“As women, by default we tend to absorb other people’s emotions as our own. Sometimes we have difficulty separating them out from our own, and that impacts how we relate to ourselves and others. Working with that energetically in addition to psychologically can be really really helpful.” – Lisa Erickson
Chakra work may sound woo-woo but it’s powerful work, especially for women. This week’s podcast guest, Lisa Erickson knows firsthand.
She was introduced to chakra work 30 years ago when she began meditating as a part of yoga class. As a technology executive in New York City, she used these meditations to help her thrive within the high demands of her career.
Now she has a private practice where she helps women understand their energies and heal from sexual trauma. She’s even written a book called, Chakra Empowerment for Women.
IN THIS INTERVIEW, WE TALK ABOUT:
- What chakras actually are so you know how to find yours
- How powerful chakra work for women can be
- How our chakras change with our cycle and is different in menstruation, pregnancy, post-partum, and menopause
- How sexual trauma victims can find it to be healing with chakra work
…and so much more
You’ll really be thinking deeply in this one, and you’re going to want to take notes. It’s packed full of very thought-provoking information.
Listen via the link above.
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
→ Continue the conversation in my free online community
→ Get The 4-Day Accomplish Your Dreams Free Training
→ Chakra Empowerment for Women book
→ Lisa’s private practice and social accounts
Full Transcript
This is the Become an Unstoppable Woman podcast with Lindsay Preston Episode 45,
Chakra Empowerment.
[music]
Welcome to the Become An Unstoppable Woman podcast, the show for goal-getting,
fear-facing women for kicking ass by creating change. I’m your host, Lindsay Preston.
I’m a wife, mom of two, and a multi-certified life coach to women all over the world.
I’ve lived through enough in life to know that easier doesn’t always equate to better.
We can’t fear the fire, we must learn to become it. On this show, I’ll teach you how to
do just that. Join me as I challenge you to become even more of the strong, resilient,
and powerful woman you were meant to be. Let’s do this.
[music]
Hi there, Ms. Unstoppable Woman. I’m so excited to have you on the show today. We
have a treat in store. I feel like I’m always saying that because I get so excited about all
these episodes. It takes me a while to find guests for the show. I’m very picky about
who I have on the show. Once I get somebody on an interview, and we get it recorded
out into the world, it’s such a fun treat for me because again, it’s like these little babies
that are born into the world. It’s so much fun and today’s guest is no different. Her
name is Lisa Erickson.
She is a chakra base energy worker, writer, and teacher specializing in women’s
energetics and sexual trauma healing. She is trained in multiple energy healing
modalities and is certified in both mindfulness meditation instruction and trauma
sensitivity. Lisa’s interest in the chakra and energy healing began over 30 years ago. Let
me tell you, she does not look like she’s been doing this work that long. She began
meditating as a part of a yoga class, and she just really got into meditation while she
was an executive in New York City. Then she began to have her own practice. She has
been doing energy healing training and to private session work for many, many years
now. I’m thrilled to have her on the show today.
She just released a book called Chakra Empowerment for Women. This is a self-guided
techniques for healing trauma, owning your power, and finding overall wellness. I have
been on the hunt for a chakra expert on my show and to partner with for years now. I
teach a little bit of Chakra work in one of my courses called Become Authentically
Awesome. Many of my clients say, “Oh my gosh, Lindsay, I loved that little work we did
together.” I wish there was someone I could go to for more work. Now I have
somebody, and it’s Lisa. Again, I really have to seek out these people and find a
diamond in the rough, and Lisa is amazing. She drops so many bombshells on this
interview.
We cover so much in just 30 minutes. Oh, my goodness gracious. We talk about what
chakras are, if you’re a newbie here and the different levels of chakras, the different
ones that are in within your body. Then we go deeper dive of how women’s chakras are
different than men’s and how menstruation and pregnancy and postpartum, and when
we’re menopausal and how that changes our chakras and how sexual abuse so just
abuse in general or trauma can affect our bodies and so much goodness in this one. Oh
my gosh. I can’t wait to share it with you.
