Nature can guide us.
What I love about nature is how it can show us what we are afraid of within ourselves.
I was on a guided group nature walk not long ago. Someone mentioned that there were snakes in the area. A couple of people instantly recoiled, tightened, and shrank themselves both emotionally, cognitively, and physically when just a second before they were smiling, relaxing, and dangling their legs above the water.
And there were no snakes in sight! Just the mere mention of the word “snake” had such a reaction. (There are no poisonous snakes in our area either!)
And this is how we live. This is how we stay small and frightened in life. Recoiling with the fear of even the slightest potential threat.
Fear can paralyze.
Operating our lives from a place of fear reduces what is possible.
To take the snake story one more step, your reality could be something entirely different from what you think it is. Just as there was no snake – only the thought of a snake – often what you think is ‘real’ isn’t.
Fear can cause your world to shrink. Fear can keep you in a constant state of anxiety. Because you often feel inadequate, you stop trying new things or reaching for those goals you used to have.
Release your soul to live a joyful life
Let me help you find your ‘essence’ again – that part of you that can create and expand upon what is possible.
Let me help you deal with the consequences of not facing your fears and instead binging with ______ (you choose) sleep, food, tv, alcohol, drugs, shopping, sex.
Let me help you become more balanced in how you react to the difficulties that arise in life.
Let me help you navigate pain with the rudder of your soul so that you take responsibility for no longer maintaining your own suffering.
Depression and anxiety in women is my specialty.
I see depression and anxiety as messages from the soul that we are off course in our inner lives (the inner landscape).
By learning to listen without fear to these difficult emotions, we can follow the ‘breadcrumbs’ back to the soul (our true nature, or true Self) and live from that place a more authentic, richly meaningful life.
The “enemy within” is the reactive mind that has really been doing its best to protect us from danger since the moment we were born. Learning to understand and “befriend” it is just as important.
Brigette Potgieter, LCSW
You are constantly changing – whether you know it or not.
Don’t keep being a passenger tossed around in that bus of circumstances.
Take the wheel. Work with me.
Move out of unconscious, unfulfilling life to a life of conscious, invigorating choice.
Begin the change you want to see.
