Tag Archive for: depression

Releasing Lifelong Anxiety

Reading Time: 5 minutes

A client came to me last summer (I’ll call her Amber) with anxiety so intense that she had to go on a leave of absence from her job at a hospital where she drew blood from patients. She shared that she had experienced depression and anxiety her whole life, but lately her anxiety had become much worse at work. She described a recent incident when she was drawing blood from a patient who was hooked up to various machines that were making beeping noises. Suddenly, panic came over her for no apparent reason, and she had to leave work in the middle of her shift. Her anxiety was so severe that she had to take a leave of absence from work and she was starting to have panic attacks at home. This is when she sought me out to help her understand and heal the source of her anxiety and depression, as well as feelings of guilt and undeserving.

We began to explore the source of her anxiety in her present life, but she intuitively felt that the source of her anxiety and negative feelings started so young and it felt much deeper than anything that had occurred in her present life. We shifted gears and did a past life regression which ultimately turned into a deep healing session within the life between lives realms.

In the past life, she initially saw herself as a young boy living with his mother in a home with a very challenging environment.

Me: What does your home life feel like for you as you grow up?

Client: Life feels like tar…gross, dirty and stuck. I don’t have a dad…I never knew him. My mom is a drunk. She’s very mean and abusive physically and emotionally. I don’t feel loved. I never know when she’s going to lose control and what will happen. She scares me and I feel like I have to take care of her. I’m embarrassed at school because my clothes are bad, so I don’t go often. The only good thing I have is my dog…he’s a yellow lab.

We moved ahead in time a couple of decades, to a scene after he is married with children. He is having a meal with his wife, their baby and their 8-year-old son. Initially, it seems like a happy time, but as we relaxed deeper into the scene, more depressing feelings and information began to emerge, revealing repeating dysfunctional generational patterns.

Me: How would you describe what your wife is like?

Client: She is a good wife, and she loves me, but it’s hard. I don’t feel deserving of her. I’m not a good spouse. I have some mental health issues and I drink a lot at home at night when I’m not working. My son is my pride and joy, but I scare him sometimes when I’m drinking.

Me: What do you do for work?

Client: I fly planes. I feel successful at work, but at home, I drink too much and I’m not present with my wife and kids.

As we moved further ahead in time, his depression has worsened. We arrive at a scene where he is visiting his mother in the hospital because she is dying.

Client: I feel bad and sad and guilty. I haven’t had much contact with my mom. Life is depressing. I made it with a good career and a family, but I’m not happy with life. I feel scared and desperate…like if I can’t be happy now at this stage of my life, I’ll never be happy. 

As we move ahead to the next scene, he sees himself flying an airplane, and he immediately knows that this life is coming to a close and it isn’t going to end well. He is feeling extremely depressed and suicidal. He purposely crashes the plane into a mountain while there were passengers on board.

Me: Go to the precise moment your soul leaves the body.

Client: The plane is turbulent. There is a lot of beeping sounds from the controls. I leave the body and watch the plane crash into the side of the mountain. There is so much smoke. The plane is busted up. I’m above the plane crash. My heart hurts that everyone died.

Me: Do you stay around that scene very long, or do you get a sense of pulling or drifting away at some point?

Client: I stay there.

Me: (long pause) As earth time goes on and on, do you eventually drift away, or does it more feel as though you continue to stay there?

Client: I stay there. It feels like part of me is still stuck there.

On rare occasions, clients do not move higher into the soul realm after death. These may be times when they die in a traumatic way, or are experiencing very heavy emotions at the time of their death, or perhaps they feel a strong responsibility or desire to stay around the earth for a while. In these cases, I have that client energetically release the heavy trauma from that life from the physical, mental and emotional energy bodies, and ask them to visualize a shaft of light to move into as an energy current that can bring them to a higher vibration in the spiritual realm. In shaman terms, this is called a soul retrieval. Alternatively, we can simply call upon higher guidance. In Amber’s case, she called upon her guardian angels. She could immediately sense them, and began to describe what happened next.

Client: Their essence feels like a light of source energy and I soak it in. It feels so loving and good. Now they’re bringing me to a beautiful waterfall. It’s purifying and cleansing. It feels like a relief. I’ve had reoccurring dreams here of this place. One of the angels is a male. His name is Luke. I feel safe. He says, “Let it all go, you’re ok now.”

Amber began to tear up as she released all of the fear, depression, sadness and feelings of undeserving that had carried over from that troubled past life to her present life. She then got back a part of her that was lost and covered up while she was carrying that heavy emotional energy. She described the feelings and vibrations that came back to her.

Client: It feels like pure whole and completeness, like energy is being restored. A refreshing rebirth. So calm.

