Christine Gutierrez - I Am Diosa: A Journey to Healing Deep, Loving Yourself, and Coming Back Home to Soul

As a yoga teacher, author, and global entrepreneur in the field of wellness I interact with people who are on a path to heal themselves every day. These are regular people, just like you and me, who are either looking for, or already using, tools to heal their bodies, their minds, and their hearts. Knowing how intricately connected they arethe body, mind, and heart. Whether we are going to yoga class to heal a physical injury, working with health practitioners to cure illness, going to therapy to improve our mental health, or working with somatic techniques to heal trauma, healing any part of ourselves will bring lightness to the whole. And thats the thing: We all have something to heal.

We live in a society starved for connection. Everywhere we look we find evidence of the pain and suffering pervading this world. Depression has been on the rise for decades. Suicide rates are the highest they have ever been. Doctors are prescribing anti-anxiety medication to children as young as seven. Its a hard truth to swallow, but we dont have to look very far to realize that people are hurting. Humanity is hurting. And so is Mother Earth. Every day we are bombarded with messages from the media amplifying the fear we already feel deep inside. Our worries, large or small, directly impact how we interact and engage with the people around us; and we see the result in this disconnect in how we treat each other. Looking at it closely, its bigger than our life situation, bigger than global events and local issues. Its what we read in the news, sure, but mainly its that little voice inside telling us: its not safe to be here. Im not safe here. Its not just that we dont feel safe in this world, its that we dont feel safe inside of ourselves.

I am convinced that the reality we see looking out at the world is a reflection of whats happening within each and every one of us. We grew up experiencing the same lack of connection that we see all around us, just the way our parents grew up before us, and their parents before them. We come from generations of people who have suffered through trauma and pain, without any kind of tools to deal with what came next. Hurt people hurt peopleits as simple as that. And when we dont feel safe inside of ourselves, we will do whatever it takes to keep ourselves separate from other people to make sure we dont get hurt again. We put up walls. We self-sabotage. We self-harm. We act on all our triggers. And at the end of the day, we self-medicate. We need to numb ourselves from the pain thats eating us up inside because without any support to deal with whats there, what other option do we have? So, we drink. We eat. We do drugs. We drown ourselves in work, in drama, in gossip, in other peoples business. We act out the same disconnect that we feel inside.

Have you ever thought to yourself I should have learned this by now? or Why is this life so damn hard? In the depths of it, we seek out people who act in similar ways to the people who harmed us so long ago, and somehow, the cycle continues. You know you should have left that relationship, made that change, set a clearer boundary, cultivated better habits. Maybe youve realized long ago that you want something different out of life, but still, you find yourself in that same place, again and again. Or perhaps the life situation youve found yourself in is completely out of your hands, with hurt inflicted upon you that was beyond your control. What then? How can we possibly go from being victims of abuse, of trauma, to feeling empowered and safe in our own bodies again? We cant make a real change in this world without first making a change within ourselves. Its only with peace in our hearts and our feet on the ground that we can reach out and be of true service. Creating a brighter future for our children begins the moment we look at our own pain, our own fears, our own limiting beliefs. The real question, regardless of where you come from or whats come your way in the past, then becomes this: How do I heal?