BAND OF BROTHERS (HWH) #16 / HEALING WOUNDED HEARTS BY FINDING THE LIGHT WITHIN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once again six combat veterans with PTSD realize their life has really been a QUEST to re-discover the light within themselves ~ in seven weeks ~ by participating in Healing The Wounded Heart (Band of Brothers) Workshop # 16. Through the power of love and gratitude their hearts are awakened from a long slumber as they realize their military experience, regardless of their individual trauma, has been another important step of service in preparation for the ultimate service from their soaring hearts: Allen L Roland, Ph.D

 

“What happens when people open their hearts ~ They get better.”  ~ Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soaring hearts

In my role as a volunteer heart centered consultant, advisor and mentor, I have recently assisted in the heart felt inner healing of six more combat veterans with PTSD who found the courage to go within and beneath their pain and anguish and found, in the process, their original innocence, joy and delight as well as a need to be in service from that very same place of love and gratitude ~ and all within seven weeks.

Make no mistake about it, the keys to the magic kingdom of the soul as well as soul retrieval is gratefulness ~ and gratefulness and eventually forgiveness ends with our self. Each one of these participants with the assistance of their adjustment counselor complete a Life chart ~ a chart which clearly shows their whole life, relationships and war experience as a Quest or journey to where they are now.

But the life chart is also an indication of the path of their heart and how every relationship, regardless of the pain, perhaps has been a gift in their life quest to reconnect with their original innocence, love and joy. For most of them, childhood emotional trauma has caused them to emotionally check out and they live in emotional darkness ~ reinforced by their military experience ~  a grey disconnected world of aloneness and fear based ego consciousness.

This is why at least 22 veterans a day commit suicide ~ for they are separated from what is deepest within themselves and there is no choice except the never ending aloneness and darkness. Many veterans, like myself, are concerned and many others are taking action ~ see this wonderful example of that service and 5 MINUTE preview of PROJECT 22 .

 

After tragedy struck home last year, two combat-wounded veterans set out to end a little-known
epidemic in America. Their 6,500-mile cross-country mission was to raise awareness of the high rate of suicide amongst Veterans and show their brothers and sisters-at-arms that there is hope for them. During their journey, they interviewed researchers, healthcare providers, and Veterans. Many of those they encountered had either contemplated or attempted suicide and were able to share the life-saving alternative sources of hope that they had found. Asking hard-hitting questions and opening up about their own struggles, and painfully spurred on by recent estimations that 22 veterans are taking their own lives every single day, Daniel and Doc will stop at nothing to reach tomorrow’s twenty-two.

Five minute video https://vimeo.com/121737934

 

After the life charts have been completed with their adjustment counselor ~ I am brought in, as a former active duty veteran as well as a fully vetted volunteer advisor and heart centered consultant ~  to help these veterans connect the heart dots of their life charts. They then begin to actually see their whole life as an inner QUEST to find their lost soul as well as see how each love relationship has played its role in accelerating that quest to not only find themselves ~  but to also live and speak their inner truth.

From our very first session, they begin the process of thanking the people who have been there in their lives and as they do ~ like flowers, their buried or numbed out hearts begin to open allowing them to see through different eyes.

They all have access to these self-healing steps in my updated Kindle Book RADICAL THERAPY, SURRENDER TO LOVE AND HEAL YOURSELF IN SEVEN  SESSIONS (not seven years). Here is the Kindle link http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Therapy-Surrender-Yourself-Sessions-ebook/dp/B00JGE5VQE

And here's a link to the YouTube sessions of the self-healing process I teach ~ Watch, in the first 20 minutes, how Marina conquers her deepest fear and demonstrates that beneath her pain and fear is boundless joy, See video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r12MoNnwPKg&feature=youtu.be

 

In the third tenet of my PhD dissertation, The Unified Field, I describe the process by which psychic pain can over-ride joy and how most people are afraid of or mistrust their deepest joy ~ It would appear that the pain of not feeling loved for oneself and being seemingly separated from our original state of soul consciousness and the Unified Field is of such deep psychic proportions that, early in childhood, processes are triggered in the hypothalamus which result in a left brain imbalance and dominance as well as the denial, mistrust and forgetting of our connection to the Unified Field and the love and joy and a state of soul consciousness deepest within us. It is from this dark tunnel of pain, aloneness, despair and apparent death that the ego and ego consciousness is born - for survival and protection purposes only. As such, death or the idea of death, is an illusion measured by the limits of our consciousness. It is within that cocoon that the innocent and loving child awaits its turn to be seen and released from its own bondage.