Without further ado, here is my interview with Lisa. Lisa, thank you so much for joining
all of us on the Become An Unstoppable Woman Podcast. I am thrilled to have you. I
have been looking for a chakra expert for years now, years. When I saw your
information, and I just read about you, and I felt energetically some fun stuff off of you,
I was, “Oh, I have to have her on the show.” I’m thrilled you’re here. Thank you.
Lisa Erickson: Well, and I’m thrilled to be here. Thanks so much for having me, Lindsay.
Lindsay: Yes. Let’s start with the basics, Lisa. Now, many of my clients know what
chakras are because we include some of that work as we work together, but not
everybody may know what chakras are. Can you tell us what they are and then what are
the benefits of doing some chakra work?
Lisa: The chakras are energy centers. It’s like they’re organs in our energy anatomy, just
like in our physical anatomy we have a heart and a stomach and each have a different
function. In our energy body, our chakras are the main energy centers. Then, there’s
channels that run through them and connect them. They each have a different function.
They each tie to parts of our physical body and our physical anatomy for healing,
physical healing. They also tie to different aspects of our psyche, different emotions,
different states of mind, different vibrations you could call them. We can really work
with our chakras both for physical healing, for personal transformation, for spiritual
growth, they’re this middle level from which you can access the whole spectrum of
mind, body, spirit activity.
Lindsay: I always tell my clients when we introduced chakra they say, “Okay, I know this
is going to sound really woo-woo, but I promise this stuff works.” I don’t know how it
works or why it works, but just taping into these energy centers in our body and
knowing how to tap into them and then what can happen when you tap into them, it’s
just so powerful. Lisa, when were you first introduced to chakra work?
Lisa: I was introduced to the chakras over 30 years ago now. I was in my 20s. I was
working in technology in New York City. I was having a lot of stress headaches, stress
stomach aches, and a friend recommended a meditation class. It just happened to be a
chakra meditation class. Not that common in those days. It really launched me into
what initially was a meditation path. Eventually, I veered into studying energy healing,
and I changed careers to make that my focus. I’ve had a few milestones along the way
that triggered me to really get into women’s health and understanding women’s energy
bodies as well as trauma healing.
Lindsay: I want to touch on that Lisa. When I was reading your story, you said after you
gave birth you found that your energy centers changed or your chakra work or
something like that changed, can you tell us about that? How did you know that?
Lisa: Well, I think because I had already been meditating for like 15 years at that point.
I really felt shifts in my energy body that maybe not everyone would notice. You’re so
focused post-birth on just physical healing, and fatigue. You’re so overwhelmed, but for
me, my meditation shifted when I could fit them in which was not all that often. I really
felt I just couldn’t get what’s called the Kundalini, one of the energies that moves
through the chakras moving again.
I was really having difficulty balancing my own energetic needs with my new
daughters. It really triggered me to do research specifically on women’s energy bodies.
I found a lot of information that I hadn’t really known about. A lot more writings and
teachings on the differences between men and women’s energy and especially how
we’re impacted post-birth, pregnancy, even during menstruation each month,
menopause. I think knowing about these things is actually really empowering.
Lindsay: I can’t wait to dig deeper into all those things in a bit. Now, you call your work
women’s energetics, what is this? Tell us more.
Lisa: It really is that focus on specifically, what are the unique ways that a woman
might want to work with the chakras? I think there’s a couple of different aspects to
that. One is the cycles I was talking about. We physically have these cycles and phases
of our life that are very different from men. We have menstruation every month, we
have pregnancy potentially if we choose to have children, we have menopause. While
men also have a lot of hormonal transits in their life, they’re not as pronounced as ours.
Just as we have these cycles and phases physically, we have them energetically as well.
Information on that is really part of what’s under women’s energetics. I think the other
piece of it is to the extent that women have particular emotional things that we work
with, that some things are different for women and men, especially the conditioning
that we receive which I think is still very gendered. We might want to work with our
chakras on that psychological level specifically related to some of our conditioning,
especially around boundaries. I think I do a lot of work with boundaries for that reason.
Lindsay: I love that Lisa. That’s something I didn’t know you did.
