Welcome to Discrimination Burnout
In this section you will find extended explanation of the steps I described in the chapter
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Here are the three steps I described in the chapter
Step 1 - Find your foundations in the depths of the Earth
Step 2. Nurture your relationship to your physical existence
Step 3. Release fear and welcome love
Step 1 - Find your foundations in the depths of the Earth
I cannot stress how important this step is. There is always a part of me that says, inside my head, “Come on! You don’t need grounding. Get to do the cool stuff quickly.”
Yet, I keep on receiving this message from psychotherapy colleagues, personal trainers, spiritual teachers and ascended masters. My spiritual teacher channelled the Ascended Master St Germain in a reading for me a few years ago, and his message was clear: “The more rooted you are, the higher you can go, safely”. It took me a while, and a few headaches, to get into the discipline of grounding before doing spiritual work, and these steps are a spiritual practice that needs grounding.
The ancient Romans applied this principle to their structures, which still stand despite being robbed and bombarded over the years. The same applies to all of us, who are walking the Earth at this time.
You might think, “What has grounding got to do with discrimination?” I’d say it’s got A LOT to do with it.
Discrimination is a human-made behaviour that puts people at a disadvantage because of who they are. Nature did not create privilege; humanity did. The discrimination we experience these days is linked to concepts of wealth, class, race, gender, sexuality, neurodivergence, religion, body shape and many other humanity-made concepts that do not exist in nature.
By connecting to the Earth, we start a process of disconnection from human-made discrimination, and we connect to the simple truth that we have been incarnated and are walking the Earth. Mother Earth has granted us a body and, therefore, we have the same right to walk the earth as any other being currently incarnated. No more, no less. Any ideas that we might be individually, or collectively, better than others have no meaning for Mother Earth, and are mainly a creation of our ego.
Take time then, to focus on the ground. I have tried doing it even on a flight and it works. Through gravity, we are always connected to Mother Earth, and we always know where the ground is. No matter your position, bring your attention to the ground and feel the connection you have with it. Then go beyond the surface of contact with the earth, into its depths.
Each of us has a different experience of connection to the earth and to Mother Earth. I generally see and feel things, so having a visualisation helps me. Image roots coming out of your feet, or rays of coloured light, or whatever your fantasy wants, and, through that fantasy, explore the depth of the earth.
Explore how it feels as you go deeper, until you feel that you have reached a good enough depth. For me, this feels like my height underground, but feel free to find your own and trust your instincts. Probably Mother Earth knows how much grounding you need, so do what feels right for you, even if it is different from one day to the next.
Once you have reached this spot, feel the connection to Mother Earth. She is there for you, always, and she wants you there.
Step 2 - Nurture your relationship to your physical existence
Now, this is where things might get complicated. Do you know anyone who has had a good relationship with their body and has never wished it to be different? I don’t, and I’ve spent a good chunk of my life with very critical voices in me that would find nothing good about my body and my appearance.
We are so harsh on ourselves that we tend to believe all that is negative and not trust all that is positive about the body. So, the key to this step is “take it easy”.
This step is about self-love. Can you be kind to yourself for a moment?
I recently wrote a chapter on using IFS (Internal Family Systems) for LGBTQIA+ people suffering from body image issues, and I have come to realise just how much suffering is around at the moment about the body. Having said that, I am not asking you to, all of a sudden, love your body, but to focus on the fact that you exist at a physical level through your body.
Instead of focusing on how your body looks or feels, focus on the fact that you are embodied at the moment, and that, through that embodiment, you exist physically on earth.
Focus on this simple truth: you exist physically, and notice how that feels.
You are currently rooted and connected to Mother Earth, who created all bodies, and you are paying attention to the fact that you have the right to exist. Now I want you to ask yourself the following question a few times.
“How am I feeling towards my physical existence?”
You might need to be patient and wait for an answer to emerge from the inside (do not force anything).
