Donna Thornton

March 1, 2016 by Donna Thornton Leave a Comment

Pain as a Teacher

“There is no consciousness without pain”

– C.G. JUNG

I’d like to make an argument for pain and darkness as a requirement for enlightenment…Wait what?

How can we shift our thoughts about pain from avoidance to gratitude? I invite you to try looking at your irritating symptom, broken heart, depression, sprained ankle, etc as a gift. Perhaps the pain is a red flag signifying an imbalance that needs to be addressed. Perhaps our pain is the wisest teacher.

Pain is a complex and subjective phenomenon; therefore an adequate definition is difficult to put to words. In this article, I’d like to address three categories in which we experience pain and describe five levels of its increasing intensity.

LEVEL 1 – PRESSURE

You can feel it’s weight, but it doesn’t hurt yet.

Examples:

1. External or Physical – Brushing up against a wall
2. Internal or Chemical – Feeling bloated
3. Mental or Emotional – Rapidly approaching deadlines

LEVEL 2 – ACHE

Ache is a dull but nagging discomfort. You feel noticeably not yourself, but you usually try to push through and keep going.

Examples:

1. External or Physical – Muscle soreness
2. Internal or Chemical – Stomach aches
3. Mental or Emotional – Being home sick

LEVEL 3 – PAIN

This is a wake up call. The signal now refuses to be ignored and you’re extremely uncomfortable. Action must be taken: address the underlying reason for the pain OR create a compensation pattern (a limp) to avoid the pain.

Examples:

1. External or Physical – A broken leg
2. Internal or Chemical – Severe Constipation
3. Mental or Emotional – Divorce

LEVEL 4 – TICKLISH

Being tickled doesn’t really feel good; your nervous system is in hysterics. Ticklish is the oscillation from “pain” and “no pain”. It’s dissociation.

Examples:

1. External or Physical – Muscle spasms
2. Internal or Chemical – Anxiety
3. Mental or Emotional – Laughing at trauma

LEVEL 5 – NUMB

Becoming numb is our highest level of pain. The trauma has become so great that the pain signal
has been completely shut off.

Examples:

1. External/Physical – The physiological shock response
2. Internal/Chemical – Over-medication
3. Mental/Emotional – Ignoring or blacking out traumatic memories

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?

Each level is an important survival mechanism. Pain protects us. However, each level can progress to the next in severity if ignored long enough. Temporarily relieving the pain is important as well, but the situation can become more dangerous if we continue to avoid the pain. Not addressing the root cause can permanently alter healthy function.

Real world examples:

External or Physical: A limp will naturally develop after you break a leg. In this case, the limp is temporarily necessary for daily mobility. However, the new faulty motor pattern can become embedded in your brain. If the dysfunctional pattern is not retrained, it will cause further problems due to the long-term abnormal compensations- ie. Back spasms, neck pain,migraines, etc.
Internal or Chemical: A busy person self-medicates their abdominal gas and bloating for years. Over time, it can escalate into severe stomach pain and/or a very irritable bowel. If the underlying dysfunction is not addressed it will cause further problems due to the long-term abnormal compensations- ie. Weight gain, infections, autoimmune disease, etc.
Mental or Emotional: A person may not feel comfortable opening up to someone new after a recent divorce. That’s ok in the short term, but further down the road, social isolation can develop into a deep unshakable sadness. This dysfunctional pattern is like an emotional limp. If the underlying issues around self worth are not addressed, it can cause further problems due to the long-term abnormal compensations- ie. Relationship sabotage, substance abuse, depression, etc.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT?

If you’re having a hard time pulling yourself out of the pain and/or darkness, ask for help. WE ALL NEED EACH OTHER! We recover faster and more completely when we’re coached through the levels of pain, by someone who’s been there before us. With education and motivation from talented Teachers, Physical Therapists, Nutritionists, Personal Trainers, Doctors, Coaches, Mentors etc. we can learn how to “listen to our bodies”, restore ourselves to health and share our story of healing with others.

I hope you enjoyed this article and found the information is helpful!

-Casey Shivers
Owner of IAmWell, LLC
Functional Nutrition + Holistic Lifestyle

June 2, 2015 by Donna Thornton Leave a Comment

How can you leap straight from the problem to the answer?

Intuition is the supra-logic that cuts out all the routine processes of thought and leaps straight from the problem to the answer. – Robert Graves

Learning to trust and use your intuition in decision making can be a game changer for you. When you begin to learn to trust that small still voice, that gut feeling, that little nudge you feel from deep within, you truly can learn to leap straight from the problem to the answer.