Lisa: Well, the main difference technically, we probably don’t want to get too technical,
but women are really anchored in the second chakra. There’s a spectrum. When we talk
about people, trans and pangender. I’ve worked with a lot of different individuals. It’s a
spectrum so it’s not completely male, female, black and white, binary. In general,
women’s energy bodies are more receptive or anchored in the second chakra which is a
receptive chakra.
We’re more empathic in other words. We by default tend to absorb other people’s
emotions as our own. Sometimes we have difficulty separating them out from our own,
and that impacts how we relate to ourselves and others. Working with that
energetically in addition to psychologically can be really really helpful.
Lindsay: Yes. You bring up something that I feel like we need to explain for anyone
who’s new out there. We talked about chakras and why they’re important and how you
can benefit from them, but, Lisa, can you kind of break down the different chakras real
quick?
Lisa: There are different mappings with different numbers, but the one that is the most
common here in the West, and that most people may have seen a picture of if they take
yoga on their yoga studio wall is a seven chakra system. There’s seven main energy
centers that span from our tailbone, which is the first chakra all the way up to the
crown of our head. Each of those seven is linked to different psychological functions in
different organs and glands in our body as well. I don’t know if you want me to walk
through all seven or just leave it at that.
Lindsay: Yes. We’ve got seven. You said women mostly, what was it stay in the second
chakra
Lisa: We’re anchored there. It’s about a balance and flow between all seven of them for
both men and women, but men tend to be anchored in the first chakra, which is the
traditional teaching that everyone is anchored there. Of course, really what happened is
teachings that were more relevant to men traveled to the West as if they were relevant
to everyone which, of course, happened in a lot of different fields. That shock is very
fixed. It’s the earth element. It’s our grounding, it’s our connection to our body.
Men have a tendency that if they’re focusing energetically, they need more fluidity. Not
a surprise. Their risk would be becoming too rigid on many levels. Whereas, women
tend to be anchored in the second chakra. The energy is already pooled there. That
does tie to our womb. These cliches of womb power and things like that, that’s where it
comes from in other traditions. That is a very fluid chakra, but it’s also a very absorbent
empathic chakra. We tend to need to focus more on grounding and on boundaries.
That’s the quick and dirty on the differences in the two types of energy bodies.
Lindsay: Yes. All right, I’m fascinated. So good. Based on these differences, how do you
recommend a woman work differently with her energy body, particularly with her
chakras versus a man?
Lisa: The first thing I usually focus on with most women is really that sense of getting
grounded in the body and focusing on where you feel different emotions in your body.
That’s really to get this sense of grounding and slowing things down emotionally so
you can really begin to figure out what’s me and what’s other people. If you’re in a
situation during the day that triggers anxiety, slowing it down, going where do you feel
that anxiety in your body and tracking the situation like when did the anxiety start?
You can start to figure out what’s your trigger? Where is that trigger? Where does it tie
to in your body? How can you work with it? With some breath work, some chakra work.
Or what is someone else’s emotions that you’ve picked up that you really absorbed and
then you took it on as if it was your own? That’s prevalent in a lot of situations. That’s
one of the first things that I focus on. Then we’re focusing on boundaries, which is two
chakras, in particular, the first and the third chakra learning to focus in those two
chakras and imagine they’re creating like a shield around you is a powerful tool to use
to begin to build that sense of having a boundary.
Lindsay: Yes. Lisa, I knew about creating what I call a bubble around you. I’ve known
about feeling in your body when you feel anxiety, but I’ve never learned about tying it
into your chakras. That’s powerful, really powerful.
Lisa: Yes. Really a lot of chakra work, I consider it mindfulness 2.0, mindfulness 1.0 is
finding it in your body, where do you feel it? And learning to be present with it. Then
the chakras you’re taking it to another level you’re saying, “Okay, I can shift this. I can
dissolve that energy where I feel it. I can focus on a chakra that represents counter
energy and shift into that. I want that feeling of calmness, a feeling of confidence.”
That’s mindfulness 2.0s.
