The Soul Midwife Sofa
On Monday 6 May I open a new service. Based at Waltham House Studios, the new and emerging Arts and Wellbeing Centre here in Bognor Regis, I am starting the Soul Midwife Sofa.
This is what it is -
The Soul Midwife Sofa
A confidential holistic support and listening service for
anyone facing the end of life, either their own or someone else’s.
The dying process can be full of emotion, fear and
sadness. It can also include deep
moments of healing and reconciliation.
Talking over our feelings, fears and asking questions can help us to
face our journey, whatever it may be.
Antonia Rolls is a trained and experienced Soul Midwife with
over ten years of experience. Non-denominational
and without judgement, she offers a safe and loving space for feelings,
thoughts, questions and fears for all who are experiencing a death or a dying.
Call Antonia on 07787754123 to make an appointment. £20 is required on booking to reserve your space.
Over the years, I have called myself a soul midwife, and at the same time I have wondered what on earth is a soul midwife. It has taken a long time to work something out, it is a long and personal journey. No two soul midwives are the same. Here is what I think it is not -
- A super hero. A soul midwife cannot fly in through the open window and shoot rays of power from her fingers. She can't zap baddies, whatever and whoever they may be, across the room and pin them against a wall
- An oracle. A soul midwife can't tell the future though she may have an opinion based on observation and experience. She has no mystical powers to foresee things, nor can she predict the date and time of a death.
- A Diva. She won't want to make a grand entrance with her hand on her heart and an expression of pain and grief on her face. She will not identify so deeply with her clients' pain that she needs to sit down and fan herself with a copy of this month's Saints Weekly.
- Mary Poppins. A soul midwife cannot come into a situation and magic it all better. She cannot make the room tidy itself, pull medical equipment out of her bag, and sort everyone out
- A push over. She isn't able to take on everyone's negative emotions and make herself responsible. She isn't there to take whatever is happening personally, and make herself ill.
- Jesus. A soul midwife can't make anyone better, can't heal anyone so that they get out of their beds and go for a run. She also doesn't have a hot line to any deity, and can't work miracles.
I have been a bit of all of the above at some point or other over the last ten years, that is why I know it doesn't work. That leaves what a soul midwife is. She is, I am, aspiring to the following -
- A listener. A soul midwife listens deeply, carefully and attentively. She listens with her ears and her heart. Often what is being said is being conveyed without words. A soul midwife learns to listen and keep herself out of the way, and really hear what is being said at as many levels as she can.
- Boundaried. Having porous boundaries creates confusion and resentment. A soul midwife will not want to become involved in another's pain if she can help it. Her wise detachment will mean she is stronger in her support, and she will know it is not her story. She knows her limits.
- Compassionate. A soul midwife is compassionate and practices empathy and patience. She knows that the people she is working with will take this journey that they are on in their own way, and sometimes, they may be in great pain. She does not tell them to snap out of it, she engages her compassion and works from the heart. Sometimes fear and distress make a client angry and confrontational. She will work out how to deal with this with compassion and boundaries.
- Healthy. It takes energy to sit with clients, and a soul midwife will be aware of her own health and need to rest and live in her own world too. She will try never to become a wet dish rag.
- Honest. Soul midwives can say that they don't know when they don't know the answers to questions. She may be asked about how an illness is progressing, she may be asked about powers of attorney, she may be asked what happens after death. She can say she doesn't know, and if it is appropriate to find out, she may help with that. A soul midwife is tactful, and if asked the question Am I going to die? by someone who is on their way out, she finds a way of answering truthfully and taking into account the client's ability to hear the truth.
A Thought on Energy and Light
Energy is all around us. We feel the vibe when we walk in on someone's argument. We know when we feel bad about someone we have just met, we know when we meet someone we connect with at once. We both emit and receive energy, we bring with us our own energy and this affects all those we encounter in our day. We are responsible for our own energy and if we are aware of this, and understand it, then we are aware of how we are affecting others around us. In order to do this, we become more aware of ourselves. Becoming aware of ourselves is, to me, the most important thing we can do. Insights into ourselves lead to awarenesses of others. How can I become truly aware of you if I have no insight into myself? How can I maintain understandings of others if I do not understand myself? It is like the instructions in the aeroplane about the oxygen masks. Put your own on before you help your child. Look to yourself first before you can understand others.
If I meet a new client as a soul midwife, I must be very aware of my energy. It must not get in the way, I must be calm and aware and kind. In this way, my client is able to express themselves without hindrance.
Light is beautiful. I believe we all carry light, but it gets switched to low and sometimes switched to off. Our light shines when we are happy, in love, excited, inspired, laughing with joy (as opposed to laughing at someone's mishap), kind, peaceful - and so on. We are often so mean to ourselves, so critical and unkind, that our lights get very low. And if I am good to you, the light inside us both flickers up a notch, and when we practice self awareness, we begin to understand how simple this business of looking for the light in ourselves and others is.
There is great healing in the light. Sometimes, it is possible to simply be the light. If I am meeting a new client who is very ill, who may be uncomfortable, and I am nervous of what I will find (and nervous that I will mess it all up and get it all wrong), the simplest way to find the light is to embody it. So I become the light. I don't shine like a sixty watt bulb, I don't walk a few inches off the ground, I don't short circuit the kettle and the television, all I do is let the light come in, take it into my body, and let it work through my energy. It is so simple and so powerful, and like all these wonderful things, very much an ongoing process.
Simples.
I am taking bookings now for the Soul Midwife Sofa, the holistic listening and support service for anyone experiencing their own or another's death, dying and grief journey. I will be there on Mondays from the 6 May and if you think I may be of service, please get in touch.
No comments:
Post a Comment