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Nathalie Himmelrich

Inspiring Hope | Finding healthy ways of Grieving | Writer

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learning

Who Is Your Spiritual Authority?

August 27, 2014 By Nathalie Himmelrich Leave a Comment

milky way
Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

Going through life we learn from parents, teachers, lecturers, educators, coaches, trainers, workshop leaders, religious leaders, partners, and children. Spiritual seekers often learn from gurus. But who is your spiritual authority? Who tells you what’s right and what’s wrong? What to believe and from whom? When to apply what you have learnt and why?

The good, the bad and the useless

As a child, we learn and believe our parents. As pupils, we learn from our teachers. Sadly, not all the teaching we receive is beneficial. When the teaching is received in the formative years of a child, it is often taken on before they gain the ability to decipher between good and bad. As we grow older, we hopefully become more and more equipped to differentiate between what of the learning and beliefs we want to believe and what we need to throw overboard. 

Experience and perception

If you were to ask me what I believe after all that I’ve been through, I wouldn’t be able to give you a simple answer. The answer is continuously changing and adapting to the current experience. The personal experience comes from within my body and my perspective of the current reality based on my perception, which is based on my learning and experiences in the past.

What have you been encouraged to believe?

Luckily I haven’t been brought up with strong religious dogma. My parents were liberal in their religious thinking and early on my dad encouraged me to read spiritual books about the kabala, numerology, meditation, hypnosis and various eastern religions. With any of those he used to answer my question “Do you believe this?” with his permissive statement: “I see this as a possibility, an option of many.”

Admiration of teachers

Encouraged to read and learn more I followed the breadcrumbs from one book to the next, picking and choosing what resonated with me. I have fallen into the trap of admiration of teachers and gurus, believing their version of the story to be the one. And I have been disillusioned many times and thrown my admirations over board.

Claim your spiritual authority

Just the other day, a new friend of mine said something about ‘claiming spiritual authority’ and I suddenly felt alert. When speaking more about the topic, she explained that in relating teachings to personal experience and picking and choosing what related to the self I suddenly felt my process and experience to be understood. She spoke more about the process of owning your own spiritual authority. This concept makes sense to me and it ties in with owning our body, mind, emotions and our spirit. I like it.

The only answer to the question above is: “I am!”

Filed Under: emotions/feelings, self development/motivation, spirituality Tagged With: beliefs, learning, religious dogma, spiritual authority

What I have learnt from my clients…

November 15, 2010 By Nathalie Himmelrich 2 Comments

thank you
Photo by Courtney Hedger on Unsplash

As many of you working with couples and individuals in relationships is my passion. Many of my clients come because they experience challenges and some are going through separation or divorce.
Through my work, I also learn a lot FROM my clients, which in the end supports other clients. Thank you.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned…

1. Things don’t always turn out the way we expect

While I was overseas, one particular couple who seemed to be heading in the direction of separation and divorce decided to give it another try. They had already convinced me, that they were better off alone…

2. Commitment can heal many hurts

Affairs, betrayal, or secrets can leave a couple reeling and dealing with challenges. Couples have shown me that if there is commitment, dedication, acceptance, and a willingness to grow and learn together many challenges can be met and dealt with.

3. It is not over ‘til the fat lady sings

I have worked with couples who went through separation only to come back together after experiencing each other from a distance and realizing what actually connected them in the first place. I’m still smiling about one couple where she decided she couldn’t live with one of his habits (smoking) and after working through the whole issue they’ve now got married and committed to each other in an even deeper way.

4. Relationship is self-knowledge

Over and over I hear that my clients learn more about themselves through relationships. What really annoys them about their partner is what triggers core issues in themselves. Looking from a distance it is those gifts that help us heal unresolved past hurts.

5. I just want to know!

Personally, I can so understand when clients say: I just want to know! I have come to observe over and over that as a generalization men tend to not want to hurt their partner and retract to not telling them (for example that they want to leave) whereas women just want to know and move on.

6. I’m right, you are wrong

The biggest learning will be that in any relationship there are usually two quite different viewpoints that each believes to be ‘right’. Only through acceptance of different perspectives and the ability to change perspective can we come to realize that this paradox of opposing opinions means that it is not ‘either/or’ but ‘and’.

So to all my clients who are also my teachers, Thank you!

Filed Under: communication, love/relationship/marriage, self development/motivation Tagged With: clients, counselling, learning, my clients are my teachers, thank you

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    Nathalie Himmelrich

    I accompany people therapeutically as a holistic counsellor and coach.

    I walk alongside people dealing with the challenges presented by life and death.

    I’m also a writer and published author of multiple grief resource books and the founder of the Grieving Parents Support Network.

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