While she rested in the high vibrational healing energy, her soul began to clearly see how the depression and anxiety in that past life had its roots in unresolved trauma from a very turbulent childhood of living with an alcoholic mother. These heavy, unresolved, fear-based emotions had snowballed into a stronger force of depression and anxiety, which in turn, led to the traumatic suicidal ending of that life. The fear and guilt of this trauma had carried over to impact her present life. She then saw how the beeping noises of the hospital instruments where she was drawing blood had triggered the unconscious memories of the beeping noises of the controls of the plane as it crashed into a mountain, creating the fear and panic that had paralyzed her at work.

Three weeks after her session, Amber emailed me an update. She wrote: “Right after the session, my anxiety was nearly all gone! So many insights came to me. I was able to go right back to work, and I’m feeling so much better. Thank you so very much!”

We have physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy bodies. When we die with intense, heavy pain or emotions, this energy can sometimes carry over to impact a present incarnation. Within ourselves lies not only the source of our trauma, but also the solution to our trauma. Since we are multi-dimensional beings, we have the capacity to move to higher vibrational realms to connect with our eternal soul selves and higher guidance to receive insight, clarity and healing.  We can then move forward in our present life, free from the heavy traumas of the past that hold us back in this life. Then we can more easily allow the brilliance of our soul selves to shine through.

Case 2: Uncovering the Source of a Mother’s Fear

Reading Time: 4 minutes

This case study reveals how past life regression can be very healing on multiple levels. This modality often has a “trickle down” effect of alleviating all kinds of subtle fears, even ones that you cannot pinpoint and articulate, because it’s all about allowing the innate wisdom of your Higher Self to guide you. It knows precisely what you need to heal, evolve and move forward…more than your conscious mind does.

Client Background

A young mother (I’ll call her Beth) came in for past life regression therapy to deal with anxiety, depression and some anger. Whenever her 1½ year old son cried, especially at night, she would get chest tightening fears and anxieties about being a bad mother and not doing a good job.

Client Experience

Beth regressed to a life as an English military officer in WWI who gave orders that resulted in the death of many soldiers. As a decorated officer after the war, he visited the families of some men who had died in battle, and felt guilty and responsible for the grief and struggle that he caused in these fatherless homes. Here are Beth’s words from the session: “As I grow old, I become mean and grumpy because I ruined so many people’s lives under my orders, and bitter because I had no choice. I don’t talk about it. I think a lot about Jesus and I hope I go to heaven. I didn’t treat my wife well until I started to die.”

The soul stayed around until after the funeral because it was only after death that he was finally able to take in the love that people had for him. Here are some of the reflections from the vantage point of the soul: “People are proud of those medals, but I had to do a lot of bad stuff to get them. I wanted to let them love me in that life, but I thought if they knew what I did, they wouldn’t have loved me. I can take in that love now and it feels so good. I can be at peace…Time to go…If I come back I want to make a happy home.”

In the soul realm, the soul apologized to the souls of the families who were affected by his orders. We can do this because everyone and everything is ultimately interconnected – especially where there are unresolved issues between beings. But, as so often happens in that realm, a knowing response came back that apologies are unnecessary since everyone was blindly role-playing on earth, and everything ultimately turns out fine in the end. Human struggles become opportunities for soul growth. We then could easily release the unresolved thought-form energy of guilt, anger and fear that the military officer died with, and thus got carried over into this incarnation, resulting in Beth’s chest-tightening fears when her baby cried. She then got back warm, bright love…the natural replacement. This resulted in a higher vibration, and then insights began to drop in: “I need to be with my son from love, not fear. It’s ok to have feelings and feel frustrated at times, it doesn’t mean I’m a bad mother. I know I’m a good mother. It’s safe to be myself and be the loving, great mother that I am.” We then let her body fully feel that truth at the cellular level which allowed it to sink deeper in her subconscious mind.

Client Results

Six weeks later, Beth wrote this in an email: “The session was a big help to me. I felt better right away regarding my son and his crying at night. As the weeks went by, I slowly started feeling less anxious on deeper levels. Not sure how to explain it, but it was just a sense that this life is just one life among many. I knew that before, but after the session for some reason it took a lot of the anxiety away from my everyday life.” When I saw Beth again 5 years later, she reaffirmed that the deep-seated anxiety and anger remained gone ever since the session.

Eric’s Comments

Sometimes we can understand things intellectually, but it doesn’t resonate until we really know it at a deeper “body” level. Beth believed intellectually that her present life as a mother was one of many lives, but towards the end of the session, she was able to feel and experience her “eternalness” while steeped in the freedom, peace and clarity of her soul self. The immortality of her true self “upgraded” from a belief to an inner knowing, thus integrating more deeply into the body/subconscious mind. Then she could more easily feel and live from the truth of her soul instead of conditioned fear-based beliefs.

