December 23, 2013 By Johnathan

person holiday people cute — Photo by Public Domain Pictures on Pexels.com

In a nutshell:

All manifested things have meaning. If our word cannot express the truth of what they mean, we may ignore their significance and lose out on life energy, love, enthusiasm and growth.

Is this what we are doing to ourselves?

How many of the Christmas cards that have fallen through your letterbox have pictures of trees and stars? A good proportion I imagine.

And yet, inspite of all these representations of the Tree of Life and Light, which we send once a year to remind ourselves that our lives and all life has meaning and purpose and needs renewing, many still say the true spirit of Christmas has been lost.

Perhaps it is not the spirit and meaning of Christmas we have so lately lost. Rather, it maybe our understanding of the international language of symbols, used universally from time immemorial that we have chosen to forget in our left brained world. When words become inadequate to encompass and express the full meaning of those deepest truths all men learn from life’s direct experiences, a symbol can give an immediate apprehension of a many-levelled wholeness of meaning that is shared.

As an example for today – at it’s highest meaning and universally, and evergreen tree can symbolise man’s undying spirit, or even immortality. Like all trees it also means shelter, nourishment and protection. At the lowest level, it can merely mean somewhere to hang our baubles. There are levels between these two. Can you enlarge on their meaningfulness for you, until you sense their inner truths?

Again – for some a star is just a star, a pin point of light – a mere irrelevance in their lives, but for others and for universal man it has always meant a portal to the heavens, and access to divine guidance and chance to grow into realms beyond the physical and into a greater understanding of the oneness of creation. How far does this apply to you?

Perhaps we should look more closely at our Christmas cards, as well as acts all life manifestations and search for the message they really carry. If we can recognise their truth and inner meaning we may become inspired with purposefulness on our journey towards next year’s Christmas season.

Unless of course, we prefer the status quo stasis.

Wishing you all a MERRY Christmas and may the New Year bring Love, Joy and Compassion to you.

’til we meet again,

Walk in Beauty;
Walk in Peace.

‘Causing the Miraculous by Spreading Beauty, Truth & Harmony‘

Johnathan Brooks, MAC, PG Dip is a Life Coach who has trained in a wide range of personal development treatment methods including the “Power Therapies” (CBT Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (postgrad), EFT Emotional Freedom Technique, Master NLP Neuro Linguistic Programming) and has a Post Graduate Diploma in ‘Coaching and NLP’ which he passed with a ‘Commendation’. And is based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

He is a full member of the Association for Coaching (MAC) and is a Gold member of The Professional Guild of NLP.

Addictions Archives – Spirit Bear Coaching

December 6, 2015August 19, 2018spiritbearcoach

Dealing With Alcoholism

August 9, 2013 By Johnathan

adult alone anxious black and white — Photo by Kat Jayne on Pexels.com

On my return of my very first trip back from the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, summer of 1985, I had seen first hand what alcohol had done to the Native Americans. It took over four weeks back in Kent, England before I would touch a drop of alcohol again. I even thought for a while that pubs were blood money, I had that much anger about what it had done to my people.

One summer, I had a romance with a descendant of a famous Chief, by the following summer, when I went to visit her to let her know that I was back, her parents had no idea where she was and she hadn’t been back home for a few days. So I asked the younger brothers and sisters where she was and borrowed the parent’s pick-up truck to look for her. The kids would never tell their parents where she was, but would tell me.

We found her in the middle nowhere, as far as I was concerned, in what is called a ‘party house’, usually windows broken and really just a drinker’s den. She was lying asleep in the sweltering August afternoon heat and in the other room lay another older woman, both comatosed. I lifted and carried the daughter and dumped her in the back of the pick-up and drove her home. The parents pleased with my find, put her into her bedroom to sleep. There was nothing more I could do so I returned a couple of days later to see how she was to find that she was gone again. She had chosen alcohol over seeing me again. What a difference, twelve months make. So I left it, I wasn’t going down that road with her, I had to be strong.