Lindsay: Yes. Even just as you’re talking through this and saying that women’s power
can be more in that second chakra, which is around the womb, I can already feel that
chakra activating inside of me and thinking, “Wow, this is powerful.” To come to a
powerful place as a woman versus that grounded root chakra of, “Let me drive forward
as a man.” That’s cool. Really cool. Well, on that note, talking about feminine power,
this is something that’s really prevalent now, or just learning to tap into our feminine
energy or the rise of the divine feminine is something else that’s out there. Tell us how
can we tap more into that using our chakras? You gave us some stuff but give us a little
more.
Lisa: A lot of it has to do with the conditioning that we receive. It’s partially about this
moment in history that we’re in. We focused for several decades now on giving women,
all of us, access to power in the social realm at work, in society, in culture, in our
relationships, but it’s more externally focused. It’s still was on male terms. It was still
defining power in terms of you could say root chakra power, material power in the
world.
What we really need to do now is own that everyone, all of these traits that have been
associated with the feminine chakras, which is intuition, which is emotion, which is
sensuality, which is nurturing, that those are powerful, they don’t need to be denigrated
and we should own them as our power and honestly, men should too because we’re all
whole body beings. We’re all holistic. We all want to own all of that.
It’s about for a lot of women looking at the conditioning that they have around their
own power and what they rate as positive versus negative and what they define as
feminine versus masculine. Do they view some of their own power as a weakness? Like
being nurturing or do they denigrate sexual energy? Do they have shame around sexual
energy? Things like that. There’s a lot of different components to it, but unearthing all
of that. On the chakra level then it’s really about focusing in on all of the energies of all
of the chakras, but especially the second, the pelvic chakra, the heart, and the third eye,
which are the three feminine or yin chakras, and learning to really own those abilities.
Lindsay: Man, I am spinning over here, Lisa, just thinking about this. I love how you said
earlier, this is mindfulness 2.0 and it’s so true because the past year or so, I’ve been
doing a lot of reading on the patriarchy and owning your feminine power and all this.
That’s been very mind-blowing in my head, but now thinking about it, “Wow, I can
incorporate this in my body through chakra work,” is so exciting to think about.
Lisa: Yes. Exactly right. It’s really like how you react in situations. Do you fall into
people-pleasing? Were you conditioned to– Two of my three children are 13-year-old
boy, girl twins. It’s interesting to me just to see just how gendered our conditioning still
is even now, even when we’re trying for it not to be. Do you still carry conditioning
around people-pleasing that as a girl or a woman you’re responsible for everyone’s
emotions and you’re responsible for smoothing everything out?
Do you still carry fear around expressing your anger or expressing yourself in an
assertive way because it’s not feminine or you won’t be liked? These kinds of things, we
store those feelings in our body. When you start noticing this conditioning holding you
back, you can really work with, “Where do I feel it in my body?” And bring forward the
chakra energies to counter that and reprogram the way that you carry yourself in the
world.
Lindsay: Yes. So powerful. Well, I want to go back to something you said earlier. In that
we have energetic shifts when we are going through menstruation, pregnancy, or
menopause, what are these shifts, Lisa?
Lisa: Well, menstruation, it really mirrors our hormonal shifts. Science has now shown
that at the peak of ovulation, we actually do appear more charismatic to others, our
body emits pheromones and it all has to do with biology and biological attraction, but
at an energy level, our energy, our sacral chakra waxes, and wanes with our cycle as
well. It’s really a maximum emanating power around ovulation and then around
menstruation and especially few days before, it’s more inward pulling and
contemplative.
At that time, our intuition, our ability to contemplate something in our life that we’re
trying to resolve or make the decision is at its most sensitive. At our peak of ovulation,
our outward-facing self is actually the most empowered. You can’t always arrange your
life around that, but even just knowing about it and giving yourself extra time to work
things out or giving yourself more solitude during menstruation, if you can, and
drawing on extra emanating power when you’re out there in the world when you need
it can be really helpful. I think just beginning to watch this cycle, a lot of women find
it’s tremendously helpful to use in their life. It’s like monitoring the surf. When the
surface up and when the surface down and how do you correspond to that?
