Why Hungry Souls?
https://justalittlebitmorebook.com/2014/10/16/the-hungry-ghost/
I'm in the home stretches of opening up my private practice, Hungry Souls Therapy. I will be opening my door October 1, 2018. Gratefully, I have been receiving lots of compliments on the name and immediately following is the question, "Hungry Souls huh? How did you come up with it?"
YASSSSS! And the birth of my very first blog entry just bloomed into existance.....
I first heard about "Hungry Ghosts" from Dr. Gabor Mate's book, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts. I was captivated and drawn to his experiences, the struggle with his own addiction while treating others, and his stance on treating patients with compassionate curiosity instead of authority and dictation. I was in love!
So...I did a little digging on of The Realm of Hungry Ghosts and here is what I came up with and how I named my practice: Looking through the eyes of a Buddhist, there are 6 realms in total on the mandala - the Wheel of Life which explains how humans exist and/or our way of being in this life. In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts, humans are characterized with an insatiable hunger and an inability to be in the present moment. The illustration above portrays the humans more like ghosts, haunting life and those around them with large, swollen bellies and super tiny mouths and necks. This is a great illustrated metaphor of how we make ourselves contorted to become a self-fulling prophecy. Us ghosts, in this realm of being, use people, places, and things to fill superficial needs as a means of relief from our pain - hunger; without authentic connection to ourselves or others. The screwed up part of existing in this realm is that we actually don't know what our true needs are, so we fill ourself with something outside of us - drugs, alcohol, food, materialism, sex, gaming, etc. We remain on a forever hunt of fulfillment without knowing what we need to feel satiated and content in life.
I believe that our Soul or Higher Self is all-knowing, complete, and whole. I think we starve our Soul at times in our life and allow our humanness to be in control of our existence. Our hungry human becomes the main driver; with an insatiable hunger for something, anything to fill us even when it's superficial and short lived.
Hungry Souls Therapy is about finding a path toward satiation and understanding your desires for a fulfilling life. Souls desires can be things like: connection, love, safety, and forgiveness. My hope is to help you quiet your mind so you can feed your soul.
Thanks for reading and I hope you come by again!
-MJ
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