It’s true to say on the physical level that alcohol is addictive and effects the emotional level as well. But you could also say that there’s an alcohol problem if it effects your relationships.

Many spiritual leaders and mind-body specialists now believe alcoholism is a physical manifestation of a rejection and denial of the Self. According to this perspective many alcoholics tend to be fleeing themselves or some part of themselves, refusing to confront their deep-rooted fear and shame, self-loathing, and/or inadequacy to love themselves.

Understandably, this mode of belief appears to challenge the notion that alcoholism is a disease over which the afflicted has no control. One problem with that notion, however, is that it feeds into the sense most alcoholics have of being “out of control” over themselves and their lives. Dealing with alcoholism from a mind-body perspective empowers the individual to affect positive, proactive changes in their innermost being that will presumably then reflect outwardly in positive, proactive change in their lives.

As an exercise for dealing with alcoholism on a spiritual level, try this:

1. Find a private room where you can lock the door and will not be disturbed.

2. Stand in front of a mirror – a full-length mirror is best. It is also best if you are naked, but this is something you can work up to as you practice this exercise over time.

3. Look yourself in the eyes and say aloud: “I love you.”

4. Now stay silent and breathe and listen to the denials, objections, rejections, refusals, contradictions, mockery, and all other negative statements that come up between you and the full acceptance of this statement.

5. Without judgment, without reaction, simply take a deep breathe into your belly and release all that negativity with a loud, expulsive sigh: “Ahh!”

6. Then look yourself in the eyes again, and again make that same statement aloud, “I love you.” It’s important to find something good about yourself, because you are a part of life. If you can’t love yourself, then you can’t love life.

7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 until you are able to hear that statement and take it in without judgment, without rejection, without negation. It may take some time, but it will happen.

8. Then try this exercise with other statements, like: “I forgive myself,” “I’m worth it,” “I am good enough,” “I am in control of my actions, my life,” etc.

The beauty of this exercise is that it helps inure you to the triggers for alcoholic behaviour while working to reshape the very patterns of thought and feeling that fed this beast alcohol addiction. The more you look those patterns in the face, the weaker that beast becomes and the less power it has over you.

Also, EFT really helps with addictions. Please feel free to call me at my Tunbridge Wells, Kent life coaching practice if you’d like a free 30 min consultation to see how I can help. This is one road I can go down with you.

’til we meet again,

Walk in Beauty;
Walk in Peace.

‘Causing the Miraculous by Spreading Beauty, Truth & Harmony‘

He is a full member of the Association for Coaching (MAC) and is a Gold member of The Professional Guild of NLP.

How Does Soul Retrieval Relate To Practical Psychology?

June 19, 2012 By Johnathan

“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” ~ Jesus Christ

sky space telescope universe — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

People are not linked up with their Soul, as their personality is not being fully self-expressed, as the Soul is the bridge to Spirit. All therapies try to make people ‘whole’ by linking people with their Soul, whether it’s mental work bringing the person to their Soul or intuitive work, the Soul to the person as in Soul Retrieval.

The way dis-ease manifests:

PHYSICAL LEVEL

▲

MENTAL LEVEL

▲

EMOTIONAL LEVEL

▲

SPIRITUAL LEVEL

Everything is energy, and the different vibration rates of energy are what distinguish ourselves and all manifestation of life around us. We are born with enough energy, what acupuncturists call ‘Inherent’ energy (energy ‘within’), to last us through life. It is said that a body has enough energy to power the national grid for a city for a week. But along life’s path, we can become attached to significant traumatic events, or relationship difficulties that we end up giving our power away, or it can be taken from us. When the power leaves, it creates a ‘vacuum’ in our energy fields, a type of ‘aura leakage’, through which our own soul energy leaks away. This is called Soul Loss.

Soul Loss can happen at any time when we are traumatised, physically abused, suffer from accidents etc that a part of our soul energy splits off and leaves the body and physical world from shear shock, pain and discomfort as an act of healing and preservation, the result of which over time has detrimental effects shown up by any dissociation symptoms like depression, fears, phobias or addictions. At which point the soul energy part needs to be unified with the body again.

Retrieving the power and sense of ourselves, that we gave away or had been taken from us is called Soul Retrieval. And it is the Shaman’s job to seek and return the missing soul from the ‘Otherworld’ or what the Aborigines call the ‘Dreamtime’ where the soul has been trapped, allowing the client to move forward with their life now.

To understand how soul retrieval works, we need to understand the difference between ‘Western – Left brain’ and ‘Native – Right brain’ views.

Some Left Brain or Western Beliefs that lead to separation:

¨ Time is a straight line Now ——————–> Future

¨ God is separate from us .i.e. God in Heaven

¨ We are separate from Nature

Some Right Brain Native/Shamanic Beliefs:

¨ Time is in the here and now

¨ Time is a circle (Medicine Wheel, Circle of Life)

¨ Space is a Dot

¨ Nature has Rhythms

¨ God is a part of us

¨ Everything is connected

Drumming/Rattling/Dancing/Chanting/Praying are rituals to access the ‘Higher Self’ by slowing the brain down. Drumming induces ‘Theta’ brain waves and therefore produces profound changes of awareness.

If reality is a subjective experience, which is the greater reality, the physical world or dreamtime? What of the Past? Then that could only be a mistaken subjective experience.

If a traumatic event happened to a person many years ago, for that person it is still happening, as they are re-living it in their mind with all their senses. Therefore, the Shaman journeys outside of linear time to the place where that traumatic event is still happening, in another parallel world and find and bring back the soul to the person.

Praying to each of the four directions helps us to get centred by coming out of trance and into ‘Alpha’ energy before going into an altered state of consciousness.

Each of the four directions has special energy powers and is represented by an animal. The powers from the East are represented by the Eagle, the South by the Mouse or Coyote, the West by the Bear, and the North by the Buffalo. To call upon these powers, stand and face each of the directions starting with the East and honour and pray for the animal in each direction. This allows us to become balanced and centred in the Alpha healing mode. When we are centred, then we are ready to call the helpers or guides. The Shaman becomes like a hollow bone, an instrument for Spirit to enter to communicate the Creators Will on Earth.

The Soul is the bridge between Spirit and Body. And only when the physical body is complete or balanced, which takes a life time, can we truly allow Spirit into our Body.

We tend to only express ourselves, not from our gifts of who we really are, but from our lower selves, the emotional level. Our life’s work is to unify Body, Soul and then Spirit. The Soul is sometimes called the reflection of the Spirit, and the personality is called its shadow.

How old is a Soul? Since we are working at soul level, there is always a chance that the significant event happened in a past life before the trauma in this life. You can recognise old souls by their eyes which seem to be illuminated from within. Watch babies and children communicate telepathically through the light of their eyes. Babies pick up adult thoughts by what the adult is imagining .i.e. images or symbols. As we get older we loose that skill as we learn language.

Is a New Soul ever born? Yes, sometimes.

When does the Soul enter the Body? An age old question that nobody can answer truthfully. There are theories that the soul enters at conception, after conception, at birth or shortly after birth. If you believe in a Divine plan, then you may lean towards sometime before birth. But there’s no real need to dwell on such questions as it serves no purpose.

’til we meet again,

Walk in Peace;

Walk in Beauty.

