Search This Blog

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Mousetraps, Boundaries and Chakras


About a month ago an energy healer that helps me a lot personally asked me what the mice were trying to tell me. Now, we both admit we have some pretty weird conversations, but I had no idea where that one was going! I sloughed it off with a joke about how my dirty kitchen was a mouse banquet and didn't think about it anymore- until yesterday.

Yesterday I was reminded of the concept of borders and boundaries. This is a theory familiar to social work and counselling. Counsellors often approach emotional issues and family conflicts by examining appropriate and inappropriate boundaries. Crossing the line between what's appropriate may "allow" for any host of problems including sexual and physical abuse, addictions- any manner of behavioral problem. Most helping professions focus on boundaries in their training programs. Therapists are taught to maintain strict boundaries between the client/therapist relationship. Emergency workers are taught to distance themselves from the angst of others- lots of them consciously remind themselves that "this is not my emergency" in order to cope.

Biology theories and conventional medicine are also very aware of boundaries. They look at cell boundaries in particular. Cells that are growing with irregular, inappropriate boundaries are often cancer cells- in fact to some degree that is the definition of cancer.

Although less formally- we are all aware of the concept. We teach children what is appropriate to tell others and what should be kept private, or within the boundary of close family members. We select what information we what to hear from our friends and when, and what news or movies we are unwilling to watch.

It occurs to me that the degree to which chakras are open or closed is the setting of that boundary. And the lesson for each chakra as we develop is to identify to what degree and in what situation we open or close that chakra to allow energy to flow. At the root chakra we discover that being too open may cause us to engage in unsafe behavior, or we may be overly materialistic. If not open enough we may have poor self-esteem and be very fearful.

At the high heart chakra, if we are too open we don't maintain the boundary between higher self and spirituality and our physical being and we can feel dizzy, anxious,and "out of body". If we block the high heart chakra too much we may miss the spiritual information and emotional enlightenment all together and appear cold, aloof, unapproachable and uncaring.

To take this a step further, I believe there may be a connection between unhealthy chakras and physical manifestations of disease such as cancer and heart disease. I'm certainly not the first or only one that thinks this- this is what a lot of alternative healing is based on. A lot of people in their late 50's early 60's seem to experience conditions such as cancers and heart disease. I wonder if it the lack of boundaries finally catching up. At a time when people have a lot of accumulated wisdom and enlightenment, if you don't bring that wisdom into a contained boundary of your physical body- does disease manifest? When the demands of a career in full swing, financial challenges, friends with life cycle problems such as divorce,illness and changes, new family dynamics with children moving out, maybe bringing other family members in etc. you need to re-examine and readjust your boundaries in order to clearly maintain your healthy sense of self.

How can I relate this to mice you wonder? Well, the issue for me and the mice is a lack of boundaries. I'm quite happy to have them running around outside where there is lots of food and shelter for them. I do really need to draw the line at the house- they scare the beejeepers out of me! So I put up traps in the kitchen. They didn't respect my boundaries and kept running around anyway. I tried asking the neighbours cats to help- they just waited at the doorstep for me to "throw out the dead". I didn't want to extend the boundary but I did- put traps out on the perimeter. I need to be assertive with these mice and really "mean what I say"- "no mouse in the house". If you've ever read the kids book "If you give a mouse a cookie", you know why you have to maintain control!!!

I also need to be assertive in who I allow in to my life, how I use my energy, drawing the line between personal and professional time and carving time for myself. I need to be aware of and monitor my chakras!

So that's what the mice were trying to tell me! I hear you- now get out of the house!!

No comments:

Post a Comment