[NYAPRS Enews] Riding the Dragon from Noelle Pollet's "Sharing Spirit" New Blog!

[Harvey Rosenthal]

NYAPRS Note: Noelle Pollet, formerly of the NYAPRS Collective, is
"Sharing Spirit" via a column on Ken Jensen's "Bipolar Disorder
Survivor" website   www.bipolar-disorder-survivor.com
<http://www.bipolar-disorder-survivor.com/> . Noelle writes that "Ken
wrote It Takes Guts To Be Me: How an Ex-Marine Beat Bi-Polar Disorder,
and created his website as a means to share how he did it.  Unable to
benefit from standard psychotropic interventions, he developed a
complete alternative 'system,' that is entirely available, for free, on
line. Because Ken recognizes that each healing is an individual journey,
he's invested in offering all sorts of resources, including Noelle.  As
one of his 'guest columnists' on the blog, Noelle shares about her
spiritual and healing journey in her own inimitable way. Check out her
blog at http://blog.bipolar-disorder-survivor.com/?cat=5.. Here are some
excerpts from Noelle's latest entry, "Riding the Dragon." 

Riding the Dragon  June 2, 2011

 

I shared last, that I had been experiencing BIG energies.  I'm currently
in the tail end of what I call:  "a period of great receiving" (and what
some medical professionals call "a manic episode.")  For me that means
huge feelings of urgency, gratitude, fear, joy, confusion, etc., a
steady barrage of fresh insights... along with pieces of mythology
within which I have a central role ("grandiose ideation" if you prefer!)
These energies and thoughts used to sweep me along until my behavior was
'interesting' enough to attract notice... And then I'd end up
hospitalized.  Now, (thank you God and all your helpers!), I have a
number of tools that help me "Ride the Dragon" of these powerful
energies....

 

The "Essentials on my Journey" interrelate in ways that affect how much
energy gets stockpiled...

1)       Belief    Believing brilliantly (or at least better!)

When I believed terribly, my negative thoughts came with their own
energy "charges."  Those thoughts affected body chemistry so I was
chemically "imbalanced."  Believing brilliantly produces different
chemicals and facilitates me letting go of mental-anguish-energy more
readily.  An example of a 'brilliant' belief is that Love/God's got my
back... and all situations arise for my self-realization - no matter how
apparently sucky!

2)       Energy   Managing/releasing energy

3)       Skills   Gaining interpersonal skills/learning to be authentic

Gaining interpersonal skills like listening, empathy and assertiveness
facilitate better relationships.  I'm more able to be honest about who I
am and how I feel, and to encourage others to do likewise.  This means
I'm not holding all my angry secrets in, and feeding the stockpile.  I
also get into fewer and gentler conflicts.

4)       Presence   Becoming ever more aware of NOW

This is probably the simplest, and paradoxically hardest of all!  Also
the most important!  Just being present NOW!  This involves giving up
the addiction to thinking, and allowing myself to live fully in each
moment.  When I do, whatever is gets dealt with as it happens.  Energy
moves through like water moves downstream.  If a traumatic memory
arises, ideally, I experience it fully.  If I sprain my ankle, ideally,
I experience it fully.  If a sunset moves me, ideally, I experience it
fully.  If energy is fully experienced in the moment, it moves along,
plain and simple!  Then I'm free to live as Spirit - the flow of Love
energy - I am! 

5)       Service                         Love!

Serving Unity gives me purpose.  It offers a channel for the Love energy
as it flows with less and less obstruction.  Some people call it living
in the Tao (pronounced "Dow") or (natural) Flow... It's a surrendering
to a "Higher" will and allowing it to use my power for "good instead of
evil."  It's effortless (I hear... I've always exerted effort, but
lately, less and less).  What a relief!  

 

Here is a brief sketch of some practices, skills & activities I use to
keep the energy flowing...  What's underlined can be Googled for further
information (someday I'll figure out "links").  Also, see related
handout for more ideas... 

*	Meditation (my brand) - I sit, noticing breathing when I do.  (I
breathe with the mantra "aaaaaaaahhhhh!!!"), fully experiencing whatever
sensations arise, for a minimum of 20 minutes. 
*	Laughter Yoga  - I laugh! If you want to do it "right" (most
beneficial ways of breathing, etc.) do the research.  I didn't bother.
I guffaw when I drive.... I shoot for 20 minutes at a pop.  It looks
silly but it's incredibly useful for moving energy. It cured what had
been a long-term chronic back problem! (Along with debilitating energy
stockpiling when several family members died in close succession).  When
I laugh, I also yawn intermittently.  The laughter is forced, the yawns
are not.
*	Walking - Walking burns some energy and is also peaceful and
meditative.
*	Stretching - This releases energy that hides in my body.
*	Re-Evaluation or Co-Counseling (also adapted as "Peer
Counseling") is the practice of two or more people trading attention for
the specific purpose of releasing stored emotional energy.
Non-repetitive talking, crying, laughing, yawning, shaking, yelling
(usually into a pillow, etc.) are some of the forms this takes.  This
has really been a major part of my healing journey and has deepened my
capacity for meaning and closeness in relationship. [There is some cost
for training, initially, but then free for life! contact:Rational Island
Publisher, or... for free, Google Mary Ellen Copeland's Wellness Action
Recovery Plan (W.R.A.P.)  She describes "Wellness Tools."  Look for a
description of "Peer Counseling" and go find a partner!] 
*	Sedona Method - is the most gentle/painless way I know of to
release energy.  It heals without dredging up and mucking about in
thoughts and stories of past events, or having to figure anything out,
etc.  It involves asking the mind specific questions, such as:  "Could I
allow the emotional experience I'm having now to be exactly as it is?"
Could I welcome it?  Embrace it?  Make it even bigger?  Could I let it
go?  Could I?  Would I?  When? etc., and simply noticing what the
questions do to the energy.  I do this alone, with a partner, and in a
group with a leader.  [Formal involvement generally costs... I'm
fortunate to have a local Sedona Method instructor who donates her time.
The book "The Sedona Method" by Hale Dwoskin and other books, offer the
methods you can use solo or do in partnership.   
*	Energy Release Through Sound - I've met people who use sound to
release energy.  One fellow draws energy from way down in his diaphragm
and hollers "f**k off" like a brawking chicken!  Another swears by the
sound "creeeeeeeeee," which, he said (if I recall correctly) comes from
the Sanskrit word crea (sp?) and has to do specifically with "cleansing"
or "clearing." Both of these sounds work for me, though I have to wonder
if it's my sense of my own ridiculousness that shifts the energy!
Chakra-savvy people "balance chakras" with sound - and the whole point
of balanced chakras is energy flow.
*	Chakra Balancing - This I'm just learning.  If you don't know,
chakras, as commonly known, represent 7 energy centers along the spine
(and points surrounding) from perineum (below the pelvic bone) to the
crown of the head.  Each represents some expression of energy (Love)...
from love of survival at the root chakra to LOVE... Divine Infusion...
at the crown chakra.  Energy gets blocked for various reasons in
different chakras.  There are all kinds of ways to  balance these energy
centers and enhance energy flow.  All energy work affects the chakras
(&/or vice versa?). Working directly with them is likely a short cut!
*	Circle Work - Includes various types of interpersonal work in
groups.  One of the most powerful has been The Alternatives to Violence
Project (A.V.P.) These activities develop interpersonal skill, and chip
away at personal "blind spots" that create and sustain painful energy.
*	 

Well, that's way past enough about me and my road!  I'm very eager to
hear any new tips for "Riding the Dragon" from you!

 
Love,   Noelle

 

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