How can I still work with my life

Help required with personal difficulties.
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Kili
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How can I still work with my life

Post by Kili »

I have been badly traumatised by having received medication that had my bones deformed. I am now having fladhbacks of the clinic and my body is badly damaged and hard to even move.
I am horrifued of how the rest of my life is going to be. I was wondering if there is any way I can again find meaning. I am also afraid that my traumatic flashbacks may send me to hell. I am crying out " Hey! " and "No! " all day and next week I will be in a psychosomatic clinic. I feel like I have dropped into hell through this experience and I was just wondering if there is any practice recommended for cases like this
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Ayu
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Re: How can I still work with my life

Post by Ayu »

Aside from finding definitely help in the non-digital world, you can try to calm your mind and gain more confidence. This will support any medical treatment strongly and is even very helpful at the time of dying.
When I was severely sick, taking things calm and positively was a great help and my doctors were very happy with the way their treatment succeded.

A recommendation which is generally harmless and possibly helpful: just ask the field of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for help and chant Om Mani Peme Hung (Avalokiteshvara Mantra) or Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha (Tara Mantra).

You can develop an inner relationship to one diety only as well, e.g. Buddha Shakiamuni, Medicine Buddha, Avalokiteshvara or Tara.
Keeping the mind positively is a helpful treatment besides real professional medical help. You have to generate the former by yourself. The latter you have to find outside of Internet forums.

Very very best wishes.

cjdevries
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Re: How can I still work with my life

Post by cjdevries »

I don't know if this will help, but Akong Rinpoche has a book called "Taming the Tiger" that has exercises in the back focused on alleviating suffering. Here is an example of one exercise: "Visualizing the Blue-Black Light Overcoming Anger Look at the feelings of anger and hatred in your mind. See their harmful consequences in your day to day life, both physical and emotional....visualize the rainbow colored sphere appearing in front of you in the sky. All the colors merge into a blue-black color that has a jewel-like sparkling quality. As you breathe it, imagine this deep-blue light coming into you, contacting and transforming all the anger and hatred in your body, speech and mind. This deep-blue light makes it possible to identify, understand, accept and let go of the anger and hatred, which is then transformed into a dirty, black smoke that dissolves one foot away from the body. Let the deep blue sparkling light go to any area of pain or sickness that you have and feel it benefitting you. At the end of the session when all the anger and hatred is washed away, let the light go out first to those you know and then to all others. Then visualize the deep-blue light returning to the sphere, which again becomes composed of the six colors and moves away from you in space until it completely vanishes. Afterwards, let your mind rest in open space for as long as feels natural." Many of the exercises are focused on working with light to overcome problems; there are also some relaxation exercises. This book makes up part of Akong Rinpoche's "Tara Rokpa Therapy" which is a multi-year transformational healing process, available in several countries around the world.

I will add that I have been through some very traumatic events, including a near fatal incident, as well as a serious case of ME/CFS, a very disabling disease that has left me disabled and which has prevented me from being able to work for the past 12 years. I also have a lot to process myself and I have periods of time where I am completely overwhelmed and in panic. I will share what helps me, only because I think that when people share what works for them it helps us get ideas for methods that may help work for us. In the morning, I do exercises that involve relaxation and getting a feel for different areas of the body by noticing each area of my body and then gently relaxing each area. Basically I follow the exercises in the book "Taming the Tiger" and "Touching Enlightenment" by Reggie Ray. Sometimes I go outside and touch my feet to the Earth to connect to the Earth. I have a tape of Healing Sounds that I shared under the sub-forum "Health, Wellness, Fitness" the post is called "Emei Sacred Healing Sounds"; these healing sounds are a life saver for many people in times of acute illness and also just for day to day functioning. After I relax my body, I tune into my emotions. If I can feel a strong emotion that needs to be expressed, I grab a bag of clay and begin to mold the clay in a way that feels healing. I will make movements and gestures toward the clay that express my deepest feelings. It's almost like interpretive dance with the clay. I slap the clay with feeling, I squish my fingers into the clay imagining that all my pain is being released; I embrace the clay within my hands lovingly. I try to use the clay to create something that will support my emotional healing process, release pent-up emotions, and help me to become inspired within my heart and inner self. When I am done, I imagine that all my emotions are released and I imagine that I am moving on and leaving these emotions behind. One key I've found in finding methods of transforming emotions is looking for methods that connect me deeply with my heart and inner self. I've found that for something to work, I need to be inspired, I need to have fun, and it has to feel authentic and grounding/supportive. There are many methods out there and we have to find what works for us. One method I've found useful is drumming. I participated in a drum group in my town for about 6 months or a year and then I took an online class through the Shift Network called "Awaken Your Rhythm" with Christine Stevens. She teaches people how to use rhythm to heal. Some other methods that might be useful are devotional singing or chanting, or just singing spontaneous sounds and melodies if you have a gift for songwriting. Also, dance can be transformative.