Lindsay: Yes. I’ve been doing this in my own life for just about a year or so now and
especially as an entrepreneur because I can– Two things with that. I really can control
my schedule and two, I want to follow my energetic pools in that way, it’s been very
powerful too, and two to just release the conditioning, like you said, Lisa, of us having
to work like a man, of go, go, go, go, go, do, do, do, do, do, that is not how women work,
we need those kinds of ups and downs, like you said, and it’s just been so freeing.
Again, I’m so excited to think, “Wow, I can tie my chakras to this? This is amazing.”
Lisa: Yes, and it’s really falling into this pattern of, “Okay, search forward then reflect
and refine. Search forward, reflect, and refine.” That’s how we tend to work when we’re
creating things in tune with this cycle. Then, pregnancy is a time in which our second
chakra is becoming more and more open. It’s like the spiritual doorway component to
our body being a physical doorway. You can open that doorway without having a
physical child, but the experience of pregnancy and birthing a physical child does open
it even if you’re not trying to do so.
It often opens up new creative doorways in a woman if she’s open to it. It can also
trigger old emotional wounds or trauma that in the years following childbirth need to
be addressed and healed for someone to move forward. It can have a lot of different
impacts. Then, post-pregnancy, as I talked about where you have these energy shifts
going on and you also now have an energy line to your child and we have to learn to
manage that and I think we all instinctively know that, but for some women working
with their shockers in that regard can be helpful in that transit.
Lindsay: Yes. Again, I feel like this is a story of my life. I experienced that with
pregnancy with my son because with my daughter, after that, I had a horrible divorce
and all that, and I thought I had healed some of that stuff, but when I was pregnant
with him, it brought back all these memories of my pregnancy with her and how I had
forgotten some of the hardships that went through it, and so that was a lot of healing
work I had to do after I birthed him. Yes, I can totally relate to that.
Lisa: Yes, it’s so interesting because the second chakra is tied to our emotions. Anything
we’ve had to push down tends to get released. It tends to get brought up through
pregnancy. Then, that same thing happens again at perimenopause because we
experience these surges of energy in our second chakra as our cycle is becoming
irregular. It’s really an opportunity for rebirth, like menopause as we let go of our
physical cycle, we can tap into our energy body and our spirit in an even deeper level if
we approach it that way, if we really lean into the transformation. There’s a real
energetic component to that process as well.
Lindsay: Yes. Lisa, I’m thinking about– I always say that hormones are like fuel to a fire
of something that was already burning inside of you. Now, as you’re talking about this
chakra stuff, and especially during our cycles and pregnancy and postpartum and
menopause, I’m really thinking my theory is true of it opens those chakras and says,
“This is what you need to deal with.” What would you say to that, Lisa, do you agree?
Lisa: I absolutely agree. The interesting thing is in Ayurvedic medicine, which is the
ancient Indian medicine that ties into the chakras, each chakra is linked to a gland and
this second chakra is linked to our ovaries. It really is that these hormonal cycles that
define our lives in certain ways. Physically, they are also really refined in a very refined
way linked to our energy. it’s all bundled up. You can view it kind of through the
hormonal lens or through the chakra lens and you come to the same place.
Lindsay: Yes. It makes sense as the work I’ve done in my life, I used to have these huge
mood swings when I would have my period, and as I’ve done this work, I don’t have
that anymore and because I feel that works. I always tell my clients that too, is that if
you’re moody, you can absolutely heal that doing mindset work, but now that this
whole chakra world, you’re opening our eyes, Lisa, it’s so great. I do want to go back to
something you said earlier, that we have this energetic connection to our kids, which is
something if you’re a mother, you know that, but how can we cultivate that more
consciously?
Lisa Well, there’s a few different levels to this. One is we have this energy line to birth
children that it really narrows the umbilical cord from our second chakra to their navel
chakra. Ideally, as they grow, it is becoming more and more dormant. They’re becoming
energetically more and more independent from us, just like they’re becoming
psychologically more and more independent. From an energetic health perspective for
both us and our children, it’s partially about allowing that to happen.
If we stop it, it’s not good for us or them, if we clean too much, and in some cases,
some of us may experience this with our adult mothers feeling like they never allowed
that line to go dormant and allowed us to become completely energetically
independent. It’s really about pacing. I think, on the other hand, we could go the other
way. If we don’t really share our energy with our children, especially in their younger
years in the way that they need it, that can be a problem for both us and them.
