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Everything is Everything

The ever evolving Yasaman (me) believes everything can and does happen simultaneously. In other words, you can’t wait to be healed before you begin a journey and you don’t have to master self-love before loving others, nor is self-love a prerequisite for others to love you. Daily evolution, for me, is to accept the fullness of what being human is…a never ending transformation fueled by engagement with self, others and our environment, a circular connection and interaction with the seen and unseen.

The illusion we are given in this plane of existence is that everything is linear. However, in actuality, that is just one perception of the representation of this physical world. A holistic approach to reality would demonstrate a more comprehensive truth…that nothing is linear and that not only are multiple things happening at the same time, but within each different representation of reality, there are numerous dimensions. While it may feel like there is no single answer, we still find that all responses can lead to one single place and space in time, that thing called LOVE.

What is LOVE? It’s lots of things. I bet that we can explain most things and phenomenas in terms of the force that LOVE is. For example, gravity is love. It is the force that pulls objects together. The the pull of certain atoms to be together is their love for one another. What we see is LOVE in the form of planets orbiting each other.

Growth is love. When the flowers grow toward sunlight, it is their molecules’ love for energy production through photosynthesis that guides them to light. What we see in turn, is the blossoming of a flower. What we are witnessing is LOVE in the form of a chemical reaction.

Music is love. It is the beauty of the melody that is created when notes are put together. Beautiful music is just notes that love one another. What we hear is what LOVE sounds like.

And so everything is everything.

I cannot evolve on my own no matter how much I love myself, just like a note by itself is not music. I have to be open to experiencing everything, sometimes chronologically and linearly according to my limited human capabilities at that time. But I have to also be open to the idea of different life experiences happening simultaneously, which I believe is how most of life events unfold in order to create the most beautiful symphony.

Perks of being a counselor:

Knowing that when I’m out of tune, it’s because I’m learning to make a better song. Everything is everything. Everything and everyone is linked to everything and everyone else.

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Healing…

“The brain-disease model overlooks four fundamental truths: (1) our capacity to destroy one another is matched by our capacity to heal one another. Restoring relationships and community is central to restoring well-being; (2) language gives us the power to change ourselves and others by communicating our experiences, helping us to define what we know, and finding a common sense of meaning; (3) we have the ability to regulate our own physiology, including some of the so-called involuntary functions of the body and brain, through such basic activities as breathing, moving, and touching; and (4) we can change social conditions to create environments in which children and adults can feel safe and where they can thrive.

When we ignore these quintessential dimensions of humanity, we deprive people of ways to heal from trauma and restore their autonomy. Being a patient, rather than a participant in one’s healing process, separates suffering people from their community and alienates them from an inner sense of self.”
― Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Here’s the thing…

There is no drug that will address your trauma, talk to it, listen to it, feel it for you, erase it, undo it, touch it, hug it, love it, sit with it, work through it, breath through it, care for it, talk about it and/or heal it for you. There just isn’t.

When you think about it, how can a situation that caused so much pain, suffering and trauma for you be eradicated by a pill made for all? While I wish such a magic “cure” existed, the reality and truth of it is that humanity has forgotten what it means to be human and to have human experiences, and as a result, we have watered down and oversimplified what it takes to heal from some of those experiences.

Just like no pill can describe the incredible depth of suffering some life experiences can bring upon us, no pill can create the connection it takes to heal from those experiences.

Labeling ourselves as “diseased” no longer means “dis-ease” or lack of ease and comfort. In today’s world, “disease” is used as a label to separate, segregate and medicate.

If you think about it, when you’re in a state of “dis-ease”, wouldn’t it make more sense to try to find out what is causing the lack of ease in the situation? Or would you just take a pill and hope it addresses the discomfort, though the origin of it has not been explored? Wouldn’t it make more sense to explore the origin of the pain and address that instead of pathologizing ourselves and in turn, trying to find the quickest “fix” out of the “dis-ease”?

In the end, whatever your belief is about what brings about healing, we can all recognize that the current system is not working.

And…if nothing changes, nothing changes.

Perks of being a counselor:

Using my own human experiences in life, both good ones and difficult ones, to be able to connect with others so that they can see their own humanity. The truth is that, as humans, we are much more alike than different. And once we know we are not alone in our suffering, anything is possible, even healing.

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Masks…

Since it’s Halloween, let’s talk about this one day a year (or so we think), when we get to dress up and be someone else for a short period of time. Ironically, being someone else on Halloween is not only allowed, but that’s how you “do” Halloween. That’s the whole point…to be someone else.

Interestingly enough, the rest of the year, many, if not all of us, continue to wear invisible masks in order to “do” life. The more invisible masks we wear, the more complicated life becomes. We have our home masks and our work masks; our party masks and our “I’m okay” masks. We have our “I’m confident” masks and our “I’m not going to let them see me cry” masks.

What if, just for one day, we didn’t wear any masks and our inner and outer life was congruent? What if we were authentically ourselves and let Halloween do it’s job once a year, instead of the dressing up and pretending lasting all year long, for our whole life?

