Amy » Spiritual Marketing

Moving through trauma and abuse to have lifework you love

Amy Brucker — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 21:34:25 +0000

When it comes to growing lifework, sometimes the things that get in our way are not a lack of marketing skills or simple indecision.

Sometimes the reasons go much, much deeper.

I had reason to reflect upon this recently when I was summoned to court to report for jury selection.

After two hours of waiting, I finally heard the theme of the trial: parental sexual abuse of a child.

My emotional and physical reaction was so strong, I was caught off guard.

But perhaps I shouldn’t have been.

You see, not only do I know many, many women who as girls and adults have been sexually or emotionally abused, I also know several men who were perpetrators, including two clergy. One committed suicide after his congregation found out. The other was able to heal his troubling past after a long journey through shame, guilt and grief, only to have the media find out 30 years later and dredge up his story.

As I sat in that court room, I felt no judgment toward the accused, but a wave of extreme emotion washed over me for the countless women who have experienced sexual and emotional abuse.

It shook me to the bone; I know what a lasting effect abuse of any kind can have on a person’s well being.

Trauma causes emotional blocks that get in our way

The truth is, the more I work with women to help them grow their lifework, the more I see how their past traumas influence their ability to take their work into the world.

It isn’t that they cannot be successful because some definitely are, but the perpetual second guessing, constant self-doubt, feelings of unworthiness, and fear of being seen seem to be clear signs that something is amiss.

Sometimes these feelings are subtle, other times extreme. Regardless, a woman shouldn’t have to work so hard to make a little progress.

Getting caught up in a never ending cycle

What most people don’t understand is that the past trauma can put a person in a sort of cycle. The trauma victim feels the emotional impact of the original experience in current events, even if the current situation is nowhere near as traumatic as the initial situation.

But this type of trauma cannot be thought away, ignored or pushed aside.

You cannot tell someone to “get over it and move on already” because the trauma is literally locked in their cells and until they release the emotion, they will continue to experience the after effects of the trauma.

There is actually a scientific explanation for this. According to Dr. Mona Lisa Schultz, neuropsychiatrist and medical intuitive (paraphrased from Awakening Intuition, page 97-98)

Trauma increases levels of dissociation. This means that certain emotions and memories are split off; they lie in the body tissue or areas of the brain we can’t talk about.

You could be moving through a benign, non-threatening situation but your body perceives it as a threatening, traumatic situation making it just as traumatizing and stressful as the former experience.

So if you’re repetitively reliving and re-experiencing a traumatizing memory, two things happen: you begin to see the pattern of that memory everywhere and re-create it in the present.

Dr. Schultz’s work focuses on the correlation between traumatic memory and disease. I’ve noticed the same correlation with traumatic memory and lifework success.

Spiritual (Shamanic) Healings to Grow Lifework

Over the past several months I’ve been working with a few clients on a new level.

In addition to coaching them on the fundamentals of growing lifework, like self-promotion, I’ve also been studying the effects of spiritual (shamanic) healings on their lifework clarity and conviction.

So far the results are pretty impressive.

During the sessions, I worked with my clients to help them heal past traumas.

In some sessions, there was a lot of emotional clearing that helped my clients immediately feel more connected to their lives and bodies, or freer, as though they’d been released from restraints. This experience even resulted in powerful dreams that emphasized their renewed vigor.

In other sessions, we worked specifically with perpetrator energy, or the energetic imprint of any person who violated my clients’ mind, body or soul. Once the energy was removed, my clients reported feeling more empowered to take their work to the next level.

But this work isn’t just resulting in women feeling more empowered and having more clarity. Some are taking huge leaps, going way out of their comfort zone, and attracting new clients as a result.

Essentially what’s happening is that the spiritual healings are helping my clients access and release the trauma that has been hiding in their cells.

It’s truly exciting to witness the impact of these healings on lifework and I’ll be sharing more of my findings as I progress.

So to summarize today’s musings: when women (and men) experience trauma (e.g. abuse or any other type of trauma) part of their experience is lodged in cellular memory.