It's such an individual thing; everyone's process of healing is different and demands different skills and methods. So far, I've been able to relieve a lot of my emotional pain this way, but there are still days where despite all the methods I try still cannot fully heal or resolve an emotion. In that case, I just hold a compassionate space for the emotion and try to send loving kindness. Sometimes I just take my drum and hold it lovingly, imagining all the time I've spent drumming and the energy I've put into blessing the drum and this is enough to at least give me enough inspiration to keep going to the next day with some optimism.

Lastly, I would recommend Matt Licata's book "A Healing Space." It is filled with wonderful advice for the process of healing and transformation; as well as some insights from his own Buddhist practice.
"Please call me by my true names so I can wake up; so the door of my heart can be left open: the door of compassion." -Thich Nhat Hanh

"Ask: what's needed of you" -Akong Rinpoche

"Love never claims, it ever gives. Love ever suffers, never resents, never revenges itself." -Gandhi
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Könchok Thrinley
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Re: How can I still work with my life

Post by Könchok Thrinley »

Kili wrote: Fri Feb 05, 2021 8:09 pm I have been badly traumatised by having received medication that had my bones deformed. I am now having fladhbacks of the clinic and my body is badly damaged and hard to even move.
I am horrifued of how the rest of my life is going to be. I was wondering if there is any way I can again find meaning. I am also afraid that my traumatic flashbacks may send me to hell. I am crying out " Hey! " and "No! " all day and next week I will be in a psychosomatic clinic. I feel like I have dropped into hell through this experience and I was just wondering if there is any practice recommended for cases like this
You can still practice dharma. Remember it is about the mind, not position of the body. So you can try to develop love and compassion, practice tonglen, or just recite mani mantra, or vajra guru mantra or amidewa mantra, there are many possibilities. Depends also on what you have already received. Wish you the best, this must be a hard situation.
“Observing samaya involves to remain inseparable from the union of wisdom and compassion at all times, to sustain mindfulness, and to put into practice the guru’s instructions”. Garchen Rinpoche

For those who do virtuous actions,
goodness is what comes to pass.
For those who do non-virtuous actions,
that becomes suffering indeed.

- Arya Sanghata Sutra
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明安 Myoan
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Re: How can I still work with my life

Post by 明安 Myoan »

:good:

Stay close to the sources of true refuge, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha.
There are so many ways to do this, just be creative and keep learning so you encounter methods and blessings.

Best of luck. As Shantideva said, the buddhas have unobstructed vision, and we stand before them.
Namu Amida Butsu
haha
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Re: How can I still work with my life

Post by haha »

Seema Sehgal's presentation on “Anxiety: Stop Negative Thoughts”

She has talked about various coping mechanism for anxiety. It could also be useful. If one wants, one can also relate her talk (i.e. those strategies) with Buddhist practices.

Transcribing: Time around (1hr 07min)

All we do meditation is putting aside a dedicated amount of time to be with our thoughts. We spend a lifetime running from them, distracting ourselves from them and you know in this world that we live in we are so concerned about our physical health, our physical well-beings, you know the food we eat and the stuff we put in our body. Unfortunately not half that attention goes to what we feed our mind. You know we are surrounded by so much sort of addictive activities. You know whether it is watching movies, or sports or TV or social media. It is basically feeding our mind junk. So we are inundating our mind with junk we input and it just keeps collecting. We don’t monitor it. We don’t take your responsibility for how much input I allow my brain to have.
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