SPIRITUAL SURVIVAL SKILLS by Belinda Farrell, B.A., C.H.T.
Our world is shifting. Some of us have felt the tremors deep within
our core.
I, for one, have been pushed out of my comfort zone. I felt that my
choices were to
either find a rudder to steer the course or, abandon ship thrashing
and struggling to stay afloat. Fortunately, the struggle to survive
is innate in all of us. So I found the rudder. What is that “special
something” that makes someone transform a “negative situation” into a positive
experience?
The old John Lennon quote, “ Life happens to us while we’re making plans”
reverberates loud and clear throughout our lifetime. If we can weather
the storm when we find ourselves swimming through a sudden rip tide, then
we are certainly ahead of the game.
The first 40 years of my life, I didn’t have a clue about “spiritual survival
skills.”
I dealt with problems any way I could and, fingers crossed, hoped for the
best. I made choices which led me towards a certain direction and
I had to deal with the consequences. My life was filled with fear. I
deferred power to my husband and others. I didn’t know I had
a voice. Finally, after 18 years of marriage and a divorce that
lasted 4 years in court, I was determined to find easier ways to deal with
life.
I was looking for opportunities to spread my wings. What better way
to start than with “fire walking.” Tony Robbins provided a somewhat
safe, super-charged experience of walking on 2000 degrees of hot coals, anchoring
me with a powerful metaphor for life. Imagine what else you could do
after such an experience.
After 18 firewalks (corresponding with 18 years of marriage, I decided to
fulfill a deep desire to drive a race car.
Tony’s metaphor, “If you Can’t, you Must, if you Must, you Will!!”, became
my own. And I did “Take Action”. And as a result
I become a professional stunt car driver for 8 years filming TV shows and
commercials all over the country. Spinning and sliding cars,
doing 180’s and 360’s on cue, elevated my confidence. But my inner
emotional Spirit quietly awaited more lessons to come.
While I could perform feats of courage, I was still experiencing internal
fears. A long-standing water phobia began to surface as the majority
of my self improvement trainings took place in Hawaii. Here I was learning
how to help people overcome past traumas when I knew I had to conquer
my own. In addition to Hypnosis, Past Life Regression, Neuro Linguistics
and Psychic channeling, I was introduced to an ancient Hawaiian healing process
called Huna (secret)
The core of this work is “forgiveness.” Ho’oponopono is the official Hawaiian
name which means to make amends inside ourselves twice. You forgive
yourself for holding on to the perceptions of the past that destroy
your body. For example, anger releases a chemical that bruises the
heart muscle drawing a parallel to the medical fact that heart attacks are
the leading cause of death in this country. Fear and sadness
are known to reduce the immune systems ability to heal itself. Often
these symptoms are simply called “depression” and pills are prescribed.
Being sensitive to drugs, I always looked for an alternative way to heal
myself. As I started to practice the forgiveness process, learning
the Hawaiian chants and other Huna secrets over the next 3 years, I
began to feel lighter and better about myself. Nevertheless, I was
still keeping up a heavy schedule and pushing my body like an
adrenalin junkie. Then I collapsed. My body would no longer
support me because I was not listening to it. After an MRI, the doctors
said I would not walk again without back surgery. Riddled with nerve
damage, sciatica, herniated discs, and paralysis on my left side, I had no
choice but to finally listen to my body. I knew by this time that lower
back issues related to the material concerns of money, power, blame and guilt. Sure
enough, those issues raged inside me. When I listened to my real
internal dialogue, I was unconsciously saying to myself “I can’t be supported”. We
know that the Unconscious Mind is a computer running our body via our thoughts. Consequently, my
“computer” was gradually destroying my spine with my verbal permission. Instead
of surgery, I decided to apply what I had learned about Huna. Before
I could help other people I had to prove that I could heal myself. Could
these techniques really work? “Physician…
heal thyself.”
Once I was conscious of this, I could then change the dialogue. I
began to literally “thank” my back for supporting me, despite my fears. I
cleansed myself with Ho’oponopono and allowed my unconscious to bring
up the buried memories that were stuck in my lower back. Deep, conscious
“Ha” breathing helps to bring up the memories. It is a deep breath
to the top of the head where the Higher Self lives, and then an exhale with
a “Ha” breath. The ancient Hawaiians practiced this Ha
breathing in sets of 4, sometimes for hours. This breath connects us
with our Higher Self which can heal anything and lead us to Higher
Consciousness.
Once I cleared my memories, I began to see myself “climbing trees”. You
have to have a strong back to do this. The emotional part of us, ruled
by the Unconscious Mind, has a direct connection to the Higher Self. My
Unconscious got very excited about the prospect of climbing trees again and
sent these “seeds” to my Higher Self. After 4 days of practicing this
exercise, my back completely healed ---even the scoliosis, that I was born
with, went away.
My doctors were shocked but could not deny the reversal of symptoms.
It’s one thing to heal from an illness which happened 15 years ago. But
when a sudden emotional storm comes out of nowhere, as it did for me recently,
do these spiritual survival skills still apply? My only son Brian passed
away suddenly last year after he graduated from college and became a Sergeant
First Class in the Army Reserves. Nothing in life prepares you for
losing a child. My grief was beyond comprehension and emotions still
rise and fall within me like a raging tide.
Then a few months later, all my income was wiped out in a bad investment. I
felt completely powerless. Still not over the death of my son, it
took me several weeks to face the reality of having my income cut off. I
started to sell what I had just to live. Thankfully, I am still
healthy and grateful that for my daughter, grandson, and son-in-law who took
me in. I always knew that money never defined me. I would
find peace of mind thanks to my decision “ to let go” and count the abundant
blessings I did have.
I also had to clean and forgive myself every day for the feelings of guilt,
sadness, fear and anger that accompany such a loss. Thank God for Ho’oponopono,
the forgiveness process
The act of letting go played itself out years ago when I was learning how
to swim in Hawaii. Being rather confident, one day I swam too far out
and started to panic as I drifted further from shore. I called
for help and suddenly a giant turtle appeared along side of me. I could
hear the turtle say “Stop struggling and do what I do”.
Immediately I relaxed and moved my arms back and forth like the turtle. With
penetrating eye contact, the turtle led me gently over the current that I
had been fighting and safely onto the rocks. Then he disappeared. The
turtle saved my life. Again and again I thank the turtle for teaching
me how to “let go” and flow over the current.
When I lost my money I let go of the worry and began to take stock of what I could do to thrive. In a miraculous way, the money that was lost came back to me from a different source. Dissolving our perceptions everyday, keeps us in the present time so we can be open to receive without the entanglement of negative thoughts.
Having gone to the depths of suffering we can rise like the Phoenix seeing the world through different eyes. I am grateful everyday for the forgiveness process and the ability to”let go”, my main “spiritual survival tools” that have brought me full circle to the present time. Letting go of the interpretations of the past is the key that will open the door to peace of mind despite what goes on in the world.
BELINDA FARRELLis a Certified Master Hypnotherapist, Neuro-Linguistics Practitioner,
and certified Huna Practitioner of ancient Hawaiian healing. She holds
a B.A. degree in English and Spanish from the University of California at
Berkeley and a Life Time Elementary Teaching Credential. Belinda is
also trained as a Reconnective Healing specialist and in The Reconnection www.TheReconnection in
Santa Cruz, Ca.
Her 3 internationally acclaimed CD’s incorporate the Forgiveness process
together with the ancient Hawaiian chants to call your Spirit back.
www.hunahealing.com , toll
free (866) 583-8370 , email: [email protected]
