Hudson Reporter Archive

Enlivening Ourselves

Reflections on Sept. 11

Here, on the anniversary of 9/11, most of us are spending some time reflecting upon the immense change, loss, trauma and sadness that will be etched upon our memories whenever this date is mentioned. Many of us are still suffering from the emotional trauma we experienced. We wonder how healing can ever occur. Will peace ever be a part of our daily experience again?

Life is a process of birth and death. We are constantly dying and being born anew, as we end each day and begin the next. We constantly move through changes in our physical being. On an emotional level, we have experiences and relationships that blossom and then die. Mentally, we have understandings and concepts that fit for awhile and then die as our awareness grows and changes focus again. Sept. 11 forced unexpected traumatic death upon all of us. For some it was the sudden traumatic death of someone near and dear. For all Americans, it brought about a death in our ability to have unquestioning faith in our personal safety.

But where is the birth? If we are willing to see and move into it, the birth and healing is also present. Many are reconnecting with family, choosing to express their love and spend more of their time with those who matter most to them. I’d venture to say all of us to one degree or another have been rudely awakened and asked by the nature of these circumstances to re-evaluate our priorities. Try to remember this process, and consciously re-commit to making the changes necessary to align your everyday life with your priorities. Many have also been re-evaluating their religious/spiritual lives since 9/11, bringing a new birth and new energies to their spiritual development. Gratitude and appreciation for much that was previously ignored and taken for granted, comes much more readily in this post-9/11 era.

It felt to me as if New York City’s heart burst open after the tragedy of Sept. 11. As a consequence, the usual emotional distance between people evaporated. "Others" became "us", as many people reached out to help "strangers" who felt like friends or family. Yes, there was a tremendous amount of birth in the midst of the death; light in the midst of the darkness. I’ve heard it said that if you seek inner peace, you must catch the impulse to see differences and pull it out by the roots. This is the issue. In the aftermath of 9/11, the light and healing is also present. Many experienced great compassion and reached out to help one another. Our commonality and our oneness were palpable. World peace requires that same recognition – that "we" are all "us."

(Dr. Sallie Norquist is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice and is director of Chaitanya Counseling and Stress Management Center, a center for upliftment and enlivenment, in Hoboken.)

Dr. Norquist and the staff of Chaitanya invite you to write them at Chaitanya Counseling and Stress Management Center, 51 Newark St., Suite 202, Hoboken, NJ 07030 or www.chaitanya.com or by e-mail at drnorquist@chaitanya.com, or by fax at (201) 656-4700. Questions can address various topics, including relationships, life’s stresses, difficulties, mysteries and dilemmas, as well as questions related to managing stress or alternative ways of understanding and treating physical symptoms and health-related concerns. Practitioners of the following techniques are available to answer your questions: psychology, acupuncture, therapeutic and neuromuscular massage, yoga, meditation, spiritual & transpersonal psychology, Reiki, Cranial Sacral Therapy, and Alexander Technique Ó 2002 Chaitanya Counseling and Stress Management Center

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