The reality is that you actually do have all of your answers inside of you. You just have been taught not to look there for the answers. If you are like me, you were taught to look outside of yourself. Ask the “experts” or research the answer. Or write out lists of pros and cons or talk to everyone else about the problem until you are so confused you don’t know which way to turn.

I’ve spent a lot of time learning to trust my intuition, and now I spend a lot of time teaching others how to trust theirs. For many people, the first step is even allowing their intuition to have a voice. There are a lot of ways to go about accessing your intuition. Sometimes we’ve cut that voice off so much or stuffed it down so deeply that it is barely a whisper… for some people it has literally gone mute. So the first thing to learn is that everyone has an intuitive voice and it’s okay to let it speak!

Once you’ve gotten through that first step, of even acknowledging and allowing your intuitive voice to be heard, the second step is actually listening to the message.

I think this is the hardest part for a lot of people. Our intuition may kind of speak a different language than we are used to. Intuition can be a whisper, a voice in your head, or it can be a feeling or a knowing. It can present itself outwardly through signs and symbols. The important thing is to start listening and learning how your intuition communicates to you.

Once you’ve started listening, the next step is in learning to trust your intuition. This can be very difficult for some people. I teach a number of ways to go about this, from learning ways to verify the information you are getting to tracking your hunches, and the use of tools that help you to really be able to feel confident in trusting the information your intuition gives you.

I know it is difficult sometimes to really live by your intuition. I mean, if your intuition tells you to go right instead of left, and you go left and have an accident, well, you probably will say to yourself “I should have trusted my intuition!” But if you go right and nothing happens, you may never even think about it again. So your brain doesn’t register that listening to your intuition paid off! I think a simple way to start paying validating your intuition is to just simply keep a journal. Start tracking your intuitive hunches, what you did with them and what the result was (even if the result was that nothing happened!).

Whatever else you do, I really recommend you find the ways that work for you to begin to truly tap into your intuition. Once you begin to recognize when your intuition is speaking, and then when you follow your intuition, you will find life gets a lot easier for you, and much of the time you absolutely can make that leap right away from problem to solution!

If you would like to find out more about the courses we offer, here at Onederous Tribe Academy, that can help you tap into your intuition click HERE. If you haven’t done so yet, I hope you’ll take advantage of our FREE eBook, too! I just know you’ll love it!

May 5, 2015 by Donna Thornton Leave a Comment

Enlightenment is for Business, too!

Onederous Tribe and Onederous Tribe Academy were born out of a desire to give you (awakened business folks) a place to network and connect with others of like mind and to provide knowledge, wisdom and insight that will help you to achieve the abundance and prosperity that every one of us deserves.

But many people want to know why we are moved to combine business and spirituality. What does one have to do with the other? Well, from my perspective, the answer is EVERYTHING!

The truth is, we are shifting the energy on this planet. We are moving towards a higher frequency. We are now moving towards living our lives with much more compassion, love, grace and integrity than on any other time in history. And I, for one, do not think this means that everyone is going to be sitting around all day meditating, playing the guitar and watching the flowers grow. I think the key to all of this is the word “living” – as we shift the vibrations on the planet, we are still living our lives!

In fact, in a lot of ways, with the fast pace of the internet and technology, we are probably busier than ever. So, the shift has to come in a way that includes living our lives! And this includes business! We have to continue to have businesses and we have to continue to have work. The difference is, now, many people are striving to find deeper meaning in their businesses and work. Working for the sake of working just isn’t working for people anymore! And while money is a tremendously useful tool in our world today (and we should never be afraid or ashamed to make money!), it isn’t “all about the Benjamins” anymore either!

So many people now are searching for meaning. We want to do more than “work, pay taxes and die” – in fact, we KNOW we are meant for so much more than that!

People who see that there is more to life than “business as usual” are the ones we call awakened or enlightened. We are waking up to the fact that there is more… and as we move into the light, we become “enlightened” – and this is where everything begins to coalesce. Our spiritual lives and our business lives can no longer be two separate things!

And we know that. That is why we are here. Because we want to help YOU as you move your business more and more into the light. We want to be here for you to help you to see how you can combine your spiritual life with your business life, to make your entire life more satisfying and more in alignment with who you truly are at the core.

As we become more and more enlightened, and become more and more awake, so must our businesses. We must do business in a way that is in integrity with our spiritual selves. Does this mean we just sort of throw our hands up and leave it to Spirit to run our businesses? NO. Absolutely not! But what it does mean is that everything we do in our businesses has to be in alignment with Spirit. From our marketing practices, to our accounting practices, to the way we price our products and services and the way we attract customers and clients… ALL of these things must resonate with the way we are living our lives. Enlightenment is for business, too! This is the new business paradigm!

Unfortunately, the old paradigm of business had people convinced that the only way to do some things was to do them in a questionable manner. This was just “the way business is done” is what many of us have been led to believe. Many of us were led to believe that if we wanted to make money, we had to embrace this model!

I’m here to tell you that in the new business paradigm, that is just no longer true. How we do anything is how we do everything, and that includes the way we do business. If you want to keep moving more and more towards enlightenment in your personal life, you have to do the same in your business life!

That is what enlightenment has to do with business! And Onederous Tribe Academy is here to offer you courses to help you grow spiritually, but also with practical courses to help you do business in the “enlightened” way! In the world we are used to living in, it can seem kind of confusing to think about one place where you can go to both grow and expand in your awareness AND in your business… but in the new business paradigm, we are sure this is absolutely going to be just “the way business is done.” And we want to be here for you, to help you in all aspects, so that you can be ahead of the curve!

If you would like to bring more enlightenment to your business, Onederous Tribe Academy is here for you! We even have a great FREE course to get you started! Download it today (click HERE) and use it to expand your awareness, remove blocks and get your business into alignment with your spirit!

December 22, 2014 by Donna Thornton Leave a Comment

Eliminate Negative Thoughts and Lose Weight

You think thousands of thoughts each day. You talk to yourself more than anyone else. You are your most trusted advisor and confidant. Many of the conversations that you have with yourself you would never share with anyone else because to do so would expose the “real” you. The you that is filled with self doubt, worries, sadness, guilt, hurts and disappointments.

But this is not the “real you” at all. This is the you that your ego and belief systems have constructed. These negative beliefs have been constructed by you, and accepted by you as truth. The sad thing is that nothing can be further from the truth.

Where did these false ideas about you originate? They mostly came from others; parents, teachers, co-workers, and friends. They might have planted the seed by saying something like “she is fat” and you have cultivated those comments to the point that they have become your truth.

You are allowing your entire life to be controlled by some obscure comments made years ago. Nobody has the right or power to dictate who you are. Only you know who you truly are and what’s in your heart.

When you were born you entered this world without the burdens of you current negative belief system. You entered this world as a beautiful bundle of joy filled with unlimited potential and possibilities.

I’m here to tell you that you have not changed. You are still and will always be a beautiful bundle of joy with unlimited potential and possibilities.

The only difference is what you give your attention to. Let me ask you a question. If you stopped all the negative talk that you currently have with yourself such as:

I’m too fat
Why would anyone want to love me?
I will never be thin
I always fail

And the list can go on and on… How would you feel ? Do you think that you would feel emotionally lighter ? Do you think that you would feel happier ? Do you think that you would feel more confident ?

Now how do you think your life would change if you were to go one step further and modify your self talk by only speaking positively about yourself. If you take some time and focus on what you like about yourself and focus on only that your emotional state will become positive to the point that you will be able to accomplish anything.

Once you begin looking for the positive things within you, you will be surprised to realize your magnificence has always been there just below the surface. You have never been anything other then that shining bundle of joy that entered the world years ago. It’s easy to uncover positive aspects of yourself by asking some questions.

What am I good at?
Who has benefited by me being in the world?
Who am I, what is in my heart that only I know?
What do I like about my body?

Your goal is to feel good now. How do you feel now? If you only observe what you feel is positive about you, you will feel good, you will be happy. Decide right here and right now how you want to feel. Decide that you will always look for the good within you and appreciate that goodness.

So what does all of this have to do with losing weight? Everything!!! Your emotional state is the control valve that determines what you draw into your experience. How you talk to yourself creates your beliefs and programs your subconscious. So you need to ask yourself do you want your beliefs and subconscious programming to be based on false negative thinking. Or do you want your beliefs to be based on the truth, that you are and always have been a perfect being.

Begin today to love and nurture yourself. Allow the joy, playfulness and enthusiasm that you naturally had as a child begin to flow into your everyday experiences. Allow yourself to celebrate each and every success no matter how small. Love and appreciate yourself every opportunity you have. Do this everyday and watch your weight begin to dissolve just as your old negative beliefs about yourself begin to dissolve.