This trauma can influence a person’s ability to truly grow lifework she loves, but the good news is that this trauma can be healed. Once a layer is healed, a woman is often more comfortable in her skin and freer to do the work she loves.

The truth is, we do not have to be perpetual victims of our past, but our past can be a pathway for deeper healing.

A little prayer for service providers everywhere

Amy Brucker — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:36:20 +0000

If you’ve been reading my ezine or blog for awhile, you know my sister was recently diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer. She’s doing remarkably well, just 10 days or so into her first round of chemo.

Here’s our good news: ovarian cancer is measured in part by a protein created by the cancer. Her protein count before surgery was over 22,000, but just before she started chemo it was down to 695. 35 and under is normal for a healthy person, so she’s getting closer to full health by the minute!

So thank you again for all of your prayers and support and for asking how she’s doing. I feel a bit sheepish for not thanking each of you who emailed prayers – there were so many of you(!) – but I am eternally grateful and send all of you a huge heartfelt hug.

Praying for One Another

In truth, the hundreds of people praying for my sister got me to thinking about how we might support one another as service providers.

Imagine how different you and your work might be if you knew you had people all over the world praying for your success. And imagine what it would feel like to be a prayer-keeper for other service providers.

Considering this, I’m starting a daily prayer practice to hold the intention that all service providers, everywhere, find success. You’re welcome to join me.

Here’s my prayer to you:

May your lifework be a beacon of light for those who need your help.

May you trust your insight and intuition to guide you joyfully on your journey.

May you have financial and spiritual abundance as you share your wisdom with the world.

And may your clients feel healed, held and whole long after they leave your side.

May it be so.

Do you have your own prayer to contribute? If so, share it below in the comments area.

Surrender: Is it a sign of lost hope or the key to clarity?

Amy Brucker — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 05:40:50 +0000

I once read a true story about a man who nearly drowned. He was swimming in the ocean when a giant wave pulled him under. The water was strong and the man fought furiously to save his life. At some point, though, he knew his efforts were futile. He stopped fighting and let go of his struggle.

But he did not die.

As soon as he let go, the wave spit him out of the water. He took a giant breath of air and had an epiphany: surrendering saved his life.

What happens when you surrender to the reality of what is?

Almost every self-employed person I know has struggled with something. Whether it’s attracting clients or feeling overwhelmed with too many, struggle seems inevitable.

But pro-longed struggle can act as a repellent, pushing away the very thing you desire.

It can also act as a magnet, attracting the exact thing you do not want.

And ultimately, struggle blocks intuition, making it harder to hear and trust the obvious next steps on your journey.

So what’s a person to do?

Ironically, it is the act of surrendering to the experience, of quieting the mind and acknowledging the reality of the situation, that often leads the way to happiness or peace or even your goal.

But how do you let go? How do you surrender when things feel really awful? Here’s one way:

Start by asking “Where is your struggle?”

Think for a moment about your greatest challenge in growing your lifework (or any area of your life).

Connect with that struggle for a minute.

What does this struggle feel like in your body?

Is there tightness?

Tingling?

Pain?

A frozen feeling?

Or my personal favorite, a head that feels like an overactive beehive, buzzing with thoughts and confusion?

What is the inner dialogue that accompanies this struggle?

Is there any negative self-talk?

A voice of doubt?

Or perhaps you have a hollow chamber that’s void of thoughts, not in a “free your mind” sort of way, but in a “I’m afraid and all my thoughts ran away” sort of way?

Recognizing the feeling and accept the situation

This part can be tricky. People often confuse surrender with calling it quits or denial. But calling it quits is about turning away from something and denial is about pretending that it doesn’t exist. Surrender, at least the way I’m using it, is about accepting the reality of the situation while simultaneously not attaching emotional judgments to it.

This is important because the feelings that accompany struggle are often more about the struggle than the actual challenge.

For instance, if your challenge is “lack of clients”, then the struggle may be related to any feelings that accompany not having enough clients (or ultimately not having enough money).

A tightened chest, nervousness, a paralyzing fear – all of these feelings not only get in the way of intuition and inner wisdom, they make it harder to attract clients.