Think of the ego as a protective cocoon that is eventually meant to be shed. The Unified Field can be visualized as a grid of great luminosity joining all living beings within its energy field of love. The words of Longfellow would seem appropriate in describing this all-encompassing field or grid: "The thread of all sustaining beauty that runs through all and doth all unite.

So after sharing their life charts with the group, with my assistance, and taking accountability for their life and the decisions they alone have made to perhaps run away from love and joy and hide in a cocoon of ego consciousness ~ they are ready to meet their real coach (the trapped child within) through a guided visualization. They then begin the process of listening and responding to their own inner guidance ~ but by this time they already know that deepest within them is love, direction and joy.

Here's a breakdown on where each member of Band of Brothers #16 started and what they eventually gained from these seven sessions ~ in their own words.

 

JH ~ "I'm tired of going through the motions in life and this group helped me realize I have another action based choice."

J ~ "I've been coasting in life and feeling alone and now through gratefulness and this group I'm beginning to love myself as well as others"

L ~ "I want to get in touch with my feelings and find my voice and passion and now I know the way through gratefulness"

ME ~ "I want to share my inner joy with everyone and now I'm doing it with everyone "

MG ~ " I want to reconnect with my inner child, which I've now done in this group and I'm now beginning to see through different eyes and I want to help people"

RS ~ " I want answers and I found them by opening my heart in this group through heartfelt gratefulness and seeing through different eyes ~ I am no longer sabotaging my joy"

 

All of them have taken major steps not only in finding and healing themselves but in embracing their deepest joy, authenticity and love ~ which they shared with each other in the final session death exercise.

 

It is really so obvious that many of these active duty Veterans want another choice versus drugs and going through the motions in their rehabilitation. The Healing the Wounded Heart program with its emphasis on healing soul damage through gratefulness and heart centered action is a beacon of light in the seemingly impenetrable darkness of PTSD as well as the rising rate of Veterans suicide.

Perhaps now with over 100 graduates of the Band of Brothers HWH program ~ the VA will realize that the time has come to recognize that a heart centered approach to Veterans rehabilitation has an important role to play in returning our veterans to useful, intentioned and fulfilling lives.

 

We are put on earth a little space to bear the beams of love ~ William Blake

 
Allen L Roland, Ph.D

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2015/06/band-of-brothers-hwh-16-healing-wounded.html

Heart centered spiritual consultant and advisor Allen L Roland can be contacted at  allen@allenroland.com Allen is also a lecturer and writer who shares a weekly political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com. He is also featured columnist on Veterans Today and  guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

BAND OF BROTHERS #14 / HEALING WOUNDED HEARTS THROUGH LOVE AND GRATEFULNESS

Five more combat veterans with PTSD complete a simple six week action based self healing workshop which stresses the power of love and gratefulness and they find themselves in service again ~ except this time the gift they are extending is themselves: Allen L Roland, Ph.D

 

In my role as a volunteer heart centered consultant, advisor and mentor, I have recently assisted in the transition of five more combat veterans with PTSD who found the courage to go within and beneath their pain and anguish and found, in the process, their original innocence, joy and delight as well as a need to be in service from that very same place of love and gratitude.

Make no mistake about this, the keys to the magic kingdom of the soul and soul retrieval is gratefulness and gratefulness begins with our self. Each one of these participants with the assistance of their adjustment counselor complete a Lifechart ~ a chart which clearly shows their whole life, relationships and war experience and where they are now.

All the steps in this self-healing process are in my updated Kindle Book RADICAL THERAPY, SURRENDER TO LOVE AND HEAL YOURSELF IN SEVEN  SESSIONS (not seven years) ~ which is also available on YouTube. Here's the Kindle link http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Therapy-Surrender-Yourself-Sessions-ebook/dp/B00JGE5VQE

And here's a link to the YouTube sessions of the self-healing process I teach ~ watch, in the first 20 minutes, how Marina conquers her deepest fear and demonstrates that beneath her pain and fear is boundless joy, See video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r12MoNnwPKg&feature=youtu.be

 

I am brought in as an active duty veteran as well as a fully vetted volunteer advisor and heart centered consultant to help these veterans connect the dots and begin to see their whole life as an inner QUEST to find their lost self and how each love relationship has played its role in accelerating that quest to not only find themselves ~  but to also speak their inner truth.

Their immediate homework is to begin to thank these key people in their lives and tell them why they have been a gift in their life ~ now that they can clearly see in their life charts the important role each has played.

It is actually here that the self-healing begins for with each person they thank, their closed hearts begin to open and they feel less and less alone and more and more connected.

The next step within the small group is taking accountability for their life and exploring another choice versus being a victim and of course their homework is to do this in real life and experience the lightness of being accountable versus the deadening heaviness of beihg a victim.

Each step is this process is shared within the group and they all inspire each other in the ongoing self-healing process.

In session three they meet the child within via a guided visualization and the child tells them what they need to do to fully embrace this guiding source within.

In session four, a week later, they experience another guided visualization where they experience all the people in their lives on a movie screen and the question asked is ~ how many of these people have you thanked for being a gift in your life? Their home work, of course, is to thank these people from a place of gratefulness and joy.

In session five, they experience the Death Exercise where each has a chance to clearly see their life as a quest and experience how many people really knew them. Then each one of them experiences a mock death and each one has the chance to feel loved as well as extend love to one another. For some of them, this is the first time they have experienced themselves being loved for who they really are as well as extending love toward others.

The last session is all about listening and responding to their inner direction and fully claiming the gift of themselves ~ which is the prime purpose of this self-healing empowering workshop.

At that point they are welcomed into the larger Band of Brothers group, which meets once a month, where they are celebrated as well as given the opportunity to share their experience with the other members ~ which now numbers close to ninety.

And the beat goes on as Band of Brothers #15 participants are now beginning to complete their life charts and I await my opportunity to help them connect the soul dots and begin to accelerate their self-healing process through fear to inner light, love and gratitude.

This is without a doubt the most emotionally rewarding work of my life and I am humbled by the simplicity and power of this self-healing process. How fortunate can I be to be making such a profound difference in my early 80's by passing on my truth to people, many of them less than half my age ~ but all eager to see the light as well as another choice in life.

 “When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.”
~ Maya Angelou

 

Allen L Roland, Ph.D

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2015/02/band-of-brothers-14-healing-wounded.html

 

Heart centered spiritual consultant and advisor Allen L Roland can be contacted at  allen@allenroland.com Allen is also a lecturer and writer who shares a weekly political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com. He is also a featured columnist on Veterans Today and  guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

THE MIRACLE OF GRATEFULNESS

The golden key to self-healing is gratefulness. Only gratefulness can transcend the darkness of unworthiness, self-pity and self-negation and fully open the door to the heart ~ without which no true healing can occur: Allen L Roland

Without a doubt, the secret of my extremely successful short term transformational counseling, with both combat veterans with PTSD as well as emotionally wounded civilians, is the miracle of Gratefulness ~ for the only antidote for unworthiness and self-negation is gratefulness.

I define PTSD as Post Traumatic Heart Disorder in that a closed heart and emotional numbing is a common symptom of PTSD ~ but it is also for anyone else who has suffered significant emotional trauma or separation from love whereas they have shut down their heart and numbed out their feelings.

Over 35 years of active private practice has shown me how self-healing from any emotional trauma can be accelerated when unworthiness and self-hatred is replaced by gratitude.

When you start to thank people, who you have never thanked, you are in essence acknowledging their love and in that moment your heart begins to open and you begin to see through different eyes ~ no longer a victim but instead a person worthy of love.

My average client, which includes both veterans and civilians, completes their work in just seven sessions because, through gratitude, they want to heal and love again.

Recently, I completed seven one hour phone sessions with a new client from Connecticut who utilized my book RADICAL THERAPY, SURRENDER TO LOVE AND HEAL YOURSELF IN SEVEN SESSIONS ( Not Seven Years ) in conjunction with the phone sessions. She was amazed how energized she felt when she began to thank people who she had never thanked in her life and it is now a daily habit ~ as it is for myself. Her heart had closed as a child and she felt she had to there for everyone else but had never really taken her turn or felt loved for just being herself.

I actually did the visualization with her on the phone when she met the child within herself in session 4 ~ Connecting With The Inner Child. Here were her questions and answers from the child;

1. What do I need to do to embrace you in my life ? Love

2. What's my deepest fear ? Not being loved

3. Is that fear an illusion ? You bet it is !

4. Can I trust Allen ? Yes, he's a truth teller

5. What's my next step ? Love passionately

6. How do I do that ? By being fully yourself

7. Is there joy beneath my pain ? Absolutely, look at me

8. Will you forgive me for leaving you ? Absolutely, I love you.

9. What's the most important advice you can give me now ? It's not worth being anyone else but you.

10. Is there anything else you want to tell me ? Open your heart, there are no but's or what if's with love.

Those are all universal answers and very similar to the over 65 combat veterans with PTSD I have counseled over the past two years ~ and all have met the child within and begun the process of opening their heart through gratefulness.

We have all had life experiences wherein we have seemingly lost everything, where unexpectedly circumstances appear hopeless and terribly unjust ~ but I would maintain that we still must have faith in ourselves. That faith can only be maintained through gratefulness and only then do the miracles occur.

That sudden unexpected and cruel experience recently happened to myself and very rapidly all kinds of events happened to remind me that I am not only loved and cherished but that everything was going to be OK and that I would be taken care of.

One event was a clerk named Oliver at a print shop where I needed to immediately copy some important papers. Oliver sensed my deep despair and noticed my grandfather's 33 degree masonic ring on my right hand. He shook my hand with a masonic handshake and immediately took total care of me ~ and at that moment I felt the presence of my beloved grandfather who was saying everything was going to be OK.

One of my favorite truths is God only reveals itself to a grateful heart and since God is love ~ an evolutionary process with which we all participate as co-creators ~ that loving plan revealed itself through Oliver and subsequent helpful events to my hurt but grateful heart.

Armed with the miracle of gratefulness we can not only heal ourselves but manifest miracles while making a profound difference on this struggling planet.

“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual…O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.”

~ Henry David Thoreau

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-miracle-of-gratefulness.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations  allen@allenroland.com

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website www.allenroland.com

He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

BAND OF BROTHERS # 9 / INTO THE LIGHT

Six more active duty combat veterans with PTSD faced their fears and aloneness, shared their life charts and buried feelings, opened their hearts, and went into the light ~ becoming once again innocent children full of love and life and began to dramatically heal themselves in only eight weeks: Allen L Roland

As Easter draws near, an ongoing real life resurrection story continues to unfold in Yountville, California with the extremely successful heart centered Healing The Wounded Heart workshops for veterans with PTSD.

I have long felt and have now clearly proved that PTSD is quite often Post Traumatic Heart Disorder for a common symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is the inability to give or receive love ~ which can obviously apply to non veterans who have also suffered significant loss or emotional childhood and/or adult pain.

I have demonstrated that only after the heart is opened can true self healing occur for only then does the client (veterans or otherwise) truly want to heal. Using the premise that what is deepest within us is love (not pain and anger) and utilizing an action oriented approach to face and go through their fears ~ these veterans, soon discover that beneath their pain, anger and shame is not only love and joy but most importantly their true authentic self.

The purpose then of the Healing the Wounded Heart Workshops is to penetrate the grey zone of guilt, aloneness and unworthiness, that many War Veterans diagnosed with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) experience, and this is done within a supportive group setting through heart centered self exploration, group sharing, guided visualization and action oriented homework ~ where love and joy eventually overcome fear and separation.

The ultimate fire fight is on the battleground of the heart for it is there that we meet our deepest fears and issues of unworthiness. Combat veterans are often bonded in combat whereas the loss of their buddies is just as traumatic as the loss of a family member. A heart centered approach to PTSD re-opens their closed hearts, reconnects them to an innocent child within themselves and accelerates the self healing process.

The first meeting of the Healing The Wounded Heart Veterans Workshop #9 was held on February 16, 2012 at 11 AM in Yountville, California.

They had never met me but they had been told about me, by their adjustment counselor Sal, and were prepared for an eight week commitment to face their fears and open their hearts in the process. They knew I was a former active duty Naval aviator and that made a big difference.

Five Vietnam combat vets (one woman) and a Korean war vet ~ and all diagnosed with PTSD. All were willing to go to the edge of their fears, take the risk and jump into the unknown ~ if it really meant the possibility of finding another choice of behavior as well as love and joy in their lives.

All had done a pre- workshop assessment before the first session but I had them do another assessment regarding current feelings of love, joy and gratitude at the start of the first session ~ on a scale of 1 – 10 with one being the worst and ten being the most positive rating. They all scored between 2 to 4 ~ with many ongoing symptoms of unworthiness and depression.

Eight weeks later their final assessment regarding feelings of love, joy and gratitude found them all between 8 and 10 ~ with many of their ongoing symptoms of PTSD no longer occurring.

We met once a week for approximately two and a half hours. All of them had many symptoms of PTSD and even TBI but all had the common symptom of a closed heart and the inability to love and receive love ~ mainly because of deep unworthiness issues that originally started in childhood and were reinforced through their military experience.

All of them were looking for a light at the end of their personal dark tunnel of unworthiness.

I told them that this was an action based heart centered transformation workshop and if they did their homework they would reach a place of not only another choice but would open their closed hearts in the process. They would also begin to see through different eyes ~ eyes unclouded by fear, anger and unworthiness. I also explained through my Cycle Of Life chart how psychic pain will override Joy to the extent that most people have no idea that beneath their deepest pain and aloneness is love, joy and connectedness ~ a Unified Field of love, joy and soul consciousness.

After each session ~ part of their homework was to read each session in my book RADICAL THERAPY / SURRENDER TO LOVE AND HEAL YOURSELF IN SEVEN SESSIONS (NOT SEVEN YEARS ) which reinforced the previous group session. I also told them that these sessions were all about transformation and that these action based sessions could well bring up painful memories ~ but that beneath that deep pain was as even deeper thread of love, joy and innocence ~ which all of them had experienced at one time in their childhood.

Of course, that first session I shared my own heart's journey (as well as my life chart) to find a lost and alone little boy within myself who not only wanted to fly, and became a Navy Fighter pilot, but also to love as deeply as I loved my beloved grandfather before I was torn away from him at six years old. We talked about the war and all of them briefly shared their individual journey and by the end of two hours ~ they began to feel a sense of commonality. Their homework was to produce a life chart of the path of their own heart's journey ~ which they would share with the group over the next two sessions. The objective of the life chart is for the participant to see their life as a quest, versus a struggle, to find their authentic self and how every love relationship has played a role in that quest.

I told them that I was their coach, not their therapist, and that they had free access to me by telephone or email at any time during this process of self discovery.

The life chart is something like a crime scene where something happened and somebody was lost in childhood. In essence, I assist them in connecting the dots to help them find where they separated from their original innocent state of being, when they made the decision to be something other than themselves and how their whole life has been an inner QUEST, not a struggle, to find and fully experience their authentic self again. I help them see how all of their love relationships, regardless of the pain that may have ensued, have been gifts on that quest as they most certainly have been in my life.

Sharing their individual life charts, with my guidance, in front of the entire group not only established commonality but is a major step in coming out of their self imposed cocoons of fear as well as the important realization that it is safe and exciting to be honest, real and authentic. The life charts set the stage for the exercises and transformation that would occur later in the sessions. All of them were looking for a light at the end of a dark tunnel of unworthiness, self doubt and guilt and all of them found that light within themselves.

I’ll let their post workshop evaluations tell the story of their eight week inner journey through fear to love, self acceptance and joy;

BH ~ “The life chart was the most powerful tool for me. Through it, I was able to place the mental jumble of my life into items, events, good and bad memories and so many people who I loved and loved me. It feels so much better seeing my life as a quest versus a struggle. “

MT ~ “ Doing the life chart was helpful in that I was finally able to see how wonderful my life has been “

SO ~ “The life chart and writing in my own sacred journal allowed me to start making connections from my past to my present.”

RR ~ “ The workshop showed me that it is My Turn now and I no longer have to wait for it to ‘just happen’.

TR ~ “ I loved the way we shared all our thoughts and feelings with each other without judgment “

EW ~ “ I finally feel relaxed and my heart feels light “

Here is their response to the question as to what they really enjoyed and went well for them during the workshop;

RR ~ “The joy and emotional experience of finding a little boy within myself ~ that I had lost before Vietnam.”

MT ~ “ The death exercise and having the opportunity to express my heart felt feelings as well as receive them “

BH ~ “ Being pushed, cajoled and challenged by Allen to face and go through my fears “

EW ~ “I enjoyed most of all my new brothers and sister and their stories “

TR ~ “ Being able to speak out and not being afraid of feeling stupid “

SO ~ “ The workshop fully met the expectation of the words ‘ Healing the wounded heart ‘ but it has done so much more than those words ~ it has given me back my life “

Perhaps the best way to share what happens in these workshops is to share a nine minute award-winning Japanese documentary titled Children Full of Life.

In this video, a fourth-grade class in a primary school in Kanazawa, northwest of Tokyo, learns lessons about compassion from their homeroom teacher, Toshiro Kanamori. He instructs each of them to write their true inner feelings in a letter, and read it aloud in front of the class. By sharing their lives and deep feelings, the children begin to realize their commonality as well as the importance of listening and caring for each other ~ which is precisely what Band of Brothers #9 did when they left the gray zone of unworthiness and aloneness, went into the light and once again became children full of life. 9 minute video ~ http://www.truththeory.org/children-full-of-life/

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us." Albert Schweitzer

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/band-of-brothers-9-into-light.htm

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )