Hi,
I'm here to share with you about internal family systems,
Or IFS,
And cell energy.
My name is Bethany Barta,
And I am an IFS therapist and consultant.
When I came to Internal Family Systems,
I had already been practicing Gestalt therapy,
Which is a model that works with different parts,
And we do inner child work with that.
What IFS brings.
Forward is the concept of self-energy.
And this is not new.
This has actually been described in lots of different models and spiritual practices.
I'm going to speak to it from the perspective of Western psychology and therapeutic models.
And so IFS believes we come into the world.
Completely whole,
Undamaged,
And unbroken.
And that there is.
An energy inside of us that never falls apart,
Breaks open,
Or gets hurt by life.
And that is what we call self-energy.
I'm gonna.
.
.
Be.
Different qualities of self-energy.
And I'm going to pause and I invite you in that pause.
To reflect back and remember a time where you felt that essence.
In your life,
And I am going to invite you to notice what it feels like,
What sensations.
It brings forward for you.
So we say there's eight C's and five P's of self-energy.
And one of the first and easiest.
Quality to connect with is often curiosity.
And we want to bring in that connection to curiosity from our heart,
Not necessarily from our head.
So feel into a time where you've felt.
Curiosity from a place of maybe neutrality or openness.
From your heart space.
Compassion.
What does it feel like in your body?
To experience compassion.
Calm.
Notice.
What shifts in your body when you feel into calm?
Or when you remember calm,
What that felt like.
Clarity.
This may be just having a knowing or.
.
.
A belief or an understanding that's clear.
And neutral about the situation.
It's just.
.
.
Clear.
Courage.
Is another aspect of self-energy.
When you lean into.
Courage?
What does that feel like in your body?
We know courage is often defined as feeling the fear and doing it anyway.
What is that?
Feeling sense inside that allows you to do it anyway.
Confidence.
Remember a time where you felt fully confident.
See if you can feel those sensations.
And the quality of confidence right now.
And notice where do you feel that in your body?
How does it show up for you energetically?
Creativity.
When you're in a creative or flow state,
What does that feel like for you?
Does time fall away?
Are you just fully and completely present?
Where nothing else matters.
Maybe it's inspiration is coming in and you're making connections and you feel like anything's possible.
Notice the energetic signature of that,
Of creativity.
Connectedness.
When you feel connected.
How does that show up in your body?
Perhaps if your heart energy is moving outward.
It feels expansive or extending.
There's no right or wrong here.
What I'm inviting you to do is notice these qualities.
And how they feel for you.
In your wholeness.
So that when you feel them,
You can connect with us.
That's when I'm in my self-energy,
The me that's not apart.
Let's move into presence.
When you are fully present with no agenda.
Completely neutral.
Think back to a time where you may have felt that maybe with this young child or when you're petting an animal.
When you're on a hike in nature.
Notice what it feels like in your body.
To be present.
Perhaps it's noticing your senses.
Perspective.
Being able.
To shift into knowing and sensing a larger picture of things,
Being able to see all sides of something and accepting and hold all of that.
It may be shifting from a narrow tunnel vision focus to a wide angle.
Patience.
When you have no pressure.
No urgency.
You can feel what patience feels like in your body.
When maybe you're able to just settle.
Persistence.
This is when maybe a time in your life where you've been really excited about something and you can stick to it and know.
The outcome or the goal or the journey of getting there is exciting or inspirational.
You just have the energy to stay with it.
The tenacity.
And the final quality.
I'll invite you to feel into playfulness.
What does it feel like?
How does it show up for you?
Recall a time.
As far back as you need to.
Or just feel into.
What would it like for me to embrace playfulness in this moment?
There's a magical question,
N-I-F-S.
When we've gotten to know a part,
When we've brought curiosity and we've wondered what its presence in our system is showing up for and what it's holding,
We ask.
And how do you feel toward this part?
And we wait for it to come.
We wait for the one or several of these qualities to Come in.
It might feel like.
Openness or spaciousness inside.
There might be a warmth.
There might be an opening with curiosity,
Like a wanting to get to know more.
Or perhaps it's.
Courage.
Like,
I know that this part is holding a lot of heavy,
Uncomfortable feelings,
But I know I can sit with that and be with it.
In this moment.
So when.
We ask that question,
How do you feel toward the part?
If it's anything other than these qualities,
Then we notice that's another part showing up.
And we may.
Ban turn our attention toward that part and either ask it to soften or that becomes what we pay attention to.
And we may keep asking ourselves,
How do I feel toward this part?
Until that beautiful blend of self-energy for you shows up.
And there's no right or wrong way to do that.
We ask.
Until we feel that drop into that base in their heart or that space inside that we know is not a part.
It's our whole essence.
If you are intrigued by this.
And you want to feel this more and know more about IFS.
Continue with me on this journey.
Thank you for being with me and bye for now.
