May 2011
ENERGY HEALING- PART 2 with Lauren Monroe
***IMPORTANT: Our chats are also recorded on our FORUM on our online community. There you can comment and ask questions!***
Lauren Monroe is the co-founder of the Raven Drum Foundation and will be leading our chat today on healing in our everyday lives.
Lauren Monroe: We are going to talk about Energy Medicine and how we can apply it to our daily lives.
Raven Drum Community: I would love if you could talk more about working through deep-seeded anger.
Lauren Monroe: Last time we were together we touched on many things including awareness, grounding and intuition. Let’s start today with energy and emotions and specifically talk about anger. Let me first talk about anger as energy. Anger is a frequency. Can everyone relate to that?
Raven Drum Community: Yes
Lauren Monroe: So when we feel anger, it changes our frequency; the frequency of our mind, our body and even our cells. When I say frequency, I am describing the energy of emotion; the frequency and the vibration of emotions are different. I think you know that intuitively but maybe not clearly through your mind.
Lauren Monroe: Our intuition knows anger from joy instantaneously. When we are angry and can’t let go of emotion, what happens to us?
Raven Drum Community: We build up lots of energy and want to hit a wall or break glass
Lauren Monroe: Yes, like an explosion waiting to happen. We can also attract that kind of anger. It affects our blood pressure, our sleep, our breathing, our organs, everything! So how do you deal with anger now?
Raven Drum Community: I am trying to become more aware of it.
Lauren Monroe: Yes, if you become more aware you are more than half way there. So what do you do after awareness? Let’s say you are really angry and the situation is completely out of your control.
Raven Drum Community: Does figuring out where it comes from help?
Lauren Monroe: Sometimes figuring out where it comes from can help but ultimately trying to understand it sometimes can be like peeling layers of an onion. When you get to the end, there is nothing there.
Lauren Monroe: Talking, sharing, praying, reflecting on the ways of where it came from are all ways you can deal with anger, but sometimes even though you may know where it came from, you may not be able to release the rage when it comes to visit. Releasing negative people can be a healthy choice, but sometimes we can’t do that if say those negative people may be in our family, then what?
Lauren Monroe: Let me explain it like this. Anger is like a tiger that we must learn to accept, learn to love, and learn to surrender to. You have to learn how to be eaten by the tiger, in an energetic spiritual sense. Anger is just a frequency, it is not us. We are not our emotions. Although we feel them so intensely, our anger is like the shirt we are wearing. The shirt is not me, it’s just a shirt. The anger is not me, it is just anger.
Lauren Monroe: Anger can be something that can take us over but we can choose.
Raven Drum Community: How do you do that and control it?
Lauren Monroe: First breath, second anchor and ground yourself, third feel it and don’t run away, and fourth ask for help from a higher source.
Lauren Monroe: Moving the energy is great, singing does that for me, and also walking disperses energy. The hardest part is releasing our attachment to the anger. Anger is like a hurt child. You must be with it, sit with it, comfort it, and be quiet with it. Anger can also be like a wounded lion suffering from a thorn in its paw. Anger is really truly sadness.
Raven Drum Community: What would that look like; to sit with your anger?
Lauren Monroe: It’s so simple, but it’s so hard to do. It would look like sitting with a crying baby, a baby that you dearly love, a baby that is suffering. There is a saying “What resists persists”. We all, every day, manage our emotions. We are constantly doing things to distract ourselves from truly feeling.
Raven Drum Community: But you get so depressed when you hurt.
Lauren Monroe: Yes, you can get depressed, but we need to sit with our depression.
Raven Drum Community: When something happens, a trigger, and I get angry, and I can see it and can see why, but then what?
Lauren Monroe: Can you see it without reacting to it?
Raven Drum Community: Yes, but it is not easy and it takes a lot of energy. And it doesn’t always work.
Lauren Monroe: It isn’t easy, but the more you work at it, the better you get at it. Just like training your muscles, we can train ourselves to release emotions without having them attach to us and keep us suffering. Many of us hold in anger, hold it in like a friend we don’t want to let go of. Being calm and being active with your intention can change the energy in a second.
Raven Drum Community: I have found that when I get angry it’s easier to walk away from what or who is making me angry than to end up in a nasty confrontation.
Lauren Monroe: When that person walks in the room, first you can set an intentional boundary. It is exhausting fighting anger, and anger will always win in the end, so don’t fight it. I’m not saying to actively rage and express anger but accept it and care for it.
Raven Drum Community: So how do we care for it?
Lauren Monroe: Understanding that our thoughts and emotions are not us, is a key concept that can really change the way you can live your life without suffering. Emotions are energy; energy that we choose to attach to or not. Setting a sacred space in your home can be a way to build a place to work with your emotions in a sacred and meaningful way.
Lauren Monroe: First, allow yourself a certain amount of time in your sacred space, undisturbed, to sit with anything you are struggling with. You can light a candle, listen to calming music, or have essential oil that will calm you or open you up. Nature can be a very sacred space.
Lauren Monroe: The Raven Drum Foundation website has a page on how to create a sacred space. http://ravendrumfoundation.org/programs/21-ways-to-build-resiliency/11-sacred-space.html
