THE HOLISTIC CONVERSATION with Tisha Morris
I grew up in my dad’s pharmacy watching customer after customer coming in to get their prescription pills. Seeing this was a driving force behind me entering the healing arts. I’m happy to see more people turning to alternative approaches realizing the prescription pill isn’t a cure after all.
But have we traded the prescription pill for the spiritual pill?
Spirituality and consciousness movements have become a billion dollar industry. As a self-help practitioner and teacher myself, I see many people looking to the next session, reading, program, transit, or teacher to instantly change their life. We get hooked into believing that the next one or the next one or the next one will be the one that turns everything around.
Feng shui is one of the worst culprits for selling the magic pill in the form of tassels, toads, and coins. When being interviewed as a feng shui expert, I find everyone wants to hear the miracle stories of how feng shui has magically changed people’s lives. I do have some of those stories, but they are usually the result of complex energetics coming together.
The way to find the peace and joy that we all so desire is paradoxically by facing our shadows or, in other words, our emotions, that we have buried for decades if not lifetimes. This is a much harder sell, regardless of the industry.
“There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” -Carl Jung
Many spiritual teachings are as much a form of escapism as any other distraction in our modern world. We will do just about anything to avoid the emotional body. This is one of the reasons why teachings, such as the Law of Attraction, are so popular, particularly among strong-minded people. They are valuable teachings and they have done wonders to wrangle the monkey mind, lessen stress, and empower ourselves. But to evolve further, which is through the heart, we have to go deeper than the mental plane.
Have you wondered why you don’t always get what you want when using the Law of Attraction? We have a whole subconscious world of energy and emotions that are emitting an even stronger signal than our minds. We are left with manifesting with only part of ourselves, not the integrated whole Self.
Now we’re actually able to push down unwanted feelings with an affirmation, conscious thoughts, or even a meditation. This is far better than a synthetic pill that chemically suppresses our emotions into dangerous side effects. But we are still skirting the underlying pain that is really driving the bus.
If you suppress one emotion, you suppress all emotions to the same extent. This is why true joy is elusive for most of us. We are still avoiding the only thing that will bring us true joy. Going through the dark to find the light.
Some of the best techniques for reaching the emotional body are body-centered modalities. This is why yoga has been a gateway for so many people in the healing arts. Inner child work also reaches those buried emotions because it is in childhood where all our pain begins and is stored.
Self-help techniques are at their best when they help us integrate the subconscious and conscious or, in other words, bring our shadows into the light. Until and unless we are ready to face the emotional body, we will still be reaching for the magic pill.
Like a child, what those emotions really want is to be acknowledged, validated, heard and felt, not covered up, bargained with, shamed, or bought off.
Opportunities for healing are with us each day we experience pain, discomfort, and annoyances. Before you think about whether you should take the red pill or blue pill. Maybe neither. Maybe feeling it is the pill we’ve been looking for all along.
Tisha Morris is the best-selling author of Decorating With the Five Elements of Feng Shui (Llewellyn 2015), Mind Body Home: Transform Your Life One Room at a Time (Llewellyn 2012), Feng Shui Your Life: The Quick Guide to DeclutteringYour Home and Renewing Your Life (Turner Publishing 2010). Tisha is based in Los Angeles where she works with homes and business and facilitates trainings. To learn more, visit Earth Home with Tisha Morris.
