Chassidus, through the eyes of a psychotherapist

Focused presence - intention - love - embodiment through breath  The 4 steps to the energy healing modality called Quantum touch In the book, The New Human - Quantum-Touch 2, by Richard Gorden, he says: Your very essence is love – the rock doesn’t have to try to be more rock-like, and water doesn't have to try and be wetter; we do not have to try to have more essence of love. We can, however, endeavor to discover and acknowledge how much love there really is. Chassidus teaches that all people possess within their hearts a deep wellspring of love, prayer was intended as the process of falling back into and revealing this love. In the Zohar it states, 'there is no Avoda, like the Avoda of love.' In Shemos 23:25 it states, 'when you do your Avoda to Hashem, He will bless your bread and your water, and remove sickness from within you.' What is Avoda? Taanis 2a says it is Tefilla (prayer), likkutei Moharan 9:1 say Emunah (a felt sense of the divine) is Tefilla (prayer), Baal Shem Tov al Hatorah says, it is an experience of being surrounded by light on all sides and really feeling it.  So is prayer intended to be: Focused presence - intention - and an embodied, felt sense of love in one's heart?  Is this the channel that draws down healing and abundance? It seems so. With one added step. knowing it already is. In Keser Shem Tov it says that this is the most important part of prayer.  In a talk by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, he says this belief is the vessel that draws forth abundance and healing. https://www.chabad.org/therebbe/article_cdo/aid/2295026/jewish/A-Knowing-Heart-Parshas-Shmos.htm How does one embody love and belief? How does one maintain focus or set an intention? Quantum touch taught me how.  For more information on Quantum touch please read, Quantum-Touch, the power to heal, or The new human, both by Richard Gordon. Karina in a quantum touch Practioner and trainer, to find out more about what she does: https://www.karinagrant.co.uk/

Disclaimer: These recordings are an edited version of an interactive live class. The exercises described are done together and processed in the group. All this has been edited out for the privacy of the participants. If you are attempting to do these exercises alone please do so responsibly. Seek support if need be. The question that this class begins with: 'I don't feel like I deserve to receive any good personally, I feel I can only ask G-d for good if it is for others. Is this a limiting belief? 

Disclaimer: These recordings are an edited version of an interactive live class. The exercises described are done together and processed in the group. All this has been edited out for the privacy of the participants. If you are attempting to do these exercises alone please do so responsibly. Seek support if need be.  "the kind of light which is pnimi (absorbable) is present according to the measure of the recipient's vessel and fills it. when light and vessel unite, the vessel becomes refined to such a degree that it is possible for the vessel itself to become light." - Likkutei Dibburim  Are we available to receive what it is that we want? How does one expand that vessel i.e. the body? The body has two modes of being - constriction, fragmentation, and fear (a dysregulated nervous system) vs expansion, interconnection, and peace (a regulated nervous system).  Expanding the bodies capacity to receive through; Getting curious - what is it about this that I am afraid of? what does it mean about me? is it true? according to who? Regulating the nervous system through breath and body mindfulness  In his book, Healing Developmental Trauma, Laurence Heller talks about the far-reaching effects of being able to regulate the nervous system from a psychological perspective. Heller says: ‘Spiritual connection and meaning in life can only be found when our biology is regulated and our capacity for connection is developed. It is through connection that coherency of mind body and spirit, expansion, engaged relationship and aliveness are possible’ ‘For hundreds of years, the body, particularly in western traditions, was seen as an impediment to spirituality. We have found that a coherent biological/psychological self is a springboard to the higher self. It is only when individuals have a solid sense of who they are that they can open to the fluid nature of self.’

The deep need for attachment and the pain of feeling separate/ disconnected is at the core of one’s experience of being human. In the book Body-centred psychotherapy, Ron Kurtz describes it as the cause of all psychological pain: ‘The primal and most destructive illusion is the false distinction between self and other. “self” here doesn’t even mean you’re a person or a body or anything like that. It means you perceive and live a basic separateness. This is the primal lie’.…. ‘We see each other as separate objects because we see through our eyes (all senses are encoders) and because we have learned to think of ourselves and others in this way’…. ‘The big break comes when we decide that we are separate. We further separate ourselves into minds and bodies, and then mind itself splits into pieces’…. ‘The drive to unite is the healing force. The process of communication organizes parts into wholes. That’s the healing’… ‘We embrace unity when we bring attention to aspects of ourselves and others that are in isolation and conflict. We embrace it when our way is acceptance and curiosity; when our goal is to bring together all aspects of the person: mind/mind, mind/body, and self/universe; when we know as part of our being that we are connected, to each other and this world. that knowing is the healing power of this work. ‘ Chassidus teaches about the unity of all things, the unity of G-d, and that one couldn’t be disconnected even if they tried. It teaches that the illusion of disconnection is the primary Klipa (shell or block), it is the reason why people feel the need to prove themselves, judge themselves, defend themselves or abandon themselves. It is what drives one to spend a whole lifetime looking for ways to achieve approval (so they will feel they belong and are worthy of love). It is why one cares about what others think, why one feels so much pain when alone and why a life without attachment leads one to find ways of coping with the pain, such as addictions, keeping oneself very busy, fears and defenses, numbness, anxiety, depression, OCD etc. Whatever the case, one can infer how much one cares about connection by looking at the lengths one is willing to go, to fill the void when it is lacking. Knowing that one is connected and loved is of limited use if one doesn’t experience this as a reality. To bridge the gap between what one knows and what one experiences one needs to go through a process of inner work (Avoda). Not only to ask questions and gain clarity but to find all the fragmented parts of one’s inner world and begin to connect with them again, creating an inner wholeness, leading to an experience of connection.

Processing grief and the Imago Dialogue