Native American Healing Concepts

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Native American Healing Concepts Traumatic
Brain Injury

• Presented by Al Benalli

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THE SACRED TREE

• Dedicated to the countless clans, tribes, and
  nations of Indigenous People , throughout Mother
  Earth whose sacred visions, dreams, prayers,
  songs, wisdom, experience and kind guidance form
  the foundation and living reality of the Sacred
  Tree. Dedicated to Travelers with Traumatic Brain
  Injury

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Native American Symbolic Teachings

• Traumatic Brain Injury Is an insult to the brain
  caused by an external force. Causes include
  falls, MV crashes, assaults, sports injuries.
• Aquired Brain Injury Is caused by internal
  conditions such as stroke, anoxia (lack of
  oxygen), tumor, or exposure to toxic substances.

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Sacred Objects

• The traveler collects objects on their recovery
  journey that have special significance to them, a
  photo, a book. For others, it may be a feather, a
  small stone or some special herb.
• These things usually symbolize, to their
  traveler, aspects of the travelers spiritual
  journey with TBI.

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Sacred Objects

• Contact with these special objects can have the
  effect of raising the travelers awareness about
  the deep spiritual significance of the ordinary
  things of everyday life.
• When the traveler understands that it is not the
  objects themselves that are the source of power,
  but rather the deep meanings the objects have to
  the person who uses them.

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Sacred Objects

• The use of sacred objects can greatly assist a
  person to focus himself for prayer and
  meditation.
• Question what are your sacred objects? Where
  does your power come from? What meanings derive
  from your objects? If you could be an animal in
  the world, what would it be, and why?

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The Story of the Sacred Tree

• For all the people of the earth, the Creator has
  planted a Sacred Tree under which they may
  gather, and there find Healing, Power, Wisdom and
  Security. The roots of this tree spread deep into
  the body of Mother Earth. Its branches reach
  upward like hands praying to Father Sky. The
  fruits of this tree are the good things the
  Creator has given to the people teachings that
  show the path of love, compassion, generosity,
  patience, wisdom, justice, courage, respect,
  humility and may other wonderful gifts. The
  ancient ones taught us that the life of the Tree
  is the life of the people.

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Important Concepts Symbols

• Symbols express and represent meaning. Meaning
  helps provide purpose and understanding in the
  lives of human beings. Indeed to live without
  symbols is to experience existence far short of
  its full meaning. Ways of expressing and
  representing meaning include symbolic systems of
  mathematics, spoken written language and the
  arts.

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Healing The Medicine Wheel

• The Four Cardinal Directions
• The Four Symbolic Races
• Four Elements Fire, Water, Earth, Air
• Four Aspects of our Nature, M, E, P, S.

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The Four Great Meanings of the Sacred Tree

• Protection-shade from the sun, wood
• Nourishment-fruit of the tree, nurturing
• Growth-pursuing life experience
• Wholeness-the unity centering of qualities of
  the four directions in the human being.

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First Principles

• Wholeness-all things are interrelated, everything
  is connected.
• Change-all of creation is in a state of constant
  change. The coming together of things
  (development) and the coming apart of things
  (disintegration). Healing ceremonies are
  available to assist us in the disintegration
  phase of life.

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The Seen and the Unseen

• The physical world is real. The unseen world is
  real. These two are aspects of one reality.
  Violation of physical laws can affect the
  Spiritual world. Violation of physical laws can
  affect the Spiritual world. A balanced life is
  one that honors laws of both of these dimensions.

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Spiritual Dimension of Human Development

• Respond to realities, dreams, visions, ideals,
  spiritual teachings, goals, theories.
• Realized and Unrealized potential.
• Expression through speech, art or mathematics.
• Capacity to guide future action-action directed
  toward making what was only seen as a possibility
  into a living reality.

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The Gifts from the East

• The East is the direction from which the new day
  comes into the world. It is the direction of
  renewal. It is the place of innocence,
  guilelessness, spontaneity, joy and the capacity
  to believe in the unseen.
• We will learn warmth of spirit, purity, trust,
  hope, and the uncritical acceptance of others, we
  will learn to love as a child loves, a love that
  does not question others and does not know
  itself. Here courage is born and truthfulness
  begins.
• The East is the place of all beginnings. The
  human being must return many times to the East in
  the course of a lifes journey. Each time, there
  will be new things to learn on a new level of
  understanding.

