Creatively Cara

Peer Support & Mental Health

"What is Love? baby, don't hurt me. Don't hurt me, no more."
"Knowing is half the battle."

For most of my young adult life, I have carried many misconceptions about the world, about Love, Family, Marriage, and the very foundations of our psyche.

My home life was surprisingly rather dysfunctional behind closed doors, as my parents were nothing alike, yet both english students and artistically inclined.
My father played the piano, and read english literature, while my mother was a practicing Yoga and Meditation teacher, under strict principles of the Atma Samayama Yoga for Meditation taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi himself, not to mention a highly talented Artist and of strict Scottish/English/Irish & French Canadian descent.  As you can imagine, my childhood was rich with Yoga, AcroYoga, Pilates, Gymnastics, Dance, Music, Song, Art, and a family culture that teetered between Catholic Presbitarian Puritan heritage (my mothers lineage), and Judaism of the Ashkenazi descent (my fathers lineage). It was a rather dysfunctional setting, that longed to share both family beliefs but soon succumbed to the pressures of conformity to Judaism.

"Growing up Wise beyond my years, being called 'ahead of my time'; I knew too much, but at the same time, I really knew so little."

The atmosphere and the environment that we grow up in, as children, inevitably shapes the very core of our beliefs about the world, about ourselves, our Core Values & Beliefs, Life as an Adult and how we are meant to form bonds with our parents and siblings and with potential friends and lovers. Also in business; I had no clue that this was the unconscious reality of my life, as we know it. My waking reality.
Until I myself decided to marry, and out of my own core values and beliefs when it came to (Love and Marriage to Self) it became very clear to me, just how dysfunctional *I* truly was. 

Throughout my adolescence I based my life and my worth off of what my sisters or my siblings would allow or consent to, keeping me on a leash so to speak, so as not to get swept away by the current, to give me wind beneath my wings on my own quest of self discovery and maturity. Little did i know, that this was actually a syndrome of 'co-dependency'. Understanding the basics of attachment style, versus freedom to grow at my own rate.

As my mother struggled to be a single parent, it dawned on me just how much women were still struggling deeply with their own concurrent addictions to their Pain, and Generational Traumas (Zero Point/Emotional Dysregulation/Chronic Fatigue) utterly desperate for some form of real help or emotional healing, but not many really knew how to do such a thing, unless they were seeing a therapist or their personal guru in the sanctuary of their Ashrams\holy containers, healing spaces, healing circles. Religion being a thing of the past, as self administered meditation was now the trend. No more middle man. Religion was now at odds with my heritage as a Canadian and a Jew. 
As I grew in my sense of self, it was more apparent how much of a revelation it was for me to be indoctrinated into religion, and its early year stamp into femininity as a practicing Orthodox Jew. 
How i longed to take my devotion to my creative forces to new heights. And so, Tarot Cards and Incense took up space in my little women's world. 
The concept of the "Red Tent" then suddenly came back to the modern Woman, and with that took a giant leap back and then forward, as the 20th century was suddenly vibrating with solidarity, feminist ideals, Gay rights, and true Mental Health support for battered woman and the healing of the matriarch finally blossomed.

"Kill them with Kindness" really started to take its toll on the average Married Woman, as well the world of Marriage. Couples Counselling, Talk-Therapy, I'm Okay - You're Okay; back in the day as a child I remember hearing a few segments of conversation from either one of my parents about couples counselling, as I was unaware of what my parents really lacked as a couple, which tied into a lack of real tangible or interpersonal skill practices such as personal boundaries that are touched upon in the therapeutic skills coaching of CBT or DBT, that would have actually gotten to the core of our trauma-bonds and help to really initiate their own healing that might have lead back to happier Marriages and Family constellations. 
So, in other words, the generation of Baby Boomers, never really had a chance to rest and recover. Sadly. Most of them have been lost either to drugs or "old age".  Some would rather outlive their ancestral time-lines or paradigms. Ever heard of the saying, "They're stuck/set in their Way"? Yep. That just about sums it up. 

"As I grew into an adult myself, I witnessed my own mother become more and more depressed and withdrawn. Her heart was no longer aflame with the passions of Motherhood that I remembered as a child. As well more and more closed to Love and Gratitude. It wasn't until i made the decision to finally own my gifts as an artist & a writer, and a spokes person for Mental Health as I struggled to manage my own diagnosis as a person with ADHD, it sure as hell painted my life in a completely different light, and none altogether easy to navigate. 
Speaking from my own experiences with Mental Health, I only hope that from my own experiences with trauma and growing up with a lack of proper healthy boundaries, that my role as a Peer Support (specialist), I would now be able to support my own family through the many years of family crisis, and deep regression of Love and Connection back to Health through my work as a Peer. 

I have been told many times, that I am rare, and that my experiences are rare and that I "ought to put my life experiences to work and to the test." 

Having said all that, I am honouring my role as a newly certified Peer Support specialist, in and out of my community (Whitby, & Oshawa) through my work as Peer under CMHA's umbrella of day-programs for people that have struggled with their own Mental Health and Addictions, that long for recovery and restitution for perhaps being falsely misrepresented/convicted. 

Follow me on facebook, or instagram, or join my mailing list for more Info on Peer Support, being a Peer, and so much more!!

Follow me for more details, on my instagram or facebook, as I continue to pour out my heart and Life on these pages as well through my daily practices of Mindfulness through my practices of DBT and CBT, qiGong, Meditation, Yoga, YoQui, Walking, Fasting, practicing my practice as an energetic Practitioner, and learning to truly master my practice as a Reiki Energy practitioner, as well as now being a Peer support Specialist.

So many things to be grateful for.  

I also firmly believe in the teachings of the Buddha, and truly see myself as a Buddhist at this day and age of Mental health crisis. 

As the Buddha taught in the core principles of Buddhism (the Buddhist Sanga's), if we do not honour the teachings of the Noble Eightfold Path we are ultimately doing harm to ourselves and those around us. This innately causes us more unnecessary suffering when we do not need more suffering, we need compassion and understanding in order to grow out of the very mud that we had been buried under for so long. Rest and Digest. Recovery is so crucial.  

To conclude, I will end with my favourite teachings from Buddhism: Ahimsa & Karuna.

What are your favourite practices?
What is your current Mantra? Positive Affirmation? 
Where on your journey to recovery are you now?