Healing Through BLISSIPLINE

I believe one of the key ways that unprocessed trauma/stress causes dis-ease (physical or mental) is through the stealing of our natural states of joy, bliss, and pleasure. To put it simply, when this trauma is stuck in the body our nervous system becomes dysregulated and we are therefore stuck in stress mode which limits our ability to heal and feel good mentally and emotionally. This can be one big reason why people with unhealed trauma contiuously seek out drugs or alcohol to attempt to feel these positive emotions or to numb out the uncomfortable ones.

This chronic stress and the associated persistent release of stress hormones like cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine, depletes the system’s building blocks as well as ability to create neurotransmitters and hormones that are associated with these positive and expansive feelings - like dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, oxytocin as well as the sex hormones.

This is why chronic stress can lead to issues like infertility, menstrual cycle abnormalities, loss of libido or fatigue, etc. Pregnenolone is a hormone that is a building block or precursor for progesterone, estrogen, testosterone and other hormones, including cortisol (stress hormone). The more stress, the more the body has to steal this pregnenolone to make cortisol rather than to make the other hormones we need, which results in hormonal imbalances and a whole host of health issues.

These feel-good molecules mentioned above (and the reduction of stress hormones) not only help us feel better mentally, emotionally and relationally, but they also support our body’s innate healing capabilities and overall metabolic functions. To learn more about the science behind emotions, read Dr. Candace Pert’s incredible book “The Molecules of Emotion”.

Trauma healing work is key. I am an advocate for doing shadow work to heal past wounds AND doing the daily work to let yourself feel states of joy, bliss, and pleasure more often simply through making a conscious choice to feel them. These two approaches to healing are not necessarily always separate and I would argue that its more powerful to work on them simultaneously! I recently came across the term “BLISSIPLINE”: The act of intentionally connecting with a feeling of joy, inspiration, and bliss on a daily basis as a devotional practice. I love it!

Your blissipine practice is yours to create! What lights you up? What makes you feel good? Walks in nature, slowing down to smell the flowers, barefeet on the earth, meditation, breathwork, dancing, singing, playing an instrument, creating art, sexual pleasure, yoga, martial arts, and so many more options exist!!

While doing so, we must however respect the parts of us that, feel unsafe or resist being in these expansive states (this can be a side effect of trauma). Noticing our resistance to these feel-good emotions, can be a beautiful way of illuminating what is blocking our healing in the subconscious. Blissipline can shine a light on our shadow by bringing old stories and feelings up to the surface to be healed!

Sometimes our light, our sparkle, our joy, our power is what caused discomfort in other people in our environment when we were younger, and then we were on the receiving end of negative comments, hate, abuse, bullying, etc. Did you get in trouble or get teased for showing excitement, being silly or for laughing hysterically? Its shocking how many children do! That part of us will remember that and may associate being in our authentic naturally joyful states as a cause of negative experiences and we will shut ourselves off from it to protect ourselves from further negativity. However, we can process these traumas and reprogram these beliefs so that we do not need to continue to live out these old stories in this way!

These positive states can be brought on through a simple choice to feel them or through activities like play, laughter, meditation, time in nature, exercising, dancing, singing, etc. They can support you in transmuting your trauma, denser emotions and energies; rewiring your nervous system and reprogramming your beliefs. However, it takes daily commitment to allowing yourself to feel these positive states, and little bit by bit you’ll be able to allow more safety to be felt in the system while doing so.

I believe everyone has the ability to choose to tune into the frequency of joy and bliss and start to focus on the parts of their life that do bring them joy, even in the darkest moments when it seems like nothing is going well. There is always something positive we can find!

I’ve been there myself. In the past I felt my body breaking down rapidly due to autoimmune diseases, I was in severe chronic pain, I was unable to work on and off for months and years, and I was falling into despair and hopelessness about my entire life - my health, my ability as a mother, my career, and more. One of the things that brought me out of this state of severe dis-ease (in addition to shadow work, energy and frequency healing) was consciously choosing to incorporate a daily blissipline practice, even when I didn’t feel like it.

There is room for joy, pleasure, and bliss AS WELL AS grief, sorrow and anger, etc. Its not either or. ALL PARTS OF US ARE WELCOME When we approach our life in this way, then we not only stop suppressing the emotions that are more uncomfortable but we also start to allow and create more space for the feel-good emotions. We stop living in a state of repressed numbness and control, and instead flow with what arises, which allows us to feel MORE ALIVE!

When we haven’t felt “good” in so long, its easier initially to chose an activity to help bring on these positive feelings, however once you regularly access joy and bliss (without spiritually bypassing the denser feelings/emotions) you can instantly access these positive states more easily and for more prolonged periods of time (to the point where it becomes a way of life) and then you do not always need to rely on an activity or something outside of you to get you there.

Your connection to Creator/Source/GOD/Goddess/Universe is your source and portal of joy, bliss, pleasure, ecstasy and so on, so it is accessible to you in an instant once you know how to connect to it and clear out what's blocking it!

You can get to the point where you just easily choose these fun, playful and pleasurable activities because you really enjoy them and they support you in continuing to experience the joys of life, rather than seeing them as a thing you have to do to heal. It can feel a bit this way initially when you start a blissipline practice.

I know I felt this way and I bumped up against a lot of resistance, some of which i'm still working through. I have not mastered all of this yet but I'm making significant progress in allowing the whole range of my emotions (the dense and the light ones) to be felt more fully, and my health and life have leveled up dramaticaly as a result! It can take some time for our limbic systems to allow this shift and therefore patience is needed! We can’t force the traumatized versions of ourselves to change overnight.

With chronic stress as the baseline since childhood for many people, we can get subconsciously addicted to stress and other more heavy emotions because we were programmed to live in this way, and we don’t know how to live another way. In addition to experiencing trauma, we may not have had role models growing up who showed us what living in joy and bliss looks or feels like. Even though we are born with those receptor sites, if we are not stimulating them regulalrly or we form limiting beliefs about those states being unsafe/not allowed, etc, the receptors lose their affinity over time due to avoidance, and we can forget what they feel like or how to bring up these feelings.

Good news is —> we can WAKE UP these receptors and remember what these emotions feel like and feel safe and allowed to experience them!

My RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. Find a practitioner who can support you with your shadow/trauma healing work - clearing of subconscious limiting beliefs and emotions and help you move towards creating a life you love! This is my jam so if you resonate with my work please visit www.melissacrawford.ca to learn more or to book a session.

1. Carve out enough time to de-stress and relax daily, preventatively, and in the day-to-day moments when you’re noticing you’re in a state of chronic stress. Nervous system regulation is a key part of healing. Let your body rest more (in addition to sleep) so it can start to produce the much-needed hormones and neurotransmitters that are needed to help you feel good and more alive! Slow down more often, and choose to breathe slowly and deeply and simply be mindfully present to what is. Even just seconds or a few minutes of presence, conscious breathing and slowing down, while in a state of stress, can shift things profoundly!

1. Commit to a daily “blissipline” practice! Be creative and let your inner child have a say in what would be enjoyable for her/him! What did you love to do as a child or teen or younger adult that you stopped doing after stressful life events occurred or when life got "too busy”? When you incorporate your blissipline self-care practices, notice if there is resistance and what that’s about - what thoughts, beliefs, emotions are coming up? Free of judgement (good/bad/wrong), allow and observe these and be present with them and then once you've fully felt it all (this is key to avoid spiritually bypassing), make a conscious choice of how you want to feel next! Take your power back and start creating a diferent reality for yourself! You absolutely have that power, we all do!

With love,

Melissa