The feelings of deep inner assurance are within all of us. In fact, we can’t escape them because they are an aspect of who and what we are as a soul, but they do get covered up in this human experience. What I’ve noticed over the years is that for some people, the wisdom and insights of the soul can easily sink in deeply after only one session, while others may need another “reinforcement” session or two, depending on their essence. Whether a person experiences a past life regression, a Life-Between-Lives or an Emotional Healing and Awakening session, each one or a combination of them will deepen and strengthen the integration of the soul’s perspective. This, in turn, can loosen and heal life-long mental and emotional patterns that hold one back in life and thus bolster one’s identity as a multi-dimensional being.

Case 5: A Mother’s Love

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Past Life Regression would probably be better understood if we changed the name to “Higher Self Therapy” because as you go within, the process consistently gives you precisely what you need to help you move forward in the way that you most need, especially if you ask for it.  The following case study is a perfect example of how past life regression can work. The name of my client is changed.

Client Background

Mary, a woman nearing 60, had tears in her eyes as we talked about the passing of her mother just prior to her past life regression. “I just need to know if my mom really loved me,” she cried. Although she may have intellectually understood that her mother probably loved her, there were no words that could reassure her at a deeper level because her subconscious mind didn’t fully believe it because of a hurtful growing up experience of feeling rejected and neglected. Fortunately, past life regression connects a person to their higher self, and this part of her knew exactly what she needed in the session.

Client Experience

Mary saw a past life of a happily married, wealthy woman with several children. “Home feels good…there’s nothing to want for.” But a few years later, her 9-year-old daughter suddenly became ill and died. She was too grief-stricken to nurture her other children. “It feels like part of me is gone…the other children need me but I can’t be there all the way. I never got over the loss of my daughter.” In the soul realm after the past life was over, she said, “I couldn’t give my children what they needed…the love was there but couldn’t be expressed.” Then the insight began to sink in that Mary’s mother in this life was carrying so much pain from her own past that she couldn’t express the love for her children that had always been there underneath the many stressors of her life.

Client Results

A week after the session Mary wrote, “It’s the most unusual thing, as a result of my past life regression, I know my mother loves me. It always felt that she didn’t love me because I thought she saw something in me that was not lovable, not worthy of love…I was given a gift from my higher self. It’s a gift of knowing I was loved by my mom. Up until now, I was unable to “know” this deep down. Knowing is the only word I can think of to use, yet it doesn’t feel like the same knowing as in everyday terms. I am so grateful. This is a gift more valuable than any gift.”

Eric’s Comments

Past life regression is an effective means to help you understand and know at a deep core level the truth of your value and worth, as well as helping you to become more acutely aware of the love within a family that is always there beneath the hurts and misunderstandings. This is because the process bypasses the intellectual mind and trumps the subconscious mind’s beliefs of unworthiness which are based in life’s hurtful experiences. The process connects you to a higher soul dimension of yourself that not only is based in love, but can also see through the subconscious mind’s programming and conditioning from the earth life. You begin to understand and experience your wholeness and completeness beneath the ego mind’s negative thoughts, feelings and beliefs that arise as the result of early challenging circumstances in earth life.

Healing Intense Fear and Abandonment

Case 11: Healing Intense Fear and Abandonment

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Carl Jung said, “Healing is about becoming conscious of that which is unconscious.” As we see through our limiting blocks, we become freer. One way to help us awaken is to place full focus and attention on whatever holds us back.

Client Background

Mike (name changed for confidentiality) came in with a “gripping, intense fear of rejection and abandonment” that was dampening the potential of his current relationship, causing misunderstandings, as well as social anxiety. Most intense, negative feelings are the result of old, stuck emotional energy in the body that gets replayed in different circumstances with other people throughout our lives. So, during his session, we allowed these specific fears to show him when they first occurred.

Client Experience

The fears brought us to a scene of Mike as a 5-year old boy in this present life, a common starting age for most issues. His mom and dad played an innocent trick. They pretended to leave the house and go on a family outing while Mike was sitting in a chair backwards with his legs caught in the wooden slats of the chair. While the adult mind can laugh it off in retrospect, the 5-year old child’s brain is not developed enough to process intense emotions, and so he could only feel the panic and fear from the abandonment of his caregivers.

Since this small child was unable to adequately express, articulate, or discharge these emotions from the body, these feelings became stuck energy in his chest and stomach area. Then, through the Law of Attraction (like vibration attracts like vibration), the vibration from this fear-based energy formed repetitive patterns with similar emotions which replayed in various times throughout this life for the next 40+ years.

