Turning crisis to consciousness
Firstly it’s important to know that I see most types of nervous breakdown, schizophrenia or mental disillusionment from a spiritual perspective. A type of spiritual emergence and/or psychic attack from trauma.
Before my own shake up for a wake up – a near death experience involving a lethal substance – I worked as a carer looking after and observing patients who had paranoid schizophrenia for many years. I also ran retreats for VIP (very important people) who were going through nervous breakdowns. I was a muse for successful rockstars on tour. I treated many refugees in the field in Serbia with severe trauma. And in Ibiza I treated many clients dazed and confused after drug induced psychosis, namely after ayahuasca ceremonies. I had a beautiful kundalini experience during my yoga teacher training in 2013 and have been on a spiritual journey since, delving into breatharianism/pranic living for a whole year and many other fascinating science breaking phenomenas. So when I had a breakdown I thought that I was well equipped with the tools necessary to treat myself. Little did I know what I was in for! And just how redundant my naturopathic and nursing degree would be.
My world fell apart financially and intellectually. It took me 18months to fully recover. I ditched the medical model that I was using for my clients and increased the dose by x10 for most of the nutritional medicine. I had my brilliant P.A clear my diary and schedule all of the Naturo therapists that I was using on my Naturo retreats, for myself. I cocooned myself away from wifi, in a friends home in the countryside, where I spent every day on the ground with my bunny rabbits. Real ones, not in my head ;).
I don’t remember the first 3 weeks they are a blur. I have audio recordings that I made every day however, to measure what I was going through. Although I was hazy and in and out of realities I knew that I had to do everything to stay grounded. Enough to record and measure what I was experiencing on the daily. My biggest fear was not losing my mind or even the scary visions. It wasn’t that I could hear other peoples thoughts and see faces of their past lives. My greatest fear, that stays with me today, is losing my connection to source and to the earth. Disconnection is insanity. I was disjointed and afraid but somehow I knew that this was just my journey right now and it wouldn’t last. I sought out a Tibetan buddhist teacher and commenced on a 6month journey to move towards the rest of my life. The rest I am saving for one of the many books that reside within. For now I hope to advice and support as many people as possible with the Emergence Protocol that uses the Naturo Method 3 prong approach.
This doesn’t mean that I negate the conventional medicine approach of antipsychotics but I believe there is a huge area for wisdom and growth after traumatic events with correct integrative care. Meticulous correct care is necessary.
Here is the 3 step approach for immediate results:
Step 1 (1-3 weeks)
Step 2 (3-6 weeks, maybe longer dependant on naturo-therapist and naturo-medicine practitioner observations)
Step 3 (6-12 weeks)
All of our practitioners have a strong foundation of a lineage. Which I believe is very necessary when working with nervous system overwhelm. Especially that which has resulted in viral thoughts. Also considered a fast kundalini rising. Often induced by stress, psychoactive drugs or un-facilitated breath-work.
I honestly believe that if we all practiced presence practices and disciplines like yoga and qigong from masters not the ‘local hipster’ the kundalini rising experience wouldn’t be so rough. It’s not meant to be. Which is why I insist that correctly trained presence practice teachers are on all of our Naturo retreats. Not only do they hold space from a long lineage but they provide each person with a safety structure for transformation to take place long after the retreat finishes.