Have you ever been in a situation when something unpleasant and perhaps unfair happened to you, and you neither had an opportunity to respond nor were in a position to defend your grounds, provide explanations, present your opinion? And afterwards the memories of the event do not let you find peace and inner tranquility as you keep thinking about the case, delivering brilliant speeches within silent emptiness of the closet, making fair and powerful statements in the shower, and so on, and so forth… Or perchance you were witnessing a particular conflict or argument and did not have enough courage at the moment to step in and help to resolve the dispute, or you overlooked an opportunity to express well kept appreciation, compassion or devotion to someone, or you could have made a witty and appropriate comment, but someone cut you off…
In addition, objectively it may not be a big deal at all, you understand and accept that it is not worth spending so much time and energy on processing the experience, but you can’t help yourself. Surely you can address the issue to a professional, but often it may feel slightly awkward to set a whole session for a minor problem solution, although therapists are amazingly useful and beneficial in a great variety of challenging situations.
In Siberian shamanic tradition there is a helpful technique which is called “talking to a stone”; in Sel’kup language stone is called “pul’laka”. Here is what one can do in order to pull yourself from the vicious circle of destructive self-talk over a minor or insignificant issue.
Set up an hour or so, go to the Nature or as close as you can get to the wilderness in your area. Greet the place, greet the Spirits of the Land and Mother Earth the way that feels the most appropriate to you. Recognize and verbalize the issue, energies of which you want to ground and release. Perhaps there is a person in mind, and you have unexpressed emotions or words towards that person, the situation they have created, etc.
Set an intention to clear up the energies which you experience as repetitive thinking and overthinking, writing and overwriting scenarios of possible outcomes where you are the “winner”.
Ask the Spirits of the Land and Mother Earth to help you to find a perfect stone or pul’laka for the ceremony, and start looking for it. Walk around, tune into the energies of the place, let your intuition lead and guide your search. When you see the “right” stone, you feel it: greet the pul’laka, express your gratitude out loud or not. Take your pul’laka, hold it in your hands. Keep in mind that courageous spirit of the stone volunteered to take and release your energetic burden: it is sacred work of the Nature.
Hold pul’laka in your hand and start talking to it: describe the situation that bothers you, complain, blame, express anger if there is any, dump resentment, bitterness… if you need to repeat some phrases or words, do it! Keep talking, feel the flow of the energies which are coming out. Perhaps while talking about the issue, a memory of the past similar event or situation pops up in mind, tell pul’laka everything that comes up. If you feel like you need to scream or cry, do it! Keep talking to pul’laka until you start feeling empty and slightly tired, until you notice that you have nothing else to say. Stop and breathe for some time, feel how your energy field is reconfiguring itself. Maybe it is time to smile and say sincere “Thank you!” or “Tat Fa Kup!”. While expressing gratitude energetically separate yourself from the pul’laka, it is a small energy conversion box now.
If there is a river, creek or lake nearby, throw your pul’laka in there with gratitude and intention to harm none. When you are far from water, find an appropriate place to hide pul’laka on the surface of the Earth with the same intention and gratitude to All. Turn around and walk back to your routine with smile and joyful peace inside. Thank you.