An unconscious part of us finds and attracts circumstances and people into our lives that replay these stuck emotions in the body, which often relate to one of our soul lessons. However, once the origin of this fear is discovered, the mind can process the information and then release the negative energy from the body, replacing it with one’s own source energy or potential. This healing process lightened Mike’s vibration and heightened his perspective. Then, as he began processing and releasing the stored energy of past trauma, his consciousness spontaneously showed him a different lifetime.

In this one, he had died in a car accident at night, alone on a dark road at the age of 20. This past life death scene related to a lingering sense in this life of being alone and lost, as well as a feeling of impending doom that surfaced within his consciousness every time he drove across the state late at night to visit his parents. It also explained why he had the persistent thought in high school, “I just want to live past 20.” As the origin of these thoughts and feelings entered his awareness, they could be energetically released, which also freed him of perplexing physical ailments on the right side of his body. Once we uncovered the first layer of fears from his childhood, the second layer revealed itself.

Client Results

After the session, Mike wrote this in a review: “My session with Eric was very enlightening. I was able to see the event with a clarity that I never have before. I saw details that I had not remembered before and we were able to go through it step-by-step. I was never afraid or upset, but able to understand and release all the complicated elements of it. I have even been able to talk about it with friends now without fear.

Throughout the next day after my session, I became increasingly aware of a physical change in my body. The center of my chest felt oddly solid. As I thought about it, I realized that for as long as I can remember, I had a hollow trembling in my chest at the base of my sternum. It was only the absence of it that made me aware of how serious it was. I had even gone to see a doctor to have my heart checked, but he said it sounded normal. I’ve had several stressful things happen since and was able to handle them in much more rational ways.”

Eric’s Comments

Although these were two different lifetimes, they were very connected and similar in emotional content. Mike’s feelings of abandonment, rejection and aloneness became much less, and the relationship with his partner improved and became closer and deeper. This is an example of how we can liberate ourselves from the pain and suffering that occurred in the past, bit by bit, layer by layer. Then we can begin to live more easily from our authentic selves which are unclouded by limiting fears.

Relief from Depression and Unwanted Emotions

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Depression and anxiety often go hand in hand, so we work with depression much the same way as with anxiety – by looking at the feeling under the microscope of hypnosis and discovering the subtle, negative thoughts that make up the heavy, stuck feeling of depression. Uncovering these subconscious thoughts and limiting beliefs is the first step in diminishing their power to impact your life. They are nearly always untrue, and belief in these false thoughts gives them their power to affect the way you feel and live your life. Dr. Bruce Lipton wrote a book called The Biology of Belief which demonstrates this. When these false beliefs are fully seen through at a higher and deeper level of consciousness, beyond the conscious and even subconscious mind, we can replace these thoughts with empowering ones that are based in a higher truth from the vantage point of your eternal soul self.

While anxiety involves subconscious thoughts that are often future-focused while based in the past, depression tends to be predominantly past-focused, often including the emotion of anger or resentment. Resentment or anger is often about having to put up with something unwanted, or not getting something that was wanted, such as a sense of being loved, wanted, valued, safe and secure, etc.

Sometimes, depression or anxiety can be passed down unconsciously through the generations, like an “unconscious virus”, in the form of thoughts, feelings and emotional patterns such as the way in which love or anger is expressed or not expressed. As children, we not only depend on our parents for food and shelter, but also for a sense of worth and safety. Sometimes parents of past generations were too absorbed in survival or else their own issues to be fully present with their children or to give their children a sense of being loved, wanted and valued. If these core feelings of value were not felt, a person may feel a subtle sense of unworthiness and the seeds of depression and/or anxiety are sprouted in the belief and emotional system of the person…And if this subconscious emotional energy is never allowed a chance to be “emoted” through us, by being directly articulated or expressed, it can remain as trapped energy in the body/mind system, and years later have a subtle “pressure cooker” effect on the body/mind by negatively affecting the way we view ourselves, thus clouding our experience of ourselves and the world. This is why there’s often plenty of negative subconscious self-talk beneath depression or anxiety, and this is what can unconsciously be passed down through the generations. In the Present Life Emotional Healing session, we can become aware of this passed-down thought-form energy and stop it at the unconscious level, as well as ceremoniously heal the past generations. You release this unbeneficial thought-form energy and replace it with your own source/potential that was lost when you took it in.

Also, we examine all other contributing factors to depression or anxiety, such as the food that is fueling your body. Since there is a food/mood connection, certain foods will contribute to a lighter or more grounded feeling. Exercise is also scientifically proven to help the neurotransmitters fire across the chemical serotonin in your brain.

