Hi! My name is Anchen Texter, and I’m a healer. Over the past decade and a half I trained as an intuitive massage therapist, Dynamic Emotional Integration(R) Trainer and Consultant, and shamanic practitioner. These modalities are as intertwined in my work as eating and drinking are for continuing to live. Each of them informs the other.

I am curious and always seeking to understand the current mystery, which most often has to do with emotions and why they’re coming up or acting a certain way. Emotions are at the root of everything we do, and they help us understand what and who is important to us.

Before I had a speaking relationship with my emotions, it felt like I was a prisoner on a ship and my emotions were the captain. I didn’t know where I was going, what the seas would be like, or how I would feel when I got there. It was confusing and exhausting, and for a few years I shut down my capacity to feel emotions. At the time I thought I was saving myself a lot of trouble, but in reality my emotions were still happening, and I’d cut myself off from the information they had for me.

It turns out that even when you decide not to have emotions, your emotions are still happening. To you. And this is something that you will have to deal with later.

I call this the emotional backlog, and it generally comes up when my students have begun to get familiar with the core practices of Dynamic Emotional Integration(R): Getting Grounded, Defining Your Boundary, and Burning Contracts. Once you’ve begun listening to your emotions, then Everyone want to be heard. By Everyone I mean all of the emotions you’ve been ignoring for the past days/months/years. They’re clamoring for attention! This can feel overwhelming, and learning how to prioritize your emotions is a key part of learning to work with them.

Over the past 10 years that I’ve been working with Karla McLaren, M.Ed., I have been through this process of learning to listen to my emotions a number of times, each time at a different and deeper level. I like to think of this as the spiral of self-knowledge. Once I complete what feels like a full rotation, not to worry, it will start again. It seems like there is always more to learn about my emotions and my particular relationship with them.

Once you enter into listening to your emotions, you’ve begun a lifelong awareness practice that will take you to the depths of your soul. You will learn yourself like never before, and your emotions will become your allies who help you make choices and take actions that are in alignment with your values and integrity.

Maybe it feels like your path in life has become overgrown with other people’s ideas, beliefs, or desires. Maybe you just feel confused, or you don’t care anymore, or you feel too much all the time. When you’re ready, befriending your emotions and welcoming them home as the precious gems that they are is the best way to clear your path, clear your head, and clarify your intentions. If you feel too much, learning to identify what’s yours and not yours can release you from carrying other’s burdens.