Dampening down love
Dumbing it down, numbing it out
Most of us are afraid of our own hearts. True story. We can use a myriad of excuses as to why we can’t love, feel love or be love, but what is boils down to is that we are afraid to love. Afraid to use that thing that sits in the middle of our chest and is the core essence of what every person is striving, consciously or unconsciously, to feel more of.
So what are we really afraid of? We fear rejection, being “too much”, not being received by others, or feeling too much. We also create stories about what it means to love, which limit our expression of it, and thus of ourselves. The level of love that we choose to express in most situations is correlated with how much of it we think the other can receive. If it seems that the other can only take a certain amount in, then we dumb it down or numb it out. Meaning we numb and dumb what we are feeling which then influences the actions we will or won’t take.
This simply choice dramatically impacts the level of passion, desire, and drive we have for life. Our fear of rejection, need of acceptance, and inability to be vulnerably safe overpowers that of anything else. We will squash our own selves to significant degrees just to make sure that others receive us. Then we wonder why we “can’t feel” anything and seem to wander aimlessly claiming to not know our purpose in life. Its because we have compressed, shut down, or numbed out the very thing that is our compass and guide on this journey of life. Our heart.
Love in expression
Reconnecting with your inner compass
Love is love. It has no limits. Its bound by nothing and is the essence of everything. Regardless of how much you participate in the expression of love has no effect on love itself. Love itself never changes, is always present and is abundance itself. It is your truest nature and core essence. However most of us do not know this, believe it or really get it. Instead we believe that we are separate, isolated, distinct beings, and thus live disconnected from the source of what we are. With this we think we can be cast out, not included and need to fit in and fend for ourselves. We fall out of alignment and feel that things are not right or could go wrong at any moment. The result of this is protection, defense and being “on guard”, which is also known at chronic stress or fight/flight.
Reconnecting with your inner compass, aka your heart, requires noticing when you are in reaction and defense in your body and in your day to day life interactions. One of things that Network Spinal Analysis (NSA) assists you with is noticing where you are in defense and protection mode in your body. Where you are holding resistance and tension patterns. NSA does not magically eliminate these tension patterns, but instead illuminates them so that you are more aware of how you do you. Without this illumination and awareness it is impossible for you to create different choices or hold yourself differently. How you hold yourself in your body is a reflection of how you interact with life. If you hold yourself in tension and protection then your participation in life and with others will reflect this as well.
Love in greater expression also takes risk and courage. Courage to look or feel dumb, to not be received in the way you hope and desire, and to do it anyway. There is not a single guarantee. It is simply a matter of how you desire to show up and be with life. This life really is a momentarily glimpse. I invite you to stop dampening and numbing it out. Be bold, take the risk and let love express through you in the myriad of ways you desire to express it.
Dr. Amanda Hessel, Chiropractor, Network Spinal Analysis & Somato-Respiratory Integration, Boulder, Colorado