Are You Listening To Your Body Or Are You Telling It?

Recently I worked with a client with chronic pain who was telling me that she was OK as long as she was "careful and didn't over-do."  I could see the energy around that belief had crystallized into a very hard rigid rock like energy and was keeping her frozen and restricted.

By restricting her activities to avoid pain like how she walked and for how long; how she sat, and the kind of work she would do-- had added a restriction which was interrupting the fluid flow of information, and of energy, and had the potential to affect  motion on many levels within her physiology, for instance, lymph, blood, cellular function…

Her focus had been for a long time, on how Fragile her body potentially was.  Her focus was on if I do such and such I will suffer for it.

But what happens if we remove the belief, (remember this was very solid, rigid, crystallized energy which was running like a program within her body)?  So what happens if we remove the belief?  Or what happens if we just soften it a bit, and allow it to relax?

For this particular client, removing the energy behind the belief, i.e. the belief itself, resulted in a different experience.  She told me that she moved in a more natural and relaxed way.  She wasn't so focused on being careful.  She did what she could and when she felt like she was ready to rest, she stopped.

OK now, this is important.  Pay attention to this next part and really let it sink in for a moment.

She Listened to her body, rather than making it listen to her belief about what would affect it.

This is a real paradigm shift.

This is where you choose between Potentials.

She allowed her body to relax, by not being so much on guard.  And for her, a relaxed body is a body which doesn't hold on so tightly to it's pain. 

Have you ever noticed how you move when you're restricting yourself?  Do you notice that you're in a state of tension when you're trying to be really careful? 

Maybe your muscles are clenched, and maybe your ankles are kind of locked and your legs are stiff when you walk because maybe you're just trying to maintain your balance so you won't fall down.

Or maybe because everything hurts you've decided that if you make little tiny movements maybe it won't hurt so badly.  Or you don't bend, or don't stoