Making Peace with What Haunts Us: Day 2

During her sermon on Sunday, Rev. Gretchen talked about how ghost stories can be a way to say “this happened, and it won’t really ever be over – even if we don’t talk about it. And that can be ok. Because we learn to live with it. We find ways to come to terms with it – even make something beautiful out of it.”

Sometimes when the ghosts come from our childhood, they can feel amorphous – maybe we can’t name them exactly. After all, most of our personal ghosts – and even many of our collective ones – aren’t neatly packaged into stories to be shared. So today, I invite you into a practice from trauma-trained somatic coach Abby Vernon.

Practice:

  1. Find a picture of yourself as a child.

  2. Take time to be with the image of younger you and allow any feelings and/or sensations to arise and flow through.

  3. Ask what your little self was thinking and /or feeling and what they may have needed.

  4. Offer your little self support and any care that comes up now, in this moment – perhaps they need a hug (hug yourself), they want to play (do something that helps you feel playful), or they may need to express their emotions (hold space for that expression – cry, scream, laugh).

If something specific arises during this exercise – a particular ghost – I invite you to name it. “This happened here. It may never really go away fully. That’s okay. I am worthy of happiness and peace. I can be both the child in the picture and the caring adult that child can lean on while being a work in progress.”

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