School Archives – Spirit Bear Coaching

December 6, 2015August 19, 2018spiritbearcoach

How To Change Children’s Lives In An Hour, Not Months Using EFT

April 29, 2013 By Johnathan

adorable blur bookcase books — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Over the years, I’ve studied many schools of thought for my coaching practice in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, from life coaching, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT – postgrad) and emotional freedom technique (EFT). I did my second postgraduate in ‘Coaching and NLP’. Other than feeding my thirst for learning, and knowing that one size doesn’t fit all. I was also looking for the right way to coach or to heal as I regard coaching as the same as healing. What I realised is that it was less about which school of thought a coach/therapist came from but who the coach/therapist was ‘Being’ as a model of excellence.

‘The evidence is incontrovertible: Who provides the therapy is a much more important determinate of success than what treatment is provided.’ ~ ‘Supercoach’ (Miller et al, 2007)

Recently, I had received a call from a young single mother who had a four year old son. At his school ‘kindergarten/reception’ class, her son was very shy and closed but was willing to join in the practises for the up coming festival. But when it came to showing the parents their showcase, he wouldn’t perform in front of the mums and dads despite really wanting to, he would get frustrated then angry which would then lead to some display of negative behaviour.

Her son was a delightful little boy, but there was one thing that was crystal clear. At this age, the cognitive process hasn’t developed yet, which meant the mental level approaches like CBT and NLP weren’t really the right tools for the job. Trying to find out whether it was a fear of performing school plays or getting it wrong or being laughed at, and any negative thoughts he may of had before any of those fears, wasn’t going to be very fruitful and nonsensical reasoning.

I decided to use Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) on the child and simply bypass thinking styles and challenging thoughts and beliefs etc.

EFT combines tapping on acupuncture points with words based on NLP.

He was able to tell me that he felt sad whenever he saw his mum in the audience. Curiously, I asked him what was he sad about when he sees his mum in the audience, he answered that he gets sad because she would leave again after the show.

I asked the mother where the father was and whether her son had been left alone in the past? The father had never been around much after the birth of their son, and after the son was three and a half months old the mother, who worked as a make-up artist, had been offered work at the Opera House and gratefully accepted the job in order to move out of the tiny rented accommodation she had and get a mortgage for a home. By age two and a half years old, the mother then was offered a feature film contract but meant more crazy hours up to 70 hr weeks! So her son stayed with his grandmother while the mother went to work.

At this age, a child needs Love & Attention, which no doubt the grandmother was able to give to her grandson. But the son not understanding why he was dropped off may have triggered a basic wounding of ‘abandonment’ perhaps feeling a little deserted. This can lead to the fear of being alone and would therefore cling onto his mother.

After tapping a mixture of ‘fear of being alone’ and ‘feeling really sad’, half an hour later we were done. We did the same again the following week for our second session.

One of the most beautiful things working with children is how quick the sessions are as they are very receptive and not argumentative as adults can be. By dealing with this now and making it fun, means he won’t have to deal with this particular wound in 20+ years time when his negative behaviours may have magnified to something much worse! He can now be his own healer and with his new evidence can form new empowering beliefs.

Nip it in the bud early!

This is an email I received a week later from the mother:

“I took my 4 year old son to have EFT with Johnathan and have been utterly amazed at the results. After just a few days of ‘tapping’ he was no longer highly distressed when I dropped him at school but running in happy and carefree with barely a backward glance. He is starting to love playing at Kindergarten and is interacting a lot more with the friends he is making. A sight I have longed for and one that filled my heart with joy beyond words. The festival was a huge success, and he joined in with all of it and absolutely loved it. He had a huge smile on his face the whole time and kept waving. Very cute. He is so proud of himself and wanted me to let you know he had done it.

He immediately connected to Johnathan’s warm, gentle and compassionate approach and really enjoyed learning the tapping process.

After just two sessions with Johnathan he would tell me the emotion he wanted to tap and we would do it together at home as well…and in some slightly more extraordinary locations! We were at the top of a steep tunnel slide and he really wanted to go down but was too scared (he has always been scared of these slides and has only gone down one once before) He turned around to me and said, ‘come on Mama let’s tap the scared feeling away.’ After the first round of tapping he sat down at the top of the slide, after the second round he shuffled in about an inch, after the third.. a little more of a shuffle forward and after the fourth he started to giggle and said, ‘I don’t need to do any more tapping Mama, I can do this.’ He gave me a big smile and then after a slight hesitation…off he went…whizzing down the slide, whooping. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Absolutely incredible!

