I’ve been working on some deep stuff the last few weeks and wanted to share, working as usual with various essences and I had begun to write up a report on a recent plant journey with Nettle that I had been part of.
This journey had really highlighted how my body had held old emotional trauma that had become pain in the physical. I had a real urge to share this as it felt a significant journey. However no matter what I tried the writing felt a bit clunky and not quite right so I saved the document I had and went to bed to ponder on it over night. I wondered what else needed to be added or if it was in fact something that didn’t need to be shared?
To understand this next part of the journey I will share briefly my Nettle journey.
As a group we had walked into the forest to meet Nettle and communicated with the plant by drawing the image we saw and paying attention to what we heard and felt. We regrouped and shared our intentions for our journey with Nettle. I chose to let go of fear, to remove anything that was holding me back and for insights into my own personal journey.
We then danced blind fold, feeling the music and how our bodies responded to it. Mine responded like a petulant teenager. An old Sciatica problem was very apparent and my left hip area just didn’t want to move. The more I tried to persuade it the tighter it got and the pain increased. Feeling into the teenager vibe I was suddenly drawn back to a painful time in my life at school, where I was a loner and didn’t really fit in. At that time I had wished to be completely invisible to others so that I didn’t feel their judgemental looks. Looking at this now – I have a need to be visible with many areas of work now and this being invisible was still blocking me in some way. Good – Nettle was getting down into the depths of where I needed to go to remove this outdated mind set.
We then drank a nettle brew and entered into a shamanic journey for further insights. I felt drawn to lying on my left side which was quite painful and seemed a bit odd but I ran with it. I communicated further with that lonely teenage within me and made amends with her – lying on my side had been like a way of showing I was willing to protect the hurt , or at least the part of me that was hurting. I felt incredibly tired after the journey and went home to sleep soundly.
When I woke in the morning there was no tightness like there usually was in my hip. I felt like something had been removed from that area and that was related to this old state of emotional disharmony. The pain has so far not returned and I feel taller and less restricted in my hip area.
This has continued for around ten days now. I was amazed by the results and decided to document it in detail.
So back to the beginning of the story,
I spent an unsettled night and on top of that the dog was up several times in the night resulting in very little sleep. I struggled to get up and as I was running late for work. I decided to take the short route rather than my usual, preferred more scenic walk. I immediately felt a little apprehensive and felt my left hip area tighten in response.
On brief investigating it made sense in conjunction with the work I had done with Nettle as this walk would entail me walking part of the very same way that I had done to school. I didn’t have much choice as I would add too much time on to the journey if I went the usual route.
Rushing along feeling the “normal” twinges and finding the muscles of my legs literally objecting by responding with twinges of pain. I decided to approach the subject consciously as I walked down through the masses of Impatiens flowers and Willow trees over the old familiar green bridge towards my destination and the site of my old school. I was greeted at the far side of the bridge by a patch of tall Nettle. I knew that I was walking through a portal of change.
I was surprised to note just how many times I would have been immersed in all this plant energy in some form all those years ago. The plants and trees I was now passing would also have been younger and their energy of a different vibration. A familiarity was swelling up and I was grateful to be able to now acknowledge the nature of these plants that I had encountered without any form of real connection before.
Legs tiring slightly and familiar psoas muscle twinges kick in stronger and more persistent but I kept going onwards up that hill I had rushed up so many other mornings.
The school has been knocked down and rebuilt and is now a bright, modern primary school. As I paused I felt that old part of me go off and climb the stairs however rather than being met with fear and darkness of the old energy there was a bright vibrant space. I felt in this new space a lightness and an excitement. I saw it filled with all the people who are near and dear to me, my family and friends and all the wonderfully supportive people that I am lucky to have in my life.
The old teenage part of me stayed there socialising as the physical me marched up the next part of the hill at the front of the school, past the familiar beech hedges to the other entrance. I gently called on the teen me and she was so busy greeting and chatting with others I had to call her again.
As she reintegrated with me I could really feel the energy wind its way through my central column and take its rightful place.
On down the hill towards work, past the Castle that has featured quite a lot for me over the last few years – I suddenly remembered my fascination with it during my school photography club days. I carried on down the road under the shelter of the row of Red and White Chestnut trees. …. Heavy with their conkers now, the identifying flowers long gone. However their energy cleansing and clearing all the old outdated mind set as I counted and acknowledged all 11 of them. I had consciously connected with the larger at either end of the row and felt that sense of familiarity rise, how many times in years gone by had I walked under this very same row of trees?
I felt cleansed and fresh as I crossed the road heading for work now. It felt like a layer of scaffolding that had surrounded me just fell away. The pain melted and as I walked on 3 tall Nettle popping through the hedge at eye level caught my vision. Like the Nettle I too felt tall and strong. What a reminder of just who was the catalyst for this inner journey.
I know that I have now completed what I had to do as per my intentions of working with Nettle and that I have healed at a whole different level than before. Is my healing journey over? Heck no I have merely released one of the layers that was holding me back and causing me physical problems. I will no doubt be guided back to some other area in due time.
This is why I love my work so much, working with the nature realm brings possibilities to shift our whole perspective that can literally be life changing. With Every old layer of buried emotional discomfort that we can remove we allow ourselves to flow forward without being caught in the outdated and unhelpful default patterns that we can find ourselves stuck in.
When you are ready to do the work it is amazing what can be achieved!