It’s really just about recognizing the developmental milestones and this synergy
connection. Also, it’s about self-care, understanding that we can close this line when
we need to rejuvenate, when our children are safe, when they’re with someone else,
when they’re being cared for, or they’re asleep, whatever, we can really close this line
and shut down the worrying and just really rejuvenate our energy body, and we need to
do that. We have a right to do that.
Lindsay: Yes. Again, those boundaries. Yes. Okay. Couple more questions for you, Lisa. I
know you work with a lot of people who have had sexual trauma. How does sexual
trauma or just trauma, in general, impact our energy body?
Lisa: Yes, there’s a few different ways it can impact us, but the one that is the most
common is some level of disassociation, especially sexual trauma since the body was
the site of the trauma. What I mean by disassociation is developing some patterns of
not feeling fully connected to the body. How that reflects energetically is not being
fully anchored in that first and second chakra, which means a lot of those functions
might be shut down to some extent. It means maybe not having a healthy relationship
to the body that can reflect in eating disorders or addiction issues, or it might be
subtler.
It might be someone who is always in their head and can never really be present to
their surroundings, always going to 1 million miles a minute, and their mind is just
always so busy and buzzing that they can’t really feel, they can’t connect emotionally
with people, they can’t relax, they can’t experience their senses even in a mindful way,
which generates a lot of stress.
There’s different levels and types of disassociation. Either way, it’s really about facing
the underlying fear that is the root of that initial pattern. The fear is being completely
in my body and present is too painful. When someone was abused as a child or during
an assault episode, it’s a survival mechanism to disconnect from the body, but then
when it becomes a habit, it got someone through a traumatic situation, but then when
it becomes a habit in regular life, it becomes limiting.
We have to reprogram that habit, face the underlying fear so that someone knows I can
be present with discomfort, I can be present in an uncomfortable situation, I can be
present in my body, even when there is uncomfortable physical sensations if needed,
going to the doctor, et cetera. It’s okay, I’m resilient, it will come and go. That really is
root chakra, a lot of root chakra work. Then, of course, with sexual trauma, there are
often patterns of shame.
Those often impact the second chakra that we need to work and heal. Patterns of
secrecy. If someone has not been able to tell anyone, and when we’re holding a big
secret like that, it often makes us feel isolated from others, even if we’re very social
because there’s always a part of us held back. Learning to work through that is a third
chakra. Relationship issues, feelings of unworthiness. It really is individual, but it does
map to the different chakras, and that’s why for some sexual trauma survivors, chakra
work is the most palatable to them because it’s non-invasive, it’s not as threatening.
Lindsay: Yes, in regards to what, talk therapy?
Lisa: Well, somatic work, bodywork. Which often recommended or talk therapy in terms
of being alone in a room with someone. I work mostly remotely or you can work on
your own with the chakras. I do believe most people who are healing from really
difficult sexual trauma need a combination of modalities and usually talk therapy is
going to be a part of that at some point. I’ve also worked with a lot of people that have
done talk therapy, they feel like they understand their history, now what they need is,
“How do I reprogram myself, how do I change my reactions? I understand why I am the
way I am, but that hasn’t helped me change.” Chakra work is just one of many sets of
tools that you might use to do that.
Lindsay: Yes, especially to incorporate the body. I do a lot of work with clients too, Lisa,
who have done talk therapy, and then they’re like you said, I understand the history, I
know why it’s there, I’ve talked about it enough. We do some kind of mind work to heal
it, but the chakra work has taken it t, again, a whole nother level getting that body
involved. I just finished a book called The Body Keeps Score. Have you heard of it, Lisa?
Lisa: Yes.
Lindsay: Yes. I loved the body incorporation in that book too of how we need to do that.
That’s great. Question for you, you talk a lot about trauma sensitivity, what is this and
why is this important?
