taking care of yourself:
before and after sessions
SUMMARY:
This article contains essential information about caring for yourself emotionally and physically before and after experiences in sessions. Following these guidelines will help reduce the anxiety that naturally arises pre-session and will help optimize your journey toward awakening consciousness afterwards. We believe that everything and everyone is sacred, so learning to care for oneself is a sacred act.
PRE SESSION ANXIETY - IT IS NATURAL
Often as we prepare to dive into our psyches for the first time, we experience to varying degrees what I call the pre-session jitters or the “heebejeebees”. The jitters are characterized by physical sensations like flutters in the belly, headaches, hunger, intestinal upsets and colds as well as anxiety, losing things, running late for appointments, loss of sleep, getting lost and cravings for addictive substances. If you experience any of these symptoms before your first session, take a deep breath and relax. It is normal! These jitters become much less pronounced with more experience.
Many people feel much calmer when they have made the commitment to an appointment and the disturbing feelings which have driven them to seek help do not arise as intensely until they are in session. There is a sense of relief that follows when we know we can explore issues and conflicts in a safe environment. Sometimes there is even a seductive feeling of self-sabotage “Perhaps I do not need to do the session now,” because I am no longer suffering.
For others, the approaching appointment stirs their stuff and patterns get acted out: couples will fight as they make their way to the session or one partner will suddenly decide not to come; people may feel too poor or they suddenly have something much more important to do. Some people are so overwhelmed with timidity that they feel they cannot come, while others will get ill or have accidents to avoid opening to themselves.
There is nothing wrong with all these behaviors. They are some of the myriads of ways we resist becoming more authentic. Our feelings display how we handle the ‘threat’ of the unknown. When we continue to show up for the work and bring these patterns into sessions, we discover resistance becomes our teacher, exposing our hidden motives, old identities and unconscious places of pain and fear.
As we relax into ourselves, the inner journey becomes an adventure rather than a struggle.
As with any other contagious disease, we ask that you isolate yourself if you have any symptoms of illness, or if you have knowingly been exposed to any contagious illness. Please reschedule any event you had planned with us. If you wish to attend a gathering in person, please discuss your needs and preferences with Namae.
Preparing the Body
Notice how you take care of your body in preparation for a session. Your body is after all your home. In our more distressed states of being, we often reflect our feelings through the way we treat our body.
Bathing is not just about getting ready to be with others, it can be used as a symbolic act of purifying the mind and heart, washing away our fears. It is a time to calm down and focus on your inner process and intentions.
During breathwork and other intense processes, the room is closed down to create a feeling of safety and inward focus. As a consideration for others in the room, please refrain from eating odoriferous herbs and seasonings, especially garlic, and the use of perfumes, especially in hair products and body lotions. If you have a tendency to need a deodorant, then use a natural, non-scented one. It is also preferable not to wear make-up, especially around the eyes, unless you like the runny goth look.
During emotional releases, there are often tears and physical movements and I suggest you take out your contact lenses, so bring your lens container with you or wear glasses. Also, for the duration of the session, take off any jewelry, metal belts and watches that may get lost, tangled in clothing or your hair or could possibly scratch or puncture skin.
Wear soft, loose fitting clothing so that you can breathe and move around. Natural fibers are recommended for a number of reasons: they are more absorbent, they do not leave a high carbon footprint and they are in alignment with coming into a more natural, aware relationship of your body as part of the Earth.
Eating Before a Session
If you have blood sugar fluctuations, contact me for more information about dietary directions or fasting.
Medications
Please let me know in advance of any medications or other substances you are currently taking, any allergies, dietary restrictions you have and any treatments you are undergoing. Bring your meds and allergy treatments with you and especially an inhaler, if you are asthmatic. If you get achy muscles, bring extra calcium/magnesium with you (it’s also good for calming anxiety).
Please ensure cell phones are switched off before each session.
Setting Intentions
The process of setting an intention provides a way for you to witness how you create your session experience. The issues of your life may be your starting point, giving you a sense of what you don’t want. Maybe you feel resistance to becoming clear or perhaps you may have no idea what you want. Maybe you keep changing your intention as you come closer to the session time, allowing the issues to distill into a deeper desire.
There is no requirement for an intention for every session. Indeed, there are times when it is profound to simply be open to whatever comes. By creating a deeper focus, however, you may discover that intentions are a powerful force in your inner work, creating pathways for life to support your growing awareness.
Materials to Bring with You
Many people enjoy journaling and taking notes before or immediately after a session and during the integration. Bring a non-breakable water container that will not spill and warm sox and a sweater if needed. If you are coming to a group session, bring your favorite pillow and a blanket.
The work often opens up people’s creative potential, so another way of integrating is to draw mandalas or write poetry, giving fuller expression to the new energies emerging during and after the session. So, bring your drawing materials if you wish. I have a camera to photograph sandplays and will email those images to you.
You may wish to bring any personal or sacred objects like photographs, images, crystals, prayer articles or flowers to use during your process, as a focus for your intention or simply to invite beauty and the sacred into your field.
POST SESSION CARE
Integration
At the end of your session or the next day, we will spend some time sharing and integrating your experience, continuing to resolve any unfinished feelings, answer questions, share what you have learned and apply your new awareness to your everyday life and relationships. Keeping a journal engages the left brain to integrate the feelings and images your right brain activated during your session. By keeping a record of your learnings and your experiences, you can map your progress as you grow.
The deeper or longer the session, the greater the need you’ll have to allow time to integrate. The psyche will expand to fill the amount of available time for the work, so if you do need to travel or rush off to work, you may not have the quite same depth of integration as when you rest. You will be able to function, albeit on a different level to your norm. It is well worth taking the time to plan for quiet time after deep inner work.
Maintaining the container
It is so easy within the open-hearted field of the group sessions to talk and share intimately, and it is often tempting to comment on other’s processes. In order to maintain a safe container for this deep work, it is important to keep the focus on one’s self, both during and after the integration, by just talking about your own experience, resisting the temptation to judge or give others advice. Just as you enjoy not being judged, all beliefs and spiritual traditions are welcome here, as are all levels of maturity.
It is not always apparent from outward appearances whether someone is in a young or tender state or what their issues may entail. So, we neither share without permission any contact information nor discuss who was present or what happened with anyone else outside any of the groups that occur. If we happen to meet another group member in a public place, we try to remember to ask permission, before launching into an intimate discussion of anything related to the group. You do not know their circumstance or who may overhear your conversation.
There is an interesting maturation that occurs as we learn to hold clear boundaries within ourselves and with others. It allows our own process to deepen as we build the inner container and in giving respect to others and their processes, we become gentle with our own vulnerabilities, more accepting of others.