The part I like the most is how easy and effective it is for him to do; for him it has already become as normal as brushing his teeth! It is a good feeling to know he has a tool which will help him all through his life, should he need to use it. Something which will help him always be true to himself…not his fears. No matter how big or small. Thank you Johnathan, for teaching my beautiful son such a wonderful healing method with such warmth and understanding.” ~ T.M. Mother, Make-up artist and author

‘Emotional Freedom Technique’s (EFT) remarkable power to bring about change probably stems from the way that its combination of carefully chosen words and gentle, physical stimulation of acupuncture points reaches deep into the most ancient and influential part of the brain, undoing conditioned mental or physical responses that can undermine us, foster illness or inhabit healing.’ ~ Dr Robert Scaer, Neurologist (The Body Bears the Burden: Trauma, Dissociation and Disease, 2000.)

’til we meet again,

Walk in Beauty;
Walk in Peace.

‘Causing the Miraculous by Spreading Beauty, Truth & Harmony‘

He is a full member of the Association for Coaching (MAC) and is a Gold member of The Professional Guild of NLP.

The 80/20 Rule: A Powerful Life Coaching & Management Tool

April 19, 2013 By Johnathan Leave a Comment

blur carefree cute feelings — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

One of the most widely used and commonly taught principles of time management, a topic that frequently arises in personal coaching in Tunbridge wells, Kent, is the 80/20 rule. It began as a simple observation in 1906 by an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto, who noticed that 20% of people owned 80% of the wealth. Pareto called this phenomenon: “the vital few and the trivial many.” And after studying it extensively across diverse applications, he determined that only 20 percent of anything is responsible for 80 percent.

That means in any team or group, 20% of the members are doing 80% of the work. And in an individuals own work, 20% of what they put into something is responsible for 80% of the results. In the 1940s, Dr. Joseph M. Juran — who is responsible for naming this phenomenon the Pareto Principle — observed similarly that 20% of the defects in a product or process are responsible for 80% of the problems. So it goes both ways. In fact, as it turns out, this principle can apply to almost anything:

80% of clients deliver 20% of your income.

80% of all frustrations in a relationship are caused by just 20% of the problems.

80% of your problems are caused by 20% of your circumstances.

80% of your income comes from 20% of your work.

So in terms of personal coaching in Tunbridge wells, Kent, how does one apply this principle toward improving your own time management and productivity? Toward increasing efficiency and effectiveness, whether in your work, school or home life? By applying 80 of your efforts to the most important 20 percent of your work or goals. Or find out which 20% is the main cause of your problems and then eliminate them.

As I share with many a client personal coaching in Tunbridge wells, Kent, the Pareto Principle teaches you how to work smarter rather than harder, by reminding you to put the bulk of your energy toward the few tasks that matter most.

’til we meet again,

Walk in Beauty;
Walk in Peace.

‘Causing the Miraculous by Spreading Beauty, Truth & Harmony‘

He is a full member of the Association for Coaching (MAC) and is a Gold member of The Professional Guild of NLP.

Accept Archives – Spirit Bear Coaching

December 6, 2015August 18, 2018spiritbearcoach

The Law of Attraction In A Nutshell

January 4, 2013 By Johnathan

‘Purposeful Manifestation Through Focusing’

When the book and subsequent movie of The Secret came out, people everywhere were buzzing about its revelation: the Law of Attraction. Revealed as the key to the prolific success of some of history’s greatest minds, like Michelangelo and Thomas Jefferson, the Law of Attraction is a powerful insight into the workings of nature that can be consciously, intentional used as a tool for manifestation. A tool whose ideas underlie many, if not most, other manifestation processes.

