Taking further the concept of interconnection, Ghosthorse explains that
there is no separation between life and death. The Lakota have no word for death since life and death are seamlessly interwoven.
“We think that everyone thinks like us,” he says. “But we see the whole. Our bodies are in the soul. The soul is not merely contained within the body.
I can talk about the way people were before we got here and how we will live after we live here. It’s a whole transition of one life.”
Words like “empathy” and “compassion” hold deeper meaning for the original peoples. “We have to relate to that tree, to the air, to these other things that keep us alive as human beings. We relate to them because they have consciousness. They are able to cleanse and are able to produce air,”
says Ghosthorse. “Once we realize the tree has a relationship to whom we are, we see the tree inside ourselves.”
In recognizing that the tree needs water, carbon dioxide, sun and wind, it is no longer so much a thing as it is a being “ a tree-ing living being,” he says.
THE FIVE GIFTS
Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength
When Disaster Strikes
By Laurie Nadel, PhD
In THE FIVE GIFTS, readers discover:
•The science behind the 5 Gifts
•Lessons from firefighters and police officers on how to handle acute stress
•Hypervigilance, peanut M&Ms & other things to pack in your “Psychological Go Kit”
•Innovative ideas for Emotional First Aid (EFA)
•The most important thing Dr. Nadel learned after losing her home in Hurricane Sandy
•Why it isn't negative to think about traumatic events
•How to spot the signs of PTSD and how to help someone who suffers from it
•How to build a proactive mindset
•Dr. Laurie’s Pocket Guide to Self-Care for Acute Stress (adapted from SWAT team instructions)
•Five Minutes a Day—Guides to help you cultivate each of the 5 Gifts. Exercises include cognitive restructuring, asking what others need, meditating, actualizing forgiveness, creating meaning and purpose, and more.
As the pace and strength of disasters increase, Dr. Nadel says, “we need new thinking, new ways of processing intense emotions, and new behavioral choices.
It is my hope that THE FIVE GIFTS can serve as a beacon to shine light in the darkness so that you can navigate to a new place of hope and strength.”
Foreword by Award-Winning Journalist Dan Rather
"When it comes to teaching how to get up after being knocked down, how to not just survive life's hardest blows but eventually thrive, nothing beats a teacher who has learned through personal experience. I'll be surprised if you don't find this book highly readable and the information in it unusually accessible and easy to understand, digest, and put to use . . .”
—Dan Rather
get your copy here