Lisa: This is really for people like you and me, anyone working with clients, learning
how to work in a way that doesn’t re-traumatize people accidentally. I think there’s
been a growing awareness, especially in the yoga community and meditation
community, that sometimes things that we do that we feel are relaxing may actually be
triggering for someone, like dim lighting or in yoga or physical setting, doing
adjustments without asking permission.
Things like this, and so, really what I meant by that trauma sensitivity is learning how
to work in such a where you are maximizing a sense of partnership, a sense of choice
that if you’re doing energy healing work, there’s a lot of shamanic energy healing
where it’s like you start this whole process and you’re often taught you should never
stop the process in the middle, but I feel with trauma survivors know, you always have
to say, “You can stop this whenever you want.”
Things like that. I work with this organization called The Breathe Network that is really
dedicated to resources for holistic healing for sexual trauma survivors in particular.
They’re doing a lot of research and a lot of training on what it means to be traumasensitive in a client practice.
Lindsay: Yes, that’s great. What do you define trauma as, Lisa?
Lisa: Well, that’s a big question. Really I stick to a general psychological definition of
anything that we have difficulty integrating into our psyche. We haven’t been able to
fully integrate it. We can have small traumas in our life that a week or two later we’re
able to integrate. You get into a car accident, it’s a fender bender, you’re really shaken,
but it’s not life-threatening, but you’re really shaken, maybe for several days.
Over time, you are able to integrate that experience. You usually you’ll go over it many
times in your mind, you’re able to remember it, you talk it through with people, you’re
able to come to terms with it, and you’re not afraid to drive again, but a major car
accident may cause someone to just be terrified of driving for years. They’re never able
to integrate what happened and face all of the emotions involved in order to work
through it and come out the other side with a sense of resilience. That’s the difference.
Lindsay: Yes. I think it can be the stories that going on in your head over and over
again. That’s a good sign that you haven’t integrated it, would you agree?
Lisa: Yes, or the stories you’re avoiding. It can go either way depending on your nature,
the things you’re pushing away. Now we understand it isn’t always our own trauma, we
understand there’s ancestral and generational trauma sometimes that you can pick up
from your family, from your parents, or secondary trauma. Trauma you witnessed in war
zones.
In emergency cares work there’s a lot of concern right now that health care workers are
going to be traumatized by what they’re having to deal with right now, by witnessing it.
There’s levels and kinds of ways we can beat trauma in different ways to work through
it.
Lindsay: Yes, I was just talking to a client about this of when she was a kid she
overheard a story about one of her neighbors drowning and she was talking to me, just
like, “I feel I have trauma from that, even just hearing the story.” I feel that way too
when I hear some people’s stories it’s just on a personal setting and they will just
throw something out at me without me being prepared. Like, “Wow, I feel have trauma
off of that,” but luckily I know how to integrate that stuff. I love that definition you
have with the integration of that. You just can’t integrate it. Got it. Okay, cool.
Lisa: For caretakers, for all of us working with people, that’s exactly right. We have to
know our own limits and give ourselves the time and space to process the trauma that
we hear about because you can develop compassion fatigue or issues with that taking
that trauma into our own bodies.
Lindsay: That goes back to that’s why boundaries and self-care are so important
because otherwise, so many of us are so empathetic that we’re just soaking that stuff
all the time. I know that’s been huge in my world. Lisa, so much goodness today. Oh,
goodness, can you tell us about your book and where we can find it, and where we can
connect with you?
Lisa: Yes, the book is called Chakra Empowerment for Women. It is available on Amazon,
Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, The Publisher, and my website. The book website is
Chakra Empowerment for Women. There’s some additional resources related to the
book there, including some recordings of some of the exercises in the book. Then my
client site is Enlightened Energetics. I’m on Facebook and Instagram as Chakra
Empowerment and Twitter as mommymystic. I think that’s all the different places.
Lindsay: Love it. I can’t wait to get my hands on your book, I can see it being the one
that I send the clients all the time.
Lisa: That’s great to hear.
Lindsay: Yes. Thank you again, Lisa.
Lisa: Thank you and thank you for your own work in the world.
[music]
Thank you for joining me on this episode of Become an Unstoppable Woman. Make
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remember my friend, you’re only as unstoppable as you believe you can be. Believe in
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