The ONA Foundation

Healing the Past

Big concept, the past! It has different meanings for different people. Some people love to look at where they have been and process through old stuff and bring it all to a new light and an a-ha! That's why that happened that way! Or, yup, I see that now! This does not come easy for everyone. Some people hate history, old things or anything from the past. Some people have equated the past as having to do with dead things and old outdated, no-longer-needed things.

But, as you've learned in earlier workshops, the past isn't dead: It lives on your energy fields and continues to affect you, especially if you have so compartmentalized it that it no long impingese on your conscious memory.

From understanding the value of the past you begin to know that time is mutable and not stagnant as was once taught. That means, if you come to a new relationship concerning your past and see it in a different light, how it has affected your now, your future becomes redefined along your story of that past event. You are allowed to come to a new understanding of an entire event. This is particularly valuable regarding traumatic events.

An example process might run like this:

• I hate Sundays.

• I've hated Sundays since I was a kid. I remember I got beat up every Sunday.

• What happened before I got beat up? I remember I would say something my dad thought was "sasst" and he'd beat me.

• Why would I have said things I knew would make his alcoholic temper snap? Maybe I was trying to get his attention. And maybe I thought since the relatives were around he'd be less likely to beat me up.

• So now, I'm so tense on Sundays, I ignore my own kids. I wonder if I'm afraid I'll snap and beat them?

• But I'm not an alcoholic and I never inherited my father's temper. So maybe I can make an effort to change my Sunday pattern. I think I'll take the kids to the waterpark this Sunday.

This simple hands-on procedure will assist you in clarifying what your past is about for you now. Taking the steps to see where you have been and how it may or may not have a hold on you today, gives you the freedom to move and see your life more clearly as to who you are now and who you can be in your future. You are supporting your body to retranslate any stuck energy so that all your systems feel calmer and you realize what occurred in the past from the perspective of the present.

This is one of those tools you can use at any time in your life. The sooner you process trauma, losses or upsets physically the healthier and more stable you can remain. You can run this process on clients as well. Make sure you maintain physical contact the whole time of the process and wait for the, A-ha or realization. It is almost always there even when not yet expressed!

Obviously, not everything you remember from your past will be traumatic, or even interesting. Nevertheless, working the process will help you learn the technique. And sometimes, seemingly innocuous moments carry more charge than is immediately obvious.

1. Put your hands anywhere on yourself

2. Recall a moment from your past. It does not need to be a knock-down, drag-out brawl. It might be what you had for breakfast yesterday. Any moment will do.

3. With any recall of your past there are some basic things you want to discover about that moment in time:

   1. What happened?

   2. When was it?

   3. How long did it last?

   4. What did you give to the moment?

   5. What did the moment give to you?

   6. What did you learn from it?

   7. How has that contributed to your life?

4. Recall another moment from your past; continue steps through a. thru g.

5. Repeat this until you reach an aha! moment. Or, if you note a similarity of content continue to a new realization about them all.