Gloria’s Story
Every person who walks through the door of my office is a uniquely human work in progress, just as I am. Whatever the life story that is shared with me, it teaches me some specific lessons for my own life. And so it was with Gloria.
Gloria is a senior, considerably past 65, who came to see me and wanted:
- To stop having anger “fits;”
- To restore her confidence;
- To eliminate severe cluttering in her home and her life.
Gloria is an actively working actress, that is, when she can find work. Although her lifetime career has involved playing parts in plays by Shakespeare and Chekhov as well as comedy roles and singing in musicals, her specialty now is character roles as a “bag lady” or a homeless person in extra parts. I have known her to get up at 4 in the morning, take several subway trains and buses to travel to a movie site and work outdoors in winter snowstorms throughout the day. Although acting is her life, she also is a writer, and takes writing lessons at a college offering free courses for older adults. Needless to say, Gloria is a woman dedicated to her career and willing to do whatever she needs to do to keep it going. “I’ve always felt more powerful on the stage than in real life. I want to reverse that,” she announced one day.
Gloria uses guided imagery exercises to deal with all three of the things she originally came for and each has diminished “at least 80%,” she says. She now believes she is worth much more than the meager income she has earned. Gloria had accumulated lots of material objects over her life to compensate for perceiving herself as poor. She came to realize that hanging on to all that “stuff” did not compensate for not earning what she was worth and so she got rid of “all that trash.” Gloria feels more confident, since she stopped defining her worth as a person by her income or possessions.
Gloria’s Power Prescription of choice has been Therapeutic Touch and each session ends with a healing session. This was especially useful when along the way Gloria developed cancer. Her stronger confidence helped her face a difficult course of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. The challenge to participate powerfully was before her daily during the year of her treatment. She learned to use her will to make choices based on her awareness concerning her illness and to fight it head on. She told me, “I know I can choose to live or to die, and I want to live. I am not going to give up on life or myself. I have learned what power-as-freedom is all about, and I am going to use it everyday.” And so she did, and did so in a big way! Gloria has now recovered from cancer and has a renewed optimism. She is hopeful and has learned intentions represent her aim or direction and she has learned not to attach her intentions to expectations or outcomes. She switches out of negativity when it intrudes and it does intrude in various ways, over and over. So the work of power-as-freedom is never a thing forever done, but a thing to be continuously done over and over again.
Here is Gloria’s statement about her work with me. “This is a positive type of therapy. Yes, there is some talking, but the major part for me is Therapeutic Touch healing. I like the homework, especially the imagery exercises. This therapy has helped me in my relationships, especially to handle my anger. We had one joint session with my daughter and it helped both of us to understand each other in a new way. I still love my acting, but now I can feel just as powerful off the stage as when I am performing. I now appreciate and love myself in ways that I have learned through Health Patterning.”
Here’s the guided imagery exercise that Gloria used to overcome her anger “fits.” You might try it the next time you feel angry.
“Burning Anger”
Close your eyes. Breathe out through your mouth with a long, slow breath. Breathe in through your nose briefly. Repeat this two times. Now breathe however you wish. See before you a fire. Feel your anger burning in that fire. Wad up some paper and throw it into the fire. Watch it soar; hear it roar and crackle. Now throw some gasoline on the fire and watch it explode. Know that your anger is burning up. Now start putting water on the fire to dampen it down. If need be, take a big firefighter’s hose to put it out. See that the flame is completely gone, and the fire is out. Now, dig a hole. Put the ashes in the hole. Cover it over with dirt. Know that your anger is buried and gone. Cover the hole with a rock. Plant flowers nearby. Open your eyes.