Sacred Unmasking

Tag: mental-health

  • How nervous system regulation brought my creativity back

    How nervous system regulation brought my creativity back

    Saturday morning. My body is aching, my mind racing, and Mr Depression is knocking on the door. I can feel the heaviness and the overwhelm like a wet blanket weighing on my fragile body – thoughts spiraling into dark places I’m far too acquainted with.

    “You’re not doing enough.”

    “You’re letting your fear stop you again.”

    “You just have to work harder and push through.”

    “Everyone else is doing it, how hard can it be?”

    “You’re a failure, you will never succeed like the rest of them.”

    Desperately, I try to defend my worth, but after a short while of inner battle, I surrender to the dark thoughts. The tiny bit of motivation I had mustered up to get the day started has left the building. 

    I lean over and put my forehead on the kitchen table. Waves of despair are showering over me as salty tears form patterns on my cheeks.

    A delta of despair.

    “I wish someone could hold me”, I hear a tiny voice crying. “I could really use a hug right now”.

    The voice takes me by surprise, but I immediately know that I need to do everything in my power to help the little girl.

    “I know, this is really hard for you. You’re going through something painful, and your emotions are so, so valid. You matter, and you make sense”, I hear myself comforting her. And instinctively, I put my arms around myself and hug myself, slowly rocking back and forth in a soothing motion.

    The dark thoughts that had taken over my inner battlefield retreat, and soon I feel the muscles in my body relaxing and letting go. I feel the relief of the little girl and her gratitude for helping her out of her prison.

    And just like that, something shifts. I can feel a surge of energy moving through my body. Lightness and inspiration gently lift the heavy blanket from my body.

    “I deserve to be happy.”

    “I don’t have to do things the same way as everyone else.”

    “I don’t have to fit into the mold.”

    And from this place, I ask the little girl: “What do YOU want to create? What would feel fun and joyful for YOU to do today?”

    “I want to write. I want to tell a story. I want to pick strawberries. I want to dress up in something beautiful and wear colorful makeup. I want to eat something nourishing. I want to meet new people and listen to their story. I want to be of service. I want to contribute to something meaningful.”, she replies.

    I let her go on until she’s finished, taking mental notes of all her needs and desires, promising to do my best to honor each and every one of them. If not today, then tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow.

    I find myself picking up my computer and starting to write, words flowing through me in an unfiltered stream of consciousness.

    “It really gets to be this easy”, I say to myself, and hit ‘publish’.

  • Implicit Memory & Somatic Healing

    Implicit Memory & Somatic Healing

    You’ve done the work. You’ve journaled, talked it through, revisited your memories repeatedly, and tried to understand how to heal that stubborn pattern that keeps showing up in different ways. You’ve told yourself it’s in the past, that it shouldn’t affect you anymore. But your body… tells a different story.

    You still shut down when conflict arises.
    You still freeze in moments of intimacy or connection.
    You still feel like something’s wrong with you, even when everything “should” feel fine.

    And maybe the most confusing part is:
    You don’t know why.

    This is where many people begin their journey into somatic healing, with a persistent feeling that something inside is stuck.

    But you can’t fully explain it.

    There’s a reason talk therapy or mindset work hasn’t reached this part of you. It’s because the pain you’re carrying isn’t always stored in your mind. It’s stored in your body.

    This is what’s known as implicit memory — the kind of memory you don’t consciously remember, but that your nervous system never forgot. It lives in your muscle tension, your breath patterns, your startle responses. In your gut, your shoulders, your skin.

    It’s the memory of not feeling safe and of being emotionally neglected, even if your childhood looked “fine.” The memory of learning to smile and stay small, because being your full self never felt truly welcome.

    You may not have a story for what happened.
    But your body remembers how it felt.

    This kind of pain doesn’t respond to logic.
    Because it didn’t come in through logic, it came in through experience.

    That’s why healing has to happen through experience, too. Through re-patterning the nervous system with new felt experiences of safety, connection, and permission.

    This is what somatic healing offers.

    It’s not about reliving trauma, but about becoming aware of how your body has adapted, and gently helping it find another way.

    What healing feels like in the body

    Somatic healing is not one-size-fits-all. Sometimes it’s as simple as feeling your breath deepen. Sometimes it’s learning to stay present through a wave of emotion without shutting down.
    Sometimes it’s letting your body move in a way it never could before: shaking, sounding, dancing, stretching, yawning.

    Each time you feel a little more, stay with yourself a little longer, your body realizes: I’m safe now. I don’t have to hold my breath anymore.

    And that’s the whole purpose of this work. When we start to listen to the body’s responses and give it what it actually needs in the moment, following it’s call for movement and release, we regulate our nervous system and slowly begin to embody safety.

    If this post awakens something in you, and you feel like this is something you would like to explore deeper, I offer 1:1 coaching where I blend parts work, somatic healing, shadow work, and energy work to help you become aware of your stubborn patterns, heal what needs to be healed, and start taking aligned action towards your most dreamy life. Send me a message at elinor[at]sacredunmasking.com and tell me a bit about yourself, and we’ll take it from there!

    With love,

    Elinor

    For transparency, this post is written in collaboration with my friend ChatGPT.