When you let go of the anxiety, fear and indecision and sit in the truth of the moment, simply accepting it as it is, it becomes easier for clarity to filter through. That’s the process of surrender. It’s a letting go of attachment to outcomes or a feeling that you’re not where you’re supposed to be.

To use the client example again, the struggle comes from desiring more clients than you have. You have the same amount of clients regardless of how you feel about it. The struggle comes from wishing you had more.

Surrender is accepting what you have. Surrender makes it easier to have mental clarity which in turn makes it easier to hear helpful thoughts.

I know. Way easier said than done, especially when money is tight and time ran out on the deadline meter. But that’s why this way of being is often integrated into spiritual “practices.” It’s something most of us need to be reminded of over and over again. It’s worth remembering, though, because the surrender will actually help you move beyond the struggle.

And that leads me to the last step:

Ask a question

Questioning isn’t really a part of the surrender process, but it is a useful next step.

Using the client example above, I might create a question like, “How can I attract more clients?” I then pose the question to anyone who will listen: God, the Universe, my friends, my cats. When I ask the question I notice any accompanying feelings. If panic sets in, I surrender to what is and trust the process.

I might also use my question to incubate a dream or explore in a journal.

Regardless, I always get an answer. When I follow through with what I hear, my challenge is solved. (And when I ignore what I hear, my challenge remains a challenge…)

So what do you think?

Do you agree with the idea of surrendering to what is? Disagree?

How have you use the concept of surrendering to solve problems?

Share in the comments below. We’d love to hear!

*Photo by Elizabeth Moore from Flickr.com

When do Angels help make miracles?

Amy Brucker — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:57:06 +0000

Several weeks ago, the phone rang at 12:30 am. I knew it couldn’t be good news. Nobody calls me that late at night.

I leapt out of bed and answered the phone. Just as I suspected, it was my partner Scott. He’d just finished playing a gig with his blues band in San Francisco only to discover that his truck, which he’d parked in an open air parking lot, was stuck behind a thick chain that locked the lot for the night.

Not sure what to do, Scott walked around the block looking for a parking lot attendant, but no one was to be found. He called to ask me if I could pick him up.

There were a few problems. It was now 12:45. I had no gas and only a vague notion of how to get where he was. It was a 40 minute drive to Lou’s Pier in the Warf of San Francisco. Additionally, I realized that we’d have to return early the next morning, in crazy traffic, to get his truck, and then drive back to the Peninsula. It would be several hours of bumper to bumper traffic. As a self-employed person my “morning commute” is about a six foot walk from my bedroom to my office. I wasn’t too eager to battle actual traffic.

But as I set out for my journey I remembered an interview I’d recently heard on coast-to-coast radio. It was with a woman who speaks with angels, particularly Archangel Michael. The more she talked, the more my skeptical mind wasn’t sure what to think. And then she said something that caught my attention. She said angels long to help us, but they only do it when we ask for what we need.

So as I drove to San Francisco I decided to experiment and ask Archangel Michael for help. This is what I said:

Michael, I need your help. This is exactly what I want to happen: By the time I arrive easily and safely at the parking Lot (I said this because I wasn’t sure how to get there), I want a parking lot attendant to appear out of nowhere with a key to unlock the gate so Scott can easily drive out of the lot.

I held the image in my mind for a moment and then let go of it, somehow trusting (or maybe just hoping) it would happen that way.

When I pulled up to the parking lot, which I found easily, Scott was behind a locked gate and there was no one around to help. My heart sank just a little. Disappointed that Michael hadn’t come through for me, I laughed it off as a silly plea.

But as I got out of the truck and started helping Scott transfer his equipment, I made eye contact with a man sitting in a dark car that was parked on the street. It was now 2:00 am, two hours after all of the parking lots had closed. The chances that this man was somehow connected to the parking lot were slim to none.

He got out of his car and started walking toward me. A bit nervous I asked, “Do you by any chance have a key to this gate?” I was doubtful, but miraculously he said, “Yes. I do. I work for an adjacent lot.” I was elated. He quickly unlocked the gate and let us out.

Scott said, “I don’t know where he came from. I looked everywhere for someone who might help me and there was no one around.”

