How to Reconnect to Your Natural Instincts
Presenter – Valerie Grimes, Certified Clinical Hypnotist
La Cima Club, Las Colinas Women’s Breakfast, Irving, TX 9-18-14
What is an inner compass?
The inner compass is a set of basic instincts like those feelings you get in your stomach when you are about to face something unfamiliar. In some ways it is the way our body taps us on the shoulder to let us know how we feel about something. It then could create anxiety so we can have the energy to take action. So, noticing this and taking the appropriate action is an indication that your inner compass is working.
What are some other indications that your inner compass is set?
-hunch (tells you to call someone, to chose a different route)
-cravings for new healthy foods
-solid decision to commitment without being able to truly verbalize why
-knowing what to do to care for someone that is ill or in time of chaos
Your inner compass is like your internal guidance system
Is yours off?
So do we trust it? Not trusting it tends to throw it off.
If we stop relying on our own internal compass, we loose touch with it and then we are being more guided by circumstances rather than ourselves.
Technology is one thing that has us out of touch with our internal guidance system. For example, GPS has caused us to stop thinking through a trip but rather mindlessly responding to voice commands that may not even be correct. We used to drive from point A to point B all the time without it. We knew where north was, or for those directionally challenged, had a compass on the dash.
Being disconnected to our instincts is a problem because we are no longer trusting ourselves. And for many it stops us from making important decisions and so we are stuck. We are not fully being our powerfully instinctive selves.
The book Dance of the Moon:
“our ancestors once lived in tune with their bodies and the life processes of Earth”
In our modern society do we ever notice what is really going on above? Like the phase of the moon, the sound of the wind? Or where the big dipper is, can we even see the stars with the excess night lighting? reading the sky was once how people survived, it was our instinct….something told them to look up and notice and pay attention and they did and so they were able to farm better, to survive.
In another great book about nature and our relationship to it, The Spell of the Sensuous brings up the idea that the written word began our instinctual disconnect.
“The hills and bending grasses once spoke to our tribal ancestors the same way written letters and words now speak to us.
“And they used the elements in nature in order to convey an idea, such as, ‘it happened at whiteness spreads out descending to water?’
“How did western civilization become so estranged from non human nature, so oblivious to the presence of other animals on the earth; including our own personal ecosystem, our body?”
So far with have not trusting ourselves, the written word and technology.
You can add to that the industrialization and the dependency on that system to provide for us what we once provided for ourselves.
What does that mean to us today?
The less we depend on ourselves the more we depend on others.
How do we Reconnect to our Natural Instincts?
There are INTERNAL SYSTEMS and EXTERNAL SYSTEMS
Internally you can rest assured, that your inner compass naturally points north, trust that and set an intention to reconnect to it. It is working but perhaps we are just detached from it due to un-use, or learning not to trust it.
To reconnect to it, start my making a conscious decision to pay attention to the knowledge being presented each and every time you feel something, gravitate toward something, become cautious, or uncomfortable with something – pay attention, be conscious of the experience.
For example —
notice feelings of cool and warm
hunger and fullness
light and heavy
happy and sad
and say, “I feel hungry.” Then take action, eat something then notice satisfaction.
Acknowledging your instincts by taking the appropriate action sends a message that in turn enlivens the entire system.
North Texas isn’t the lush upstate New York area where I spent part of August, but it reminded me that that lushness exists. Rivers, streams, lots of rain, thus the streams and rivers, you can even drink water out of rocks in the mountains.
And when I arrived in in this regrion there was an interesting shift in my physical state; it was such a profound feeling of relief. Then my emotional and mental states shifted to more positive as well. I felt on a very primitive level that I was going to be okay.
If I were fully a primitive woman, my tribe and I would have left Texas to go where there is more water. In Texas I think my body wonders as I hear of water shortages. Think about that?
Besides finding more water, our instincts also crave certain foods.
TRY THIS
Go to store without a list and stand in the produce section to see what catches your eye.
Then when you get home, look up the health properties of that fruit or vegetable, it will more than likely surprise you how your inner compass led you to the food you needed to be stronger or feel better.
On the EXTERNAL SYSTEMS side,NATURE is our HEALER
If we are out of balance we can relax in the knowing that nature isn’t. It naturally has a balancing tendency. There is also great intentionality in nature and that is why we feel at peace there. The natural world doesn’t need us. It exists beautifully when we go away, have you heard about the regrowth at the once disaster site a Chernobyl?
It is now a forest with bears, wolf, deer, many small animals, birds, etc. and they are all healthy. And thriving.
Also nature doesn’t complain, the tree doesn’t say, why can’t I be on that side of the river? The bush doesn’t gripe—If I only had flowers then I would be special.
That intentionality is powerful and when we step into , it has an immediate effect on us. It orients our compass.
We can ORIENT our compass BY EXTERNAL and INTERNAL actions
How does hypnosis fit into this?
You can be in nature via hypnosis.
Hypnosis is a state of mind, a state of trance, in a way like daydreaming (to keep it simple).
And that state of trance easily recreates the sense of being in a natural setting. Working with the elements in hypnosis can be very supportive, refreshing, creative and cleansing. By having the client imagine: Breathing in fresh air may support ongoing relaxation; Being in or by water may cleanse, soothe, and balance the body or the energy system; Feeling the sunlight on the skin relaxes tensions.
You see the unconscious does not know the difference between the imagination through inner perceptions and the external physical experience of outer physical reality.
The body responds to the nature images as if it is actually in nature. The body and mind respond to the inner images and experience of nature and benefit from this mental hypnotic natural retreat.
Hypnosis is a tool to help us reconnect to our natural inner compass to chart a better course in life.
Benefits include being more alert and focused (keeps us safe), being emotionally more grateful and appreciative (keeps us joyful) and being physically more relaxed and calm (keeps us looking younger).
In closing I ask this question?
Does nature return us to our instinctive selves? The rats say yes:
The online magazine, The Fix published an article about study of addiction recovery and the idea that addiction is about “trapped feelings.” They used caged indoor isolated rats who choose heroin when both heroin and food where offered, however when free to roam outdoor in a larger space and amongst other rats they choose food (even in the presence of heroin) and these where the same “heroin addicted” rats.