Spirit
In my working manuscript, Healing Without Forgiving (my editor nixed my last title 🙃), I define spirituality as “the awareness of a mystery that lives within ourselves and beyond ourselves that makes us more than ourselves, more than our pain, more than our chaos and, likewise, more than our gifts and accomplishments.”
Rather than attaching the word to a religion or a particular set of beliefs, I presume that spirituality defines what drives us, our passions, the fire in our bellies. Regardless of whether we work with our hands, our heart, or not at all, we all have a spirituality. In the throes of our recovery, our passion may be muted by dissociation, but it’s there, somewhere, waiting to be released.
Recently, I’ve read two books that have stretched my understanding of spirituality because they’ve drawn on or affirmed “indigenous spirituality,” or the spiritual worldviews of peoples who inhabited lands before European colonization. Often this includes Native Americans and indiginous peoples of Central and South America, and parts of Asia and Africa. Their approaches to healing and spirit may be very different from the doctrines we’ve either embraced or rejected since childhood. More earth-centered than sky-centered, more wisdom-oriented than rule-based, and more in tune with not-knowing as a form of knowing, indigenous spiritualities may have something to offer our healing journeys.
by Bonnie Armstrong
Fellow Dissociative Writer Bonnie Armstrong’s newly published memoir called An Apparently Normal Person recounts how the wisdom-healers of North, Central, and South American indigenous cultures were pivotal for her healing. Her complex journey was supported by elders and spirit guides who gave gentle counsel as she uncovered difficult memories and discovered new avenues to wholeness. Bonnie did not start life as an indiginous person, but she was welcomed into this worldview as a human being and a part of the interconnected web of life.
by Jamie Marich
Jamie Marich is a trauma clinician, researcher, and person with OSDD who has contributed books, classes, presentations, and numerous non-traditional strategies for healing from chronic childhood abuse. Her view is incredibly wide, and she gives as much weight to lived experience as she does to scientific research. Jamie affirms all sorts of spiritualities, including indigenous ones, as pathways to healing. Her book, Dissociation Made Simple: A Stigma-Free Guide to Embracing Your Dissociative Mind and Navigating Daily Life invites readers to embrace the combination of healing practices that works for them.
For most of us, some form of traditional trauma therapy is our primary path to wholeness. At the same time, many of us draw on auxiliary modalities such as art, writing, yoga, or music to reconnect with our sense of selves. Spirit can be added to that list as another way to heal from childhood abuse.
We are more than our chaos and more than our accomplishments. Somewhere between the cracks of our wounds is space, and somewhere in that space is spirit, and somewhere in that spirit is healing. What is your passion? Creating? Writing? Singing? Studying? Serving? Children? Healing? Surviving? You don’t have to believe in anything in particular. Just uncover and embrace the fire in your belly and let it lead you toward wholeness.
June is Just Around the Corner!
The countdown’s begun! Dissociative Writers will be moving to Heartbeat Chat on June 1. New subscribers will go directly to the site on that date and beyond. If you’re already subscribed, you’ll receive an invitation to join on or around that date and you’ll have until June 30 to accept. We highly recommend you accept your invitation as soon as possible so you don’t forget or lose the email!
May Events
(To access these workshops and meetings, please go to the Groupeasy Calendar, click on the Event/Date, then click on the Zoom link.)
Monday, May 20, 12 noon Eastern: Focused Writing Group (Rotating Facilitation)
Tuesday, May 21, 1:00 pm Eastern: Traditional Workshop (Sharri)
Monday, May 27, 12 noon Eastern: Focused Writing Group (Rotating Facilitation)
Tuesday, May 28, 1:00 pm Eastern: Writing-in-Place (Kim)
Wednesday, May 29, 8:00 pm Eastern: Evening Writing-in-Place (Surita)
LOOK FOR YOUR INVITATION TO JOIN HEARTBEAT ON OR AROUND THIS DATE!!!
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Hold on to what is good, even if it's a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe, even if it's a tree that stands by itself.
~ Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator 1830 - 1890
Lyn