I knew where he came from. I silently thanked Archangel Michael and drove away with a smile on my face that lit up the night sky.

I felt like a small miracle had taken place. Are angels real? I wondered.

What do you think? Have you ever had experiences with angels? Do you believe they exist?

Or do you think they’re made-up figures meant to teach stories to Sunday school children?

Share your stories and thoughts by clicking below and leaving a comment. I’d love to hear your stories.

What Do Dreams of Being Chased Mean

Amy Brucker — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:43:16 +0000

A few years ago I had a doozy of a dream. I was being chased by a lizard man through the streets of an abandoned village.

Man was he scary.

I ran into rickety houses, trying to hide from him, but he followed me into every single room.

Eventually I had to surrender.

He ate me.

Then he pooped me out.

Anxiety producing? Absolutely!

Clearly, when we have dreams like this something is trying to get our attention.

But what?

The clue lies in who or what is chasing us, but often we don’t know what that is, and we’re too afraid to turn around and find out.

There are many kinds of chase dreams. Have you ever had any of these?

have no idea what is chasing you
know exactly what is chasing you
think you know what is chasing you, when in fact, it is something completely different
A clue about how this dream pertains to waking life is in how we respond to the chase.

Here are some personal examples:

escaped a tiger by going out of body
hidden under tables and behind closed doors
turned to face my pursuer
been shot at by my old landlord while he sang “Jesus loves me”
been bitten by a shark
been eaten alive by a reptilian monster (and pooped out!)
killed my pursuer with a machine gun
even turned to give my pursuer a lecture!
So, why do we have chase dreams?

It is always worth asking if the dream is potentially literal.

For example, is it possible the dream is warning you about a potential waking life event? If the answer is yes, pay attention to the dream images and take precautionary measures.

In my experience, however, most dream are not this literal. I do know several people who have literal, prophetic dreams, so I always make a point to ask if the dream may be precognitive.

More often than not, chase dreams are symbolic on some level.

Here are some possible associations with this dream:

feeling like someone is

out to get you
hounding you
threatening you
putting you (or someone else) in danger

It’s also possible that this chase dream is trying to alert the dreamer to a behavior that needs to be changed or addressed. Perhaps it has to do with:

an addiciont that is causing health problems
a bad relationship that is unhealthy
a job that is too stressful
a belief that is antiquated

If we run from the pursuer, we are most likely trying to avoid a confrontation in waking life. Perhaps we are afraid of change or a conflict. The mere fact that we had this dream and remembered it is a good indication that despite our fears, we are quite capable of facing the situation.

If in the dream we face the pursuer, we are most likely consciously ready to face this waking life challenge. We may actually be in the process of interacting with whatever it is we have up until now been running away from in waking life. Our dream may even hint at a way to solve our problem.

The only way to know what a chase dream is referring to, though, is to ask questions of the dreamer and the dream.

Here are some questions to ask after having a chase dream:

Who is chasing the dreamer?

Am I running away from something (avoiding something) in my life?

Am I being harmed?

Am I missing out on an incredible opportunity?

What am I ready to face or what do I feel apprehension about facing?

If the character(s) is a recognizable entity (person or thing), but not something or someone you know in waking life, notice as many details as you can. Describe the entity in a timed writing exercise or write a letter to yourself from the entity. How does this relate to a waking life experience? Does the dream entity have a mustache? Do you know someone with a mustache? Could there be a correlation?

If you don’t know who or what is after you, you can re-enter the dream to find out. Some people simply close their eyes and imagine they are back in the dream, others use shamanic drumming to assist them in the process.

Whatever method you use to re-enter the dream, imagine the setting of your dream. Imagine you are running. Now turn to face the pursuer. What do you see? What do you sense? Ask it who/what it is and what it wants from you. Trust what you see, hear, feel, experience. You already know the truth on some level, otherwise you wouldn’t have remembered the dream.

The post barely touches the surface of possibility with regard to chase dreams and their deeper implications. The best way to understand chase dreams is to interact with your own and those of others.

Most important: if you dream of being chased, pay attention. Something is sincerely trying to get your attention to tell you something important.