Relief From Anxiety, PTSD and Phobias

Reading Time: 3 minutes

When we put the feeling of anxiety under a microscope (which hypnotherapy does), we see that it is usually made up of subtle, subconscious fear-based thoughts. These thoughts have a beginning point in a past situation, event or circumstance. Anxiety occurs when these outdated, subtle subconscious belief programs are still operating in your present mind and affecting your life in a negative way, even though they are typically not relevant or even true. Fears are designed to keep us safe and protected, not block us from living a fulfilling, enjoyable life. Anxiety happens when the fear that’s trying to keep you safe is working way too hard, far beyond when it’s no longer necessary. The root of the problem is not you – it is the subconscious thought programs in your head. One of the first, and most profound leaps a person can make on their healing journey is to know that you are not your negative beliefs or fears. These outdated beliefs will begin to lose their power and can be changed and corrected once we put the spotlight of attention and awareness on them from a higher soul perspective. Carl Jung said about healing: “That which is unconscious must ultimately be made conscious.”

Anxiety can also be due to strong emotional energy from the past that is stuck in the body/subconscious mind system. Once we tune into this strong emotional charge in the body, it can be energetically released by our present moment consciousness. It is especially effective while simultaneously tuning into an eternal part of yourself that has no fears, which is what we can easily do with spiritual hypnotherapy. It is easy because, try as you might, you cannot separate yourself from the eternal consciousness that is animating your body, so when we go deep within we can experience a level of your consciousness that has no fears and is already whole and complete.

The subconscious mind operates like a computer program that hangs on to old, outdated messages that no longer serve you. A subtle yet powerful shift occurs when you begin to see that you are not your thoughts, you are the eternal consciousness that can witness and change your thoughts. A session is about releasing the stored trauma in the body/subconscious mind while empowering you to change the thought programs that no longer serve you and replace them with those that benefit and strengthen you. Each session provides empowering and noticeable shifts in you. To gain a more thorough understanding about anxiety, please read about the Present Life Emotional Healing session and also the article Relief From Depression and Unwanted Emotions.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

PTSD is an example of a past stressful event being kept alive in the body/mind system. As mentioned above, we can energetically release this stored trauma in the body while connecting to the eternal part of you that has no fears and is whole and complete. In addition to this powerful method, another means to relieve the effects of PTSD is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). Visit www.eftuniverse.com to learn more about this effective method. It is a self-applied acupressure tapping technique that calms and soothes the body and mind’s fears while you focus on the root of the problem – the past stressful event itself. This also releases the stored fear/panic energy in the body, or anything with a strong emotional charge. Another way of looking at it is that the subconscious mind program gets reset – the thought pattern that pairs this past event with panic thoughts and feelings gets reset. The result is that you can focus on the past stressful event and finally feel relaxed, with the same emotional charge as though you were remembering a relaxing afternoon picnic.

The problem with past stressful events is that the more we try to run away from it, and at times cover the pain of it with chemicals or other addictions such as work, food etc., the more it will subtly impact your life in a negative way. Oddly enough, trying to get away from the past stressful event actually fuels the fear of it and thus its adverse effects. Paradoxically, the key to putting out the fuel of the stressful past is to fully face it and release the energy of it. It is painless and only takes minutes, and you typically don’t need to do it ever again.

EFT, when applied skillfully, is a powerful method. To relieve strong PTSD, I often combine EFT with spiritual hypnotherapy to re-program the subconscious mind and the body which holds and stores the fear-based thoughts and feelings.

Phobias

We work with phobias in the same manner as PTSD. A combination of EFT with spiritual hypnotherapy is highly effective. Typically, one or two sessions are all that are necessary.

 

Case 12: Two Past Lives that Helped Release Her Anxiety

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Client Background

A woman (I’ll call her Beth) came in having struggled with anxiety her whole life. She had panic attacks, feelings of unworthiness, and low self-worth. She wanted to try past life regression to help deal with these feelings and negative beliefs. Past life regression connects you to your higher self which will in turn show you the precise life or lives that can help you move forward in the way that you are requesting. Beth’s higher mind knew exactly what would be most helpful for her.