How might this world be a different place if we acknowledged our pain, sadness and grief? Our lack of confidence and our loneliness? What if we were exactly who we are?

I’m venturing to guess that what we’d see is that we are so much more alike than different. We are all suffering in some way and we are all experiencing some kind of joy too. We might see more of ourselves in others because now instead of looking at others and seeing their masks, we look and see ourselves reflected in someone else. We exchange metaphorical Masks for metaphorical Mirrors.

And…if I look at you and see a part of myself, aren’t I more likely to feel connected to you?

Yes. I certainly am.

Perks of being a counselor:

Having a job that has taught me to take off my mask and see a part of myself in every encounter with another person so that I can connect, empathize and “see” them for who they really are instead of who society tells them they should be.

And oh my goodness the beauty that unfolds when a human being is really “seen” and “heard”!!! ❤️

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What if the answer is YES?!

“What is ‘no’? Either you have asked the wrong question or you have asked the wrong person. Find a way to get the ‘yes’.”

–Jeanette Winterson

I am often faced with situations where I have to find the ‘yes’.

It’s not easy to get to the ‘yes’ because hidden in the ‘yes’ is the internal belief that I’m deserving of a ‘yes’. Also hidden is the ability to be able to handle a ‘no’ without feeling defeated and rejected.

There are also boundaries to observe. There is a huge difference between someone who pushes their way to a ‘yes’ vs. someone who gracefully perseveres in the direction of a ‘yes’ without violating their own, as well as other people’s boundaries.

Still deeper, and even more hidden, is the ‘yes’ answer we give ourselves when we start to believe in our own capacity, talents, worthiness and potential. This kind of ‘yes’ is not one where we have measured ourselves against others in order to see where we stand and who we are. This ‘yes’ is about the acceptance, love, acknowledgment and gratitude for who we are in that exact moment, the acceptance of being perfectly imperfect.

The key is to make sure you’re not saying ‘no’ to yourself before you have the opportunity to ask for what you want, and to be patient enough to wait for and search for the ‘yes’.

Perks of Being a Counselor: being able to give myself the permission to ask for what I want and need because I know that even if someone else’s answer for me is ‘no’, I am very capable of saying ‘yes’ to myself.

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I can do this because I’ve done it before…

If you’re like me, you often conveniently or accidentally forget how hard you’ve worked to make it through some of the rough times.

How you talk to yourself and what you think about yourself is extremely important. Your words and thoughts do affect you and your well-being.

It has been postured that talking to plants can help them grow. Imagine if you spoke to yourself in a way that would help you grow, what would that sound like? What would you say?

(To learn more about why talking to plants might be helpful, visit the following site: https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/does-talking-to-plants-help-them-grow)

So take some notes about your life, especially about the times you overcame what may have at the time seemed like insurmountable odds, write yourself a letter, document your successes and read it to yourself over and over again when you feel all is lost. Speak to yourself the way you would to a loved one.

Perks of being a counselor? Witnessing growth and change in others when I sit with them in therapy in that painfully uncomfortable space where their doubts and sorrows live, seeing what happens when they are fully validated and accepted for who they are without any judgment and are truly seen and heard. Then knowing that I can do exactly the same same for myself, sit with my own pain and sense of failure, have a loving dialogue with the hurt parts of myself, because while I am no better than anyone else, I am no less than them either and deserve to be loved, cherished and cared for.

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Anger isn’t always bad.

Anger gets a bad rep. Counselors, psychologists and just people in general have a hard time addressing anger at its core. Often times anger is dismissed and “underlying emotions” are addressed as the core emotions.

Sometimes it’s true that other core emotions such as fear, sadness, anxiety, and such are actually the root of the anger displayed. But this is not universally and always true. Sometimes anger is just anger. Pure, raw, powerful and full of energy.

Can we try to accept anger for what it is and instead of dismissing it, channel it into something productive and life changing? This is a challenge I want to put out there to you. Instead of dismissing the anger you feel, channel its awesome energy and power into something useful in your life and try to make a positive change using your anger as fuel for your transformation. Empower yourself by telling yourself it’s okay to feel anger as long as you use it for good instead of destroying yourself and your relationships with others. Stop believing you don’t have control over your ability to take charge of your feelings. Feel your feelings, all of them. Don’t label them as good or bad. Just feel. And take the energy each feeling produces and channel it in a meaningful way so that you can make a positive difference in your own life as well as the life of the community in which you live.

There is no such thing as a “bad” feeling. All feelings are valid and equal in their ability to be useful or destructive. You get to choose how you will use your feelings. YOU are the one in charge. Breathe. Observe. Think and reflect. And then…Carry on.

Lesson: Anger can be used as fuel to get you to where you want to be. It’s not about being destructive. It’s about being constructive with whatever you have and whatever you’re feeling at the moment. Believe me, I’m a counselor. I get angry and it pisses me off when my anger is negated or villianized. Being pissed off is life’s way of giving you a little shot of caffeine so you can get off your ass and do something different. Don’t be calm. Rage on and conquer your life!