our dreams will be sacred. They will be protected and guided by divine beings. Can you see the four Earth Angels surrounding the dream? Can you see the four Spirit Whales surrounding the silver whales? We must trust; we must dream; we must move towards our dream. It is sacred.

(The mandala above is titled, "The Dream of The Silver Whales Inside An Oyster" )

Soul Loss - Is Anyone Home? (Part 1)

Today, I want to write about something not known in the culture and community of which I was brought up with - Soul Loss

I do not know how this lack of understanding came about in our modern living because the ancient healers and shamans of cultures throughout the world seemed to know about it. To them, one of the major causes of illnesses is soul loss.

Once a mother brought her daughter to me for treatment. This young girl went through a severe illness that almost killed her. Although she recovered from that illness, she never really got back her health. She was always sick in some ways. When I started working on her, I immediately knew that this young girl was suffering from soul loss. A major part of her were not here at all. 

I described her condition to her mother who refused to believe there's such a thing as soul loss. She left without bringing back her daughter for further treatments.

Since then, I've treated numerous similar cases. These clients had all kinds of difficulties handling the stress of life, with illnesses that kept coming back. What their doctors did not know was, these patients of theirs were suffering from soul loss, and unless the parts came back, the physical ailments would continue to increase!

So, the first thing I did in such cases were to bring these fragmented parts back. It works every time. Clients felt alive again; they felt "here"; and their physical and emotional pain subsided.

As an energy medicine practitioner, before I work on a client's physical condition, I always check for soul loss. Is the whole person here on my treatment table? Can she feel her whole body? Can she feel herself? Or are there any parts missing? If there are missing parts, then I get these parts back first. Then, and only then, do I work on the physical problems.

Souls wander the Universe

Lost or stolen

Cut off from loved ones

Split off from love

Gently, carefully

We call them back to us

Searching for them in dark corners

Blowing them to life

 with our breath

We welcome them home

- Ellen Jaffe Bitz

(This photo of low tide was taken outside a seafood restaurant in Pontian, Johor)

Tao In Parent's Living Room

If there is a theme to describe the Dec 2016 holidays, it would be family time and bonding. Yes, throughout that holiday season, I restricted my time to pure family time.

So here I was, at my parent's living room with Baby Nephew. Brother just plonked his baby onto my lap, and so, I decided to give him a quick, impromptu craniosacral therapy session. Not an actual professional session of course, but good enough to get him nicely relaxed, comfortable and sleepy. Hahaha!

It was a special time for this therapist aunt, as baby and I bonded through pure presence and breathing belly to belly together. 

I shared these photos on my Facebook page and a few of my friends asked me how did I do that? What kind of work did I do to Baby Nephew such that he got so relaxed and comfortable? Did you massaged him? 

No, I did not massaged him. There's no massage in cranial work. Just very light, gentle touches, and hands that acts like ears; hands that listen to the bones, nerves, heart beat, breath beat and the flowing rivers within the human body. And just like a counselor that listens to a client's pain thus empowering her to change, so is a craniosacral therapist. We listen through our hands, bearing witness to our clients' sufferings, fully knowing that this will create tremendous change in our clients' health. And this is exactly what happens during a craniosacral session.

Anyway, here are photos of Aunt Therapist, Baby Nephew Client and Grandpa after the mini session.

Tao in my parent's living room.

Longings

This is my last mandala for 2015, titled "Longings". It is also the first mandala that I drew which does not have a fixed top or bottom; meaning it can be viewed either with the red lotus at the bottom, or the blue one at the bottom.

" Longings" is about the longings and yearnings of the soul for union with the dualities of life; the longings and yearnings to be One; the longings and yearnings for true Home. All humans have these longings, whether we are conscious of it or not.

Yet, what's in the blue is always reaching out for the red, and what's in the red is always going for the blue. And such is this mysterious interplay of Life, against the backdrop of Sacred Emptiness.

This mandala is inspired by the work of Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes, and Kyron, and the music of Robert Haig Coxon. Thank you teachers.

As we have just entered the portal into 2016, I would like to wish all readers a Happy New 2016. May our longings for Oneness and true Home be fulfilled!

Becoming Peace Advocators

This is my latest mandala, titled " Peace Garden". As I was sharing this mandala with a friend, we agreed that at this day and age, where many are raging with anger and hatred, we just can't take peace for granted anymore. We have to work hard for peace, and fight hard for it.

By fighting hard, I mean being Peace Advocators and Peacemakers. And these are not easy roles to play. Yet, we have to work hard at it because if we don't, the peaceful Malaysia that we have enjoyed through generations and generations would disappear right before our eyes.

And how to be Peace Advocators?

1. Start with ourselves first. Work with our own sense of despair, anger, hatred, the wanting of getting even, the wanting to hit back, bite back; understand what's happening out there serves as a mirror to what's happening inside us.
2. Daily, spend some time in moments of quietness and stillness. In our ever busy world of doing, doing and more doing, coming to ourselves and centering ourselves through stillness brings freshness and clarity to many of life's problems. We can start by meditating 15 mins everyday - 15 mins of just being at peace with ourselves.
3. Make Forgiveness an important part of our spiritual practice. With forgiveness, comes unconditional love. Can we forgive those that have harmed us, hurt us? It's difficult and what we want is to fight back, yes,....but forgiveness is the higher way; and it brings peace.
4. Embrace diversity. Understand that everyone of us are different, with different family, educational, religious and cultural backgrounds. And that there is beauty and strength in being different. If we were to observe the rainforest, we'll notice the whole forest is rich with different plants and trees, different height, different sizes, different species; and all of them create this rich,  mesmerizing, amazing rainforest. We humans are like this. Different, yet One.
5. Be an example of peace. Practice staying calm at all times; practice patience with the difficult customer; speak gently to the neighbours; practice listening to those around you. To become Peace Advocators, we must be Peace. We are Peace. 
6. Create art that have themes of peace in it. Art changes consciousness. And here I mean art in all forms: paintings, colouring, mandalas, music, dancing, singing, etc. Even food art can be a display of peace. A good example is the Japanese temple food. Just by looking at the colours and the arrangement of the food brings peace to the soul.
7. Share or highlight events or news that promote peace and unity in social media. What I am seeing right now is, people are very focused on sharing stories with drama, and anger and violence. Choose to share those about peace and kindness instead.
8. Share food with others. Food always connects and unites. Organize pot luck gatherings in your community and invite others of different culture and backgrounds to come over and join you. You just need to watch out for food sensitivities among those of different religion and respect the differences.

May we find peace in our hearts, and may humankind finds peace in every corner of the world.

Getting Into Embryonic Space

This morning, I supported a client as he went deep into his Womb Waters - a deep embryonic space within. It's a place where one becomes embryo-like ; with the formative, self-regulating forces of the embryo showing itself; thus healing, restoring, rejuvenating, repairing my client as he lay for 1 hour in that place of deep silence and stillness.

When one drops so deep like this, shifts happen: our brain and nervous system loves it; our cells soak deep into it; our mental and emotional chatter stops - we become silent and still; we reconnect with our womb memories and remember how life used to be; we become fluids; we become embryo.

When the session ended, I asked my client how he felt. He said, "Like I've just stepped out of deep waters".

(The image above is a mandala titled, " Womb Waters" I drew it on 28 April 2013, a day where I went into my own womb waters, hence its name)