Client Experience

Beth saw a past life where she grew up in an orphanage where she kept to herself because she never felt like she fit in. She described her past life at age 12 as follows: “The woman who runs it is strict and mean. I don’t like her. I don’t remember my parents, and it feels lonely and sad being there. I don’t like being by the other kids, and I feel like I don’t fit in.” She left the orphanage in her late teens and worked at a tavern, but still kept to herself, never feeling like she belonged. She lived by herself the rest of her life. Then one day in her 50’s, she was out walking when she fell, hit her head, couldn’t get up and she died alone. She felt her soul drifting up into a lighter, higher vibration, and then she began to sense other beings sending her comfort and reassurance. She reported, “it feels like love, purifying energy and peace.” In the soul realm, she reviewed the life she had just left and saw how her low self-esteem and feeling of not wanting to be noticed carried over to her present life. From the vantage point of the soul, she understood her soul lesson in that life could be applicable to her present life. She described her soul lesson as follows: “I shouldn’t close myself off and assume that people don’t like me. I need to be more comfortable with myself and choose who I want to be around.” She then received a download of fully seeing and feeling what it would be like in her past life and current life if she lived from that wisdom.

She was then shown a second life of a high-status man who was a respected leader and in charge of making decisions for a community. He felt comfortable and confident speaking in front of others, with no self-doubts whatsoever. He was adept at fencing and even taught his wife and daughter how to fight with swords. When that life was over, her soul drifted up and at one point noticed that there were others with her that felt very loving. She described one of the presences as either a male spirit guide or an angel. She said, “They’re telling me that I have the ability in my present life to be that confident and self-assured as long as I remember who I am.” She then added, “I can really feel my heart center opening up a lot right now.”

Client Results

Two weeks after her session, Beth reported that her anxiety had become much less, especially when she was around people. She no longer felt the tight anxious feeling in her chest when around new people. She had not experienced any more panic attacks and felt much more confident at work. She also noticed that her intuitive abilities had increased and she was more confident in making decisions. She also reported that her heart center had continued to open up and expand, and she noticed feelings of love more frequently, even to the point of tearing up.

Eric’s Comments

Past life regression works at a very deep, subconscious level. It not only shows you the root of an issue, but also the perspective shift from a higher vantage point that needs to happen to bring healing and resolution to presenting life issues. This perception shift can be felt fully throughout the body, mind and soul, and settles in as a deep knowing that overrides any subconscious fears of “not good enough.” In short, you experience fully the truth that you are a brilliant soul being using a body. As Suzanne Giesemann channeled, “We are here to master being a soul in a human body.”

Case Study: A Lifetime of Anger Released

Case 13: A Lifetime of Anger Released

Reading Time: 3 minutes

A client (I’ll call her Ann) came in with “demons of anger”, in her words. It’s valuable to set an intention prior to doing a past life regression session. Her intention for her past life regression session was to “see a life or lives that can most help me understand and heal my anger about not feeling good enough”.

Ann saw herself in a past life as a boy who never knew his parents and was raised by relatives in a home in which there was care, but not closeness. Home felt cold. As a teenager, he fell deeply in love with a girl at school, but she died of an illness. After graduating from school, he moved to a new town and found a job cleaning. Eventually he married a woman that he didn’t really love, describing the marriage as “a convenient escape from loneliness…there was no love between us and no bonding with the kids.” As he grew older, he worked as a blacksmith in a small town, and felt stress and guilt about not being able to provide more for his family. “My wife and I have nothing to say to each other. After the kids grew up and were out of the house, they don’t visit much, and life feels hopeless and wasted.” He died in his mid- 50’s in a hospital, alone and scared.

He felt regret soon after his death as he reflected upon his life, saying, “I didn’t know who I was, and I didn’t accept the life I had.” He then moved into a shaft of light that pulled his soul into a higher vibration in the spiritual realm. Ann described it in this way: “It’s getting lighter. It feels like waves of energy are taking care of me. I feel calmness, forgiveness and not alone. There’s an energy that makes me feel connected, and a forgiveness for myself. It was a hard life with not enough money or food and I felt stress that whole life. I couldn’t provide as a man because there wasn’t enough. But I also didn’t provide love for my family.”

In the spirit realm, I typically ask, “What you would do differently if you lived that life all over again, only from the higher vantage point of your soul?” Ann responded: “I would have shown my wife and kids love and acceptance.” She then immediately began to feel what her life would feel like if she had actually done that, which is typical in the past life session. “I can now feel how different and much lighter that would feel if I lived from that perspective. I would have taught my kids things and been at weddings, and then enjoyed grandkids.” She described the soul learning in that life to be: “Don’t sweat the small stuff. Appreciate the life around you…the family you do have. Appreciate what you can in life.” She then felt a deep compassion overcome her for people on earth who are hurting.

It became evident that the feelings that were left unresolved in that past life carried over to affect the mental and emotional energy bodies in this present life, thus contributing to the feeling of anger about not feeling good enough. We then released the thought-form energy from the past life that had carried over and replaced it with the wisdom and light of her higher soul self.