As big a “secret” as it may be (or rather, may once have been) it is actually quite a simple concept to understand. It is divided into three steps for manifesting, or “attracting”, anything you want into your life. Those three steps are as follows:

1. Ask
2. Accept
3. Allow

Now let’s break these steps down for you, one at a time.

1. Ask

To have what you want, you first must know what you want. Asking is a process of letting the universe know what you want. And maybe even more importantly, letting it know that you know what you want.

Why is this important? Because in doing so, you’re generating a very clear and decisive energy. The source likes that. The clearer and more definitive, the better. Because it is that clarity of vision of knowing what you want, coupled with the singularity of desire that comes from asking for it that targets the “object” of your desire with laser-point accuracy.

2. Accept

Most people have some experience with step 1. Whether in prayer or goal-setting, most of you reading this have already at one time or another asked for what you want. Many of us also know (some, all to well) the experience of asking for what we want and not getting it. That is because asking for it is only the 1st step of the process, and many people either stop here or worse, take actions completely counterproductive to the law of attraction. We ask for what we want, then we promptly, clumsily get in our own way and thwart it’s manifestation.

What actions? Those they display doubt and uncertainty about getting those goals met. Like whining and fretting and complaining about “not having” it yet. Like worrying about your future should you not get it, or worse taking actions that imagine it not happening instead of taking actions that imagine success.

That’s where steps 2 and 3 come into the picture.

Step 2, or Accept, could also be called Receive, because it’s about trusting that your request was heard, and more, that it’s been granted. It’s the meaning of “Ask and ye shall Receive”: that in the asking, you instantaneously set in motion a cycle of energetic events that has the object of your desire already on its way to you.

So what do you do? You sit back and relax, content in the knowledge that your request has been heard and granted and you can move onto other things. If you don’t, and you constantly obsess over this thing you want to manifest, then you’re showing the universe that you don’t really believe it’s coming. You push it away with your distrust of the process instead of accepting that it’s on its way.

3. Allow

The other way we push the manifestation of our desires away is with a sense of undeserving-ness. We don’t act like we get what we want in life, so our life produces evidence of that. But if we act like we get what we want in life, our life produces evidence of that. We must Allow the fulfillment of our wishes to come into our life by creating the energy that supports their existence.

And the way that we do that is by feeling inside what it’s like (not what it would be like, but what it is like) to have the fulfillment of your desires here and now. If step 2 is about Knowing, step 3 is about Feeling. You must exude the energy of someone who’s living as if their next fulfilment is on its way, like a houseguest. You need do nothing but prepare your home for their arrival.

Live life purposefully manifesting, through focusing!

’til we meet again,

Walk in Peace;
Walk in Beauty.

‘Causing the Miraculous by Spreading Beauty, Truth & Harmony‘

Johnathan Brooks, MAC, PG Dip is a Cognitive Behavioural Coach who has trained in a wide range of personal development treatment methods including the “Power Therapies” (CBT Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (postgrad), EFT Emotional Freedom Technique, Master NLP Neuro Linguistic Programming) and has a Post Graduate Diploma in ‘Coaching and NLP’ which he passed with a ‘Commendation’.

He is a full member of the Association for Coaching (MAC) and is a Gold member of The Professional Guild of NLP.

Tag: Emotional Freedom Technique

christmas card Archives – Spirit Bear Coaching

A Special Christmas Message For 2013

Addictions Archives – Spirit Bear Coaching

Dealing With Alcoholism

How Does Soul Retrieval Relate To Practical Psychology?

School Archives – Spirit Bear Coaching

How To Change Children’s Lives In An Hour, Not Months Using EFT

The 80/20 Rule: A Powerful Life Coaching & Management Tool

Accept Archives – Spirit Bear Coaching

The Law of Attraction In A Nutshell