Tools for Self Discovery
Because each person’s story is unique, their path of self discovery will also be unique.
There are, however, specific tools utilized to guide and support the journey.
Story
Story invites us to explore how our present experiences are informed and impacted by our initial experiences in life. It provides us with information that helps us identify and understand where we are, which direction we may need to go, what prevents us from moving forward on our life path, and which tools to draw on.
Song
Song provides a means to access, explore and express the truth of who we are. Although we may draw on singing, chanting, sound or toning as instruments for expression, a person’s soul song comes in many other forms; a small true voice from deep within, the deep sobbing song of grief, an excited expression of great joy, or a vulnerable sharing of shame, anger or fear.
Movement
Movement provides us with a means to connect with our bodies, a means to explore where our life force is blocked, and a means to free it. Sometimes movement is simply experiencing the movement of our hearts and our breath and welcoming what comes to guide us. Sometimes it is specific exercises to help remove blocks, and sometimes it is an ecstatic dance that expresses the fullness of who we are.
Breath
Breath provides us with a means to become fully and deeply present to ourselves. It provides a means to access and heal the unconscious emotions and beliefs that we have developed early in life but have no language for. It is a means to connect to the collective unconscious.
Music
The therapeutic benefits of music have been well documented. Instruments used in self discovery sessions may include voice, guitar, Celtic harp, piano, drum, percussion and the lap harp. The purpose of music is to assist in anchoring and supporting the integration of the work in all aspects of who we are - the mental, physical, emotional, social, will/intent and the spiritual.
Core Energetics
“Core Energetics is an evolutionary process for working with energy and consciousness that integrates all aspects of the human personality—the physical, the emotional, the psychological, the will, and the spirit. The purpose of the work is to develop consciousness and the free flow of energy to allow more truth, more connectedness, more creativity, more pleasure, and more love.”
Recreation Therapy
“Therapeutic Recreation/Recreation Therapy is a health profession that utilizes a therapeutic process, involving leisure, recreation and play as a primary tool for each individual to optimize the health and well-being of individuals with illnesses and disabling conditions. Recreation’s purpose is not to kill time, but to make life. Not to keep a person occupied, but to keep them refreshed. Not to offer an escape from life, but to provide life.”
Numa Breathwork
“Numa Somatics Breathwork is a transformational practice that strategically weaves together the power of conscious breathwork, explorations of movement that assist in releasing deeply held places in our physical bodies, investigations into whole person connections that lovingly meet and go beyond the mental and emotional aspects of who we are, and the healing vibrations of sound therapy. The purpose of the work is to promote happiness, joy, better health, increased self-love, compassion, trust and freedom.”
All of Soul Story Offerings are guided by the Shalom Principles and Skills of Loving™ which are the foundation of the Shalom Process™ and the Shalom Retreat™.
They echo what the masters have taught us about love…
Principles of Loving
More than anything else,
we want to love and be loved.
Love is a gift.
Love is not time bound.
Love is good will in action.
Love is a response to need.
Skills of Loving
Seeing: I do not look over or through you, I see you in your uniqueness.
Hearing: I listen to what you are saying.
Honouring of Feelings and Ideas: I recognize your right to think and feel as you do.
Having Good Will: I will you good and not evil. I care about you.
Responding to Need: If you let me know what your needs are, within the limits of my value system, I will not run away. I will be there for you.