Two weeks after the session, Ann shared how her session impacted her. She wrote in an email: “I have noticed a huge change. Driving home after my session, I felt an immediate sense of calmness and comfort. I felt like the empty and questionable pieces of me had a tangible reason. I finally felt free to feel better. I had no idea what to expect from the session and the fact that I was given a glimpse of a past life was riveting…especially the fact that I was a man. The trauma from that life, without parents, gave me such compassion for the life I live right now. My relationship with actual parents may never be repaired, but I have a clear understanding of why I may have been a difficult child for them. My life is forever changed and my anger for not feeling good enough is gone. I have already had success in my personal and business life because of my session. Thank you, Eric! I am truly grateful!” 

This is a good example of how a past life regression session works. A client can discover where the root of a problem or issue lies, release it, and then view both the past life and present life from the higher-dimension vantage point of the soul. Wisdom, clarity and compassion are natural by-products from resting in this high-vibration state of being. It’s a level of consciousness that we all have access to as we go deep within. We ultimately are not separate from it, but it can easily become obscured while living in this human experience. That is, until we can awaken to this higher level of awareness within our own being, and that IS our true permanent self.

Uncovering and Healing the Roots of Anxiety and Depression

Reading Time: 4 minutes

I recently wrote an article for the Edge Magazine. It’s relevant these days as many people’s subconscious issues are coming to the surface while the consciousness of the planet shifts and raises. This happens for the purpose of releasing what no longer serves you from your body/mind system and integrating the learning of it into the fullness of your being. Freedom calls anything to the surface that is not free. Please enjoy these words:

Anxiety and depression can be physiologically, spiritually and/or mental/emotionally based. But since the body, mind and soul are all interconnected, they overlap. Often anxiety or depression has to do with the past affecting you, and this can be uncovered and healed because you are far more than your past. If we put anxiety and depression under a microscope, we see that it is typically made up of a myriad of negative thoughts, feelings and beliefs that began somewhere in the past, occasionally even a past life. The good news is that although the past can have a strong grip on you, it no longer exists except as a memory, which is a combination of thoughts, feelings and corresponding beliefs that get formed, otherwise known as “thought-form energy”. Yet there is a larger, higher, “more real” part of you that transcends the thought-form energy from the past. When you connect to that part, you can uncover and release the roots of the past that limit you.

Einstein said that you can’t solve a problem at the same level of consciousness that created the problem, but you can at a higher level. Your soul isn’t anxious or depressed — and you are that soul more than you are the ego personality that is anxious and depressed — because one part of you lives on, the other doesn’t. In fact, you couldn’t escape that whole, complete part of you if you tried, it just gets covered up with false beliefs from the human experience. Using hypnotherapy, you can connect to and identify with your wiser soul self that is forever anchored in the here and now, and that part of you can help heal your ego-based body/mind self. You then experience what the Buddha meant when he said the thinking mind is the source of all suffering.

Here are some examples: A woman (I’ll call her Linda) came to me recently feeling very depressed. Underneath her depression were feelings and beliefs of shame, unworthiness, and “not good enough” due to growing up with abuse and neglect. These heavy feelings made life feel as if she was trying to run a marathon with armor on. Using hypnotherapy, she envisioned her consciousness moving up above her body, above and beyond the earth, and into Source energy where she melted into it and felt and compared various qualities of Source such as peace, joy, love and security. This can only be done if you’re not in your thinking mind. From this highest dimension of your being, there is a knowing that nothing in the Universe can harm you, and it is a perfect place to heal the ego part of you that feels stuck.

From this high vantage point, feeling connected to Source, Linda looked down at a timeline of her life — specifically above the 2-month old version of herself. I asked, “Should your infant self, like all infants, ideally be made to feel loved, wanted, valued, safe and secure?” “Is your infant self worthy of love?” The truth is yes, all infants are worthy of love, so it became evident to Linda that unworthiness is not inherent to her being. Shame and unworthiness are messages that feel true, but are not, and Linda could see that she picked up these perspectives early on from her parents. Since it didn’t belong to her, she envisioned and actually felt that heavy thought form energy going back to her parents, who in turn passed it down to where they got it from, their parents, and then down through the generations and into a fire pit to be incinerated into Source energy. She then got back the part of her that was lost when took on the feelings of “not good enough”, feeling the sensations of love, empowerment and joy come back to her. She then sent this energy down to her 5-year old self, Jr. High self, and all the other times that she needed it in her life. Four weeks later, Linda emailed me to say that she felt as if a huge weight had been lifted since the session, and that she had propelled far onto her path of growth and healing.

