Community resources, environment and spiritual practices

Support
Not many people can go through this on their own. There is a need to be supported. This can take many forms, from someone cooking dinners, a friend who offers a listening ear, a therapist who understands spiritual crisis, to a whole community offering 24/7 support. Having people around who understand what is happening can make all the difference.

Community resources:

Many people have found the following resources helpful:

• Complementary therapies e.g.: homeopathy, medical herbalism, acupuncture, nutritional therapy, massage, cranio-sacral therapy
• Psychotherapy (especially helpful to help integrate the experience)
• Health services e.g.: mental health services (which can be accessed either through contacting your general practitioner (local doctor) and asking to be referred, or contacting them directly)
• Members of local spiritual groups

Environment

The environment has a huge effect on someone who is in a heightened sensitive state. Reducing stimulation is thought to be helpful. Consider what may be over stimulating, such as television, noisy busy places, situations of conflict and high emotion, etc. This will vary from person to person.

Spiritual practice

Some consider it wise to temporarily stop practices such as meditation, yoga or Qi gong which potentially intensify the experience of inner processes. Spiritual practice can be deceptively powerful at times of spiritual crisis.

However some people find that with insight and care, gentle practice can provide a sense of safe space and enable integration of the crisis experience. The important element is whether the practice in question is grounding and therefore helping to create 'balance'. Anything which opens an individual up even further to intense spiritual energy is potentially going to increase the experience of feeling overwhelmed.

A mid-way approach is to practise light, non-religious meditation or focusing. Pam Boaden, a hypnotherapist, has kindly allowed us to offer two of her relaxation sessions as audio files. These are based on the work of Dan Custer in The Miracle of Mind Power (Glendale CA: Westwood Publishing Co, 1960):

• Relax
• Bubbles