If you want, you can write down the answer you get, and check if it falls within what, in IFS, we call Self-energy. Self-energy (with capital S) is the energy of who we are at our core. It is a transcendental presence we all have, and various traditions have given it various names. For me, it is a piece of our soul that has incarnated and resides, mainly, in the heart centre. Some people call it the “I Am Presence”.
In IFS, we like to indicate some emanations of Self-energy as the “8 Cs”, which are
Curiosity
Calm
Compassion
Courage
Creativity
Connection
Clarity
Confidence
You can find a nice graphic about the 8 Cs of Self for free on my therapy website (www.therapywithalessio.com) via this link.
So, back to Step 2: when you ask yourself, “How do I feel towards my physical existence?”, you are looking for one of the qualities of Self-energy, or something similar.
If you are not feeling something similar to the qualities above, this means that your heart is not open enough and, therefore, your Self-energy isn’t available at the moment. What I invite you to do, at this point, is to write down what you are feeling on a piece of paper, and ask this feeling to step aside, freeing your heart. You may notice some relaxation around your heart if the feeling steps aside.
Now, ask yourself, again, the same question:
“How am I feeling towards my physical existence?”
Again, look for Self-qualities and, if you do not feel anything similar to them, ask them to step aside. You might need to repeat this process a few times, especially if you have not done it before.
If the feelings are not stepping aside, you can try these alternatives
Take time to draw the feeling that is not stepping aside, and spend some time with it (you need to take a break from the three steps on this page and come back to them later on). As you draw the feeling, listen inside for how the feeling wants to be drawn. Once you have finished the drawing, ask the feeling why it does not want to step aside. If possible, reassure the feeling that it is just for a short time.
You might want to write as if you were the feeling itself, which does not want to step aside. Some people like to do this with their non-dominant hand, because we want this process to flow freely. As we spend so much time every day being “rational” (some people call this the left-brain), we want to let this process flow without thinking too rationally. After the feeling has expressed itself, ask it if it would allow some openness towards your physical existence for a few moments.
Now that you are feeling connected and, hopefully, open-hearted to your physical existence, send all these good vibes to it. Let your physical level of existence, which is already receiving love and support from Mother Earth through grounding, also receive your love from the inside.
Remain in this state for as long as you want. You are nurturing yourself with Love from inside and from outside. This is a very powerful healing state.
Step 3 - Release fear and welcome love
Now that you have completed the first two steps, there is only one more aspect to address: releasing fear.
What I discovered through my journey inwards when I was dealing with discrimination burnout was that some deep-seated fear was making it all much worse than it was.
I am not saying that I justify, for a second, the abuse of power and the lack of care that caused all the distress to me. At the same time, I would have been affected much less if I had not held so much deep-seated fear in the depths of my psyche.
Fear, as my spiritual teacher, Edwin Courtenay, while channelling St. Germain, says, is so widespread and out of proportion that it might be taking a life of its own. I believe our fears are currently amplified in unhealthy ways.
As a psychotherapist, I see every day how much fear each of us holds as a result of trauma. I take trauma work seriously, and I would not recommend anyone to use these steps for trauma work. If you stumble across traumatic memories while following these steps, please seek the help of a professional mental health practitioner you trust.
I do, however, believe that some fear can be safely released without the need to do trauma work, and this is exactly what this step is about. As your physical level of existence is now connected in love with your heart, inside, and with Mother Earth, outside, you can safely release any fears you no longer need.
You can simply wish these fears away, and you do not need to know who they are. If you want, you can call upon St. Germain for further help in transmuting these fears. Here are some words and an image you can use to invoke the violet flame to transmute fear in you
Beloved St. Germain,
I call upon your presence and your help to invoke the violet flame.
May you guide the violet flame to all the areas of my physical existence affected by fear.
May the violet flame transmute all fears that can safely be released in this moment.
In love and light. For the greater good of all, and to harm none.
May this be so.