In August 2021, Hulu released an eight-part series called. “Nine Perfect Strangers.” Based on The New York Times best-selling book by author Liane Moriarty, "Nine Perfect Strangers" takes place at a boutique health-and-wellness resort that promises healing and transformation as nine stressed city dwellers try to get on a path to a better way of living. (Google).
If you haven’t seen this show, please do. I highly recommend it. The writing is visceral, and engaging, and the actors were at the top of their game. It truly is a moving show.
Nine strangers attend a solace retreat spa looking for healing. The spa promises transformation, but by unusual methods. Each of the nine attends not knowing how they will attain their healing, or even what type of healing they need. Some are there just to stitch their marriage back together. Some have no idea why they are there but saw an ad for the most expensive spa in the state and signed up. Others are looking for a truly deeply moving healing experience but hope they won’t be rattled by the experience.
Throughout a ten-day seclusion they each in their own way peel away layer after layer of pain, anger, grief, loss, and remorse to expose the sensitive nerve core of their deepest traumas. They learn as a group and individually that the only way to heal pain is to go through it. They each go into the attic of their hearts, find the lost box of toys they no longer want to play with, and pull each item from the dusty crate into the light of day. Although the retreat’s methods are unconventional, the participants are each able to see that deep down, they no longer need to identify with those hurts. They are where they are because of those hurts.
They learn that they are different people now than when the trauma occurred. Dragging that box of memories into the light allows a new look through a different lens at the core issues they have tried to bury, conceal, ignore, and drown.
In the end, healing occurs for each of them, but it hurts. It destroys who they once were and who they thought they would be forever and reveals what they always had the power to become.
The show isn’t about some random people having unrelated experiences so different from our own. These aren’t fictional characters destined to perform some outlandish feat to save humanity or face some gruesome, horrifying enemy. They aren’t commandos or superheroes. They are us.
The writer wrote real characters that could be any one of us. Their traumas are as real and as crippling as ours. The show is so moving and so captivating because these characters are fully identifiable. We know them and desire to see them achieve healing and peace so we can feel that maybe we can find a way, too.
What traumas are you burying? How have your past traumas changed the way you now see the world? How have your past experiences clouded the lenses you now see through with every situation you encounter today?
We all have these events that shaped us. I have mine, you have yours. They aren’t so different. The difference is in how we deal these events. I use teaching methods and exercises that help people understand their pain. Many of my clients are now living the best versions of themselves, after dealing with their traumas. We are multi-layered souls, operating these meat-suits, trying to make it each day, living by rules we’ve been taught as children, dealing with our failures and mistakes, burdened by our disappointments.
The only way out is through.
I had a client years ago. Her first three visits we performed no energy work. She sat in my chair and commenced to scream at me. She called me every name in the book. She yelled at me and blamed me for all her pain. On the third visit I let her continue for half the session before I stopped her. I started energy work. We continued with energy work over the next year or more. Over time, we addressed much of her trauma. We peeled back the layers of her pain. She is a different woman now. Her story is not unique.
My own trauma is no different. I’ve had several events from my own past I’ve had to address. It’s unreal how much different we feel when we release the burden of our emotional reactions we wrapped around our pasts. Releasing that subconscious programming allows us to create new programs we can use to deal with future events. The process isn’t fun or easy. But nothing of value ever is. Your healing is valuable, is it worth the process?
The only way out is through.
Healing hurts. But it’s worth it.
Joe “Weeg” Weigant is an empowerment coach who specializes in energy work (Reiki, Acupressure, Tuning Forks, Massage, Sound/Vibration Therapy) to release trauma, reset the autonomic nervous system, and balance the energy systems of the body to achieve lasting peace. He utilizes muscle testing to determine needs for herbal remedies by Nature’s Sunshine and Pure Herbs Ltd. Weeg teaches Karate and Tai Chi, certification in Reiki, as well as seminars and workshops in metaphysical and spiritual matters. Weeg is available for sessions at Tri State Holistic Wellness by appointment only.
Contact by text 812.568.5356, or Facebook Messenger to set an appointment.
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