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The Gifts of the South

• The South is the direction of the Sun. It is the
  place of summer, of fullness, of youth, of
  physical strength and vigor. Symbolically, it is
  a time of preparing for the future, of getting
  ready for days ahead. The South is also the place
  of the heart, of generosity, of sensitivity to
  the feelings of others, of loyalty, of noble
  passions and of love. The love learned in the
  South is the love of one person for another.

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The South Direction

• Is the great place of testing for the physical
  body, especially our mind.
• The senses such as sight, thought, hearing, touch
  and taste are all gifts of the body that can be
  developed to serve the whole person.
• In the South the traveler acquires the gifts of
  music, gracefulness of movement, appreciation of
  the arts, and the powers of discrimination in
  sight, hearing taste. One symbol that can be
  used to represent physical excellence and sensory
  acuteness is the cougar.

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The South Direction

• The most difficult and valuable gift to be sought
  in the South of the medicine wheel is the
  capacity to express feelings openly and freely in
  ways that do not hurt other beings.
• The practical value of this is that we will then
  have the ability to set aside our feelings of
  anger, hurt, or grief in order to counsel or in
  other ways assist other people.

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The Gifts of the West

• The West is from which darkness comes. It is the
  direction of the unknown, of going within , of
  dreams, of prayer and of meditation. The West if
  a place of testing, where the will is stretched
  to its outer limits so that the gift of
  perseverance may be won.
• The capacity to stick to a challenge even though
  it is very hard and painful is an important
  lesson to be learned.

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The West

• Thunder and lightning often come from the west,
  symbolically the west is the direction of power.
  In many traditions the West is where the Thunder
  Beings live. They are the bringers of power.
  Power to heal. Power to protect and defend. Power
  to see and know. Here the traveler must learn to
  manage power in ways that are in harmony with the
  great universal teachings of the Sacred Tree.

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The West

• Two teachers of the West are the black bear and
  the turtle. Like the bear who retires to a dark,
  private place in the face of winters coldness, a
  person balances passionate loyalty with deep
  spiritual insight. The insight is gained by
  shutting out the clamor of the world, and by
  going alone to pray and be tested.

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The West-The Turtle

• As the turtle, who teaches us to go within, but
  also grants the gift of perseverance to those who
  learn his ways.
• Here we experience the gift of prayer.
• We must meet our creator alone, set aside a
  special place every day for prayer, meditation
  and deep personal reflection.

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Greatest Lesson of the West

• To accept ourselves as we really are both as
  spiritual and physical beings, and to never cut
  ourselves off from the spiritual part of our
  nature.
• The West is a place of sacrifice. The traveler
  has sacrificed because he has given so much.

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The Gifts from the North

• To Think
• To solve problems
• To imagine
• To analyze
• To understand
• To calculate
• To organize
• To remember
• To interpret hidden meanings
• To you the traveler, creator will comfort guide
  you

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Completion

• The North can also be seen as the direction of
  completion fulfillment.
• We have learned from the teachers who dwell in
  the West, creator has given us the gift of
  perserverence.
• As travelers with TBI, creator allows us to climb
  out of the fog, to walk proud as survivors, and
  to relish in the gifts that he has bestowed on us
  to live a prosperous life and to serve others.

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Detachment

• The gift of detachment bestows upon the traveler
  the ability to see the past, the present and the
  future as one.
• Detachment means freedom from hate, jealousy,
  desire, anger and fear. It means a complete
  letting go of all things
• Acquired on our journey, for even knowledge
  itself can be a burden too heavy to carry to the
  summit of the great mountain and to the shores of
  the sacred lake.

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The Final Gift

• The final lesson is the lesson of balance, for
  wisdom teaches how all things fit together.
• Justice is the greatest gift of the north. When
  we stand in the north, we can look over to the
  south and see ourselves singing the tender songs
  of love, and we realize that to know and
  understand is not only a thing of the head, but
  also the heart. The
• traveler can look to the east and see constant
  renewal.

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The Final Gift

• The mystery of all endings is found in the birth
  of new beginnings. There is no ending to the
  journey of the four directions. The human
  capacity to develop is infinite. The medicine
  wheel turns forever.
• For you travelers with TBI, may creator abound
  with love and blessings to you and your families.

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• Traditional Ceremonies
• Pueblo Prayer, Song, Dance
• Apache Prayer, Song, Dance
• Dine
• Prayer, Song Dance
• Veteran Gourd Dancing
• Sweat Lodge
• Beauty Way Sing
• Traditional Smoke
• Protection Prayer
• Traditional Counseling