In another example, a man with high anxiety did a past life regression and saw himself as a young Viking whose beloved grandfather was murdered by a group of three men. He was consumed with anger, hatred and revenge, and he died with this rage. These heavy feelings kept a sliver of his soul consciousness stuck around the earth plane, unable to move up into the higher realms after death. We did a soul retrieval and thus healed and re-integrated this lost soul aspect of himself. Six weeks later he reported that since the session he felt much less anxious, and things which would previously cause him much stress and worry no longer affected him.

It is indeed profound and helpful to connect to a higher part of yourself that already is whole and complete, that you can never really escape from, in order to heal the part of you that feels stuck. Then it becomes clear that happiness is actually a perception shift away.

Alternative Ways to Heal Depression and PTSD

Reading Time: 3 minutes

I recently wrote the article below for the Edge Magazine. Although I specialize in dealing with the emotional causes of depression, anxiety and PTSD, there are a number of different ways that can also help with these issues. Below is the article that discusses some of these other approaches. Please enjoy:

After working on a psychiatric unit for over 23 years, I watched some people find relief with medications for depression. Yet, I’ve also witnessed many times when a person either experienced no relief or the side effects of the meds far outweighed the benefits. Not only are people complex, but so is depression, and it often has many triggers and causes, both physical and emotional in nature. Let me share some alternative methods that can help alleviate both the physical and emotional roots of depression. Often, combining several modalities can be the most effective approach.

First, a simple, yet often overlooked modality is homeopathy, which works to bring the body back into balance physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. It’s not an overnight fix, but you’ll find an upward spiral of growth happens over time with no side effects. Occasionally, you may notice your symptoms reappear for a day or two and then subside because an old pattern often reappears before it’s released. Keep in mind that homeopaths study for 4 years, and homeopathy has a long history of being a popular medicine which can also increase the effectiveness of other modalities.

Secondly, if you’re eating a lot of low vibration foods such as processed sugar, white flour and food products with artificial ingredients, you may experience low energy and lethargy, with a mood that matches the way your body responds to these foods. Consuming more fruits and vegetables is an excellent way to shift not only your mood, but your health. Experiment for yourself by eating more whole foods and notice if your mood is positively affected. I do understand that when you’re struggling with intense symptoms such as depression or PTSD it may be difficult to choose fruits and vegetables as they aren’t as comforting or numbing as processed foods. However, try adding one additional fruit, vegetable, smoothie or juice per day.

A healer who has had a profound effect on my health is Anthony William. In his paradigm-changing, best-seller book, Medical Medium: Secrets Behind Chronic Illness and How to Finally Heal, William explains that PTSD is a chemical imbalance in the brain caused by trauma. When there isn’t enough glucose stored in the brain tissue to feed the central nervous system, PTSD symptoms can develop from relatively minor stresses. He explains that fruit sugar and raw honey in their unadulterated states are the only sugars the body accepts for glucose storage in the brain. He suggests wild blueberries, melons, beets, bananas, sweet potatoes, figs, oranges mangoes, apples and dates, among others.

William also discusses how depression can stem from non-emotional causes such as adrenal dysfunction, viral infection, electrolyte deficiency, heavy metals or other toxins in your body. For these conditions, he suggests specific foods to help heal these conditions such as wild blueberries, spinach, hemp seeds, cilantro, walnuts, coconut oil, sprouts, kale apricots and avocados. He also provides a list of healing herbs and supplements that can help. He just released a second book, Life-Changing Foods, which connects one to the power of food.

For emotional causes of depression, such as traumatic loss or stress growing up, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and EMDR are effective tools to release trauma from past events or circumstances that are stored in the body and subconscious mind.

Often times when we don’t get emotional needs met growing up, negative beliefs about oneself can set in at a deep level. Shame programs such as feeling unworthy of love or success can be so strong that affirmations don’t easily work because a subconscious part of you doesn’t believe them. In these situations, it’s helpful to find someone who can guide you in transcendental inner journey work, where your consciousness can take a separate, observational look at your egoic mind patterns. Any type of transpersonal hypnotherapy, such as past life regression, the emotional healing process or other such inner journey work, is helpful in releasing the grip of false, limiting beliefs that may feel true but are absolutely not. When these false beliefs can be seen through from a higher level of consciousness, they no longer have the same effect on you, and thus support the releasing of depression.

Lastly, it’s important to connect with others. We were meant to love and support one another, and the burden of depression can lighten with more connectedness. I understand that one of the biggest challenges with depression is having the motivation or confidence to reach out to others, so you may want to get some support from other modalities first and as your spirit lifts, you may more easily cultivate the wisdom and courage to know that you are worth seeking out support and connection.