From Surviving to Thriving
By Angus Deans
I recently experienced one of the most profound journeys I have undertaken in my life to this point without even needing to leave the house to journey!
What I discovered though is the most incredible sense of freedom. Freedom from many of the bars of the cage that surrounded my life, beliefs that the Ego had manifested as a means of trying to keep me safe. Some of these bars were indeed of my own making in this life – albeit unconscious making – and some belonged to my forebears and have been handed down lovingly from generation to generation!
Some years ago I came to understand how these beliefs serve as ‘protective mechanisms’ put in place to help ensure that other people would like me, for if they did not and I was cast out from the family or from society then with the innocence of childhood I would surely perish. These beliefs lead us to form adaptive behaviour’s in order for us to feel safe and secure.
The great things about these behaviour’s that may no longer be serving us is that they have indeed kept us safe, and alas, comfortably stuck until now. Without them we would not be who we are. So we need to give thanks to them and honour them for the role they have held in keeping us safe.
When we reach the point where we are wishing to change some things, change can seem to be awfully hard. Often we only make changes when the pain of a given situation becomes so great that we have no choice but to change. Talk about liking to do things the hard way! We often wear this like a badge of honour unfortunately as well.
In my life I have experienced much change – most of which has been painful by virtue of the Ego’s desire for things to remain the same. However I come from a pioneering family and so seeking change is just as necessary as breathing to my psyche. I have actively played with many tools to help facilitate change and have grown in understanding of myself through all of them.
My recent experience had profound effects yet it was so very simple. It was the culmination of many things I have experienced but had the directness I was searching for. I am not good at ‘wasting’ time. When I do something I want it to work. That then frees me to get on with the next thing that has my attention.
The process I undertook freed me from so many outdated stories I was still operating from. Even better than that, it was achieved without having to relive and rehash the sometimes horrible emotional baggage that went with these stories. Instead I was assisted into understanding myself in a manner that freed me from so many self-limiting beliefs that had been running my life. The transformation was beautifully expedited by the practitioner who facilitated the process for me.
So what was this process? TRTP, The Richards Trauma Process. The word trauma is used to refer to distressing events. It is common for us to think we don’t have any trauma and as rural people who often have enormous resilience we frequently view trauma as something that happens to some other person a lot less fortunate than ourselves. However there would be none amongst us who have not experienced distressing events, and carry with us the reactions to which unconsciously underpin some of our current behaviour.
Trauma is any experience that made us feel unsafe in our fullest authentic expression and led to us developing trauma adaptations to keep us safe. Even experiences that we consider insignificant or normal parts of life can lead to adaptive behaviours that can unconsciously sabotage us and stop us moving forwards.
Most of the stress and fear we experience in life comes from the beliefs we have formed that we are not safe. This includes anxiety, depression, phobias, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and PTSD. Typically when we are not safe we respond in one of 3 ways – fight, flight or freeze. These reactions are unconscious. In order to change these it is agreed by trauma experts that we:
1/ need to know that we are safe,
and 2/ be moved to an empowered position in regard to the distressing event (trauma).
TRTP enables us to quicky and without re traumatizing/ re-triggering turn off the unconscious loops that create the reaction response.
If you find yourself struggling to take new actions, sabotaging yourself from making changes in your life and business, struggling with what others will think of you, knowing better but not doing better, procrastinating, experiencing a general dissatisfaction with life but can’t put your finger on what you need to do to shift it, relationship challenges, health challenges, anxiety or depression then TRTP is for you. Everyone can benefit from this process.
The ease and speed of affecting meaningful and lasting change that I, and many others, have experienced as a result of undergoing TRTP prompted me to train in this technique. It is something that I now offer to others as part of the services we offer here at Reinventing Agriculture. So if powerfully reinventing yourself and freeing yourself of outdated beliefs that no longer serve you to move from surviving to thriving is of interest to you do not hesitate to get in touch.
Email Angus to find out more about how TRTP can help you thrive
Testimonial: “I am so grateful for experiencing the TRTP process with Angus as my guide. I am amazed how easily this simple process has cleared beliefs that had been holding me back in my business and relationships for decades in just 3 sessions; that previously many years of personal growth including counselling and alternate therapy sessions had only scratched the surface of. I now have the skills to use in the future as needed and I feel free to be myself for the first time in my life. My business and my relationships have improved out of sight in such a short time. I can see how everyone could benefit enormously and permanently from experiencing this process in their life. If you want to fly you have to give up what weighs you down and working with Angus will help you to release what no longer serves you so you can be who you are here to be and make the difference to the world you want to make. Thank you so much Angus for making this possible, for your kindness and the safe, non-judgemental space you provide.” (client 2021, name withheld)
