Imagine how relieved and energized you would feel if you could let go of the anger, blame, sadness, and upset you’ve held for a long time. Even though you may have often said, “I’m over it”, being in that person’s presence, or just bringing them to mind makes you feel the hurt all over again. Will you ever be free of this?
The Seven Steps Satori process has proven to be a powerful, yet simple meditation and visualization that does this! This is a guided verbal process that can be done in person or over the phone.
Like all the Radical Forgiveness tools, this process takes you through all five stages of Radical Forgiveness:
Telling your story and having it witnessed and validated
Feeling the feelings and loving yourself for having them
Collapsing the energy field of the Victim Story by being willing to be open to the possibility that there’s a healing opportunity in the situation
Reframing the Story from a Spiritual Big Picture perspective
Integrating the shift in energy that has occurred
Do you want to experience the freedom, relief, and peace of forgiving someone?
“What sounds good about me walking with you? Well… I think the experience would be wonderful. I think that meditating and centering while being guided by you would be wonderful. I think we both know that the focus would work well for me as well.” - Deisha
Deisha has it right that on a Forgiveness Walk she would experience centering, meditating, and focus. Her results would be even more expansive than that! She’ll have more energy because she will free up the energy that’s been directed to an Old Story. She’ll have a better relationship with herself and others by being open to a new perspective on the purpose of relationships – that others come into our lives as healing angels. She’ll be free from emotional baggage and stories from the past.
During her walk she’ll be gently guided through these five simple steps:
Telling her story and having it witnessed and validated
Feeling her feelings safely and loving herself for having them
Collapsing the energy of her Old Story by being willing to be open to other possibilities
“I felt that she was there for me 100%, that she was thinking about me and how to support me. It was easy for me to turn myself and my process over to her completely. I wanted to do whatever she told me to. I felt compliant when she asked me to repeat sentences, or say YES to some of the statements.”
Colin Tipping http://www.facebook.com/#!/RadicalForgiveness?ref=ts, creator of Radical Forgiveness, had it right – I can have MORE ENERGY, BETTER RELATIONSHIPS, AND FREEDOM FROM THE PAST using the tools he teaches. I led one of my sisters in the 7-Steps Satori tool with noticeable results. The process is a verbal meditation and visualization that takes the “victim” through the five stages of Radical Forgiveness: Telling the Story, Feeling the Feelings, Collapsing the Energy of the Old Story, Reframing the Story, and Integrating the Energy Shift. This process can be done in 20-45 minutes in person or over the phone. She lives 500 miles away, so this time we talked by phone. In addition, when I did it with her she was walking!
The walking really helped her tell her story and touch the pain of it, which are Steps 1 and 2 of the process. For several of the steps the participant imagines holding the hands of the person they’re forgiving. My sister kept walking, visualizing our mom walking with her, holding her hand in her mind. Step Six involves an energy-shifting and integrating breathing called Circular breathing. The participant breathes in rapid breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth for two to three minutes. My sister slowed her pace during this breathing as it takes a bit of energy and focus to do it effectively. As we completed this 7-Step process with the Radical Forgiveness Invocation, I could tell that my sister was feeling lighter, more hopeful about being with our mom again, and one her way to being free of her pattern of upset with our mom.
And Mom didn’t even have to BE THERE for this healing to occur. Radical Forgiveness purports that “we only get upset when someone resonates in us something we’ve disowned, denied, repressed, and projected onto THEM”. It’s about US! Something for us to heal or learn. So, we can step away from the “perpetrator”, get help from a friend, and free ourselves from old patterns of anger, blame, and hurt, without needing to hash it out with our enemy. Isn’t THAT great?!
I just got off the AT having completed my Ridgerunner position. Those eight weeks on the inspiring, motivating, and scintillating Trail crystallized my commitment to creating and offering coaching and guide services for women to walk through our limiting beliefs and physically empower us to step confidently and knowingly into our joyful purposes.
My head is spinning with a tantalizing array of ways to do this! What I need now is some real women who can’t wait to go on a hike and have a list of “buts” blocking them. They’re ready to begin the inner journey that can free them to take their outer journey. I have the tools to facilitate that and want to have a dialog with women to create the programs and services to address this need.
The Appalachian Trail in summer is sooo inviting! This part of the trail on Cold Mountain, in Virginia, could be sporting Maria VonTrapp singing ” the hills are alive with the sound of music!”
Feel the freshness of wind, drink in the fragrance of tall grass,breathe in, no DRINK in, crisp air and sunshine! That’s the AT! Come join me! I’m imagining all sorts of walks that could be done to rejuvenate, to reevaluate, to reeliven! To explore! To try something new!
Starting this fall, I’ll be offering short walks in the Atlanta, GA area, for tasting the wonders of walking in Nature. I’ll also start a series of online classes to entice potential long-distance hikers to the joys of staying out for one to ten days on the trails in Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia. Stay tuned! If you’ve always wanted to get out hiking but didn’t know when, where, or how, this could be the program for you!
I love my job as a Ridgerunner for the Applachian Trail Conservancy! While doing my job, I get to walk on the wonderful, beautiful Appalachian Trail every day! And that’s not even the best part. The best part is that I get to meet people at trailheads who are just considering walking this path. They’re so eager and curious to explore this legendary path.
When I speak with them, all the memories of my months of hiking come back in a flood of grandeur. That feels great! Then, I encourage them to join me, keeping three things in mind:
For your first hike:
1. Make it EASY! Choose a path that’s simple to walk. Ask for a suggestion from another hiker, check a guidebook, or check a map with elevation information.
2. Make it SHORT! Go out for a couple of hours, then a day, then an overnight. Work up gradually to a week.
3. Keep it FUN! Take along food you enjoy, a liter of water for every four hours, and come back BEFORE you’re tired.
Get started gently on your treks and you’ll be building up to longer, farther, and continually better walks. I’ll see you on the trail!
Solitude
Alone perhaps?
Mist envelopes me
Isolating me with Nature
Connection made within
Peace returns
Gratitude
I wrote this “Diamont” while sitting alone atop Spy Rock, a bare rock in southwest Virginia on the Appalachian Trail. I was feeling lonely, not getting a connection on my cell phone as I usually had at that spot. So, I challenged myself to rise from the doldrums and use the Diamont poem form to look deeply into the feeling. Transformation!
Try it yourself! In any situation! Basically, it’s a seven line poem:
First line: One word to name the object or situation
Second line: Two words to describe it
Third line: Three words to say what it’s doing.
Fourth line: Four words to say how you’re feeling about it
Fifth line: Three words to begin turning the situation around
Sixth line: Two words to describe a new possibility
Seventh line: One word to name the new possibility
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”
— Rachel Carson
My daily walks on the Appalachian Mountain ridges of Virginia confirm the validity of Rachel Carson’s words. As an Appalachian Trail Ridgerunner for the past month, I’ve walked the same 80-mile section of this famous trail twice. I’ll start out on the same section again today, monitoring the conditions of the trail, meeting hikers both experienced and novice, and basking in the beauty of the mountains.
Indeed, the more I walk the trail, the more I feel a deep connection to enduring qualities, those expressed by Nature. In the very rocks themselves, eons of slow change hold stories formed long before history began. In the trees, season upon dependable season of patterns hold lessons of patience. In the cautious animals – the deer, the bear, the lizards – I see Nature’s totems, reminding me to embody gentleness, introspection, and adaptability.
The beauty of Nature in these mountains is limitless, only requiring my attention, my willingness to take the time to walk the pathways set aside for re-creation. I join Rachel Carson in encouraging you to create time for yourself to “contemplate the beauty of the earth” wherever you are.
What are your thoughts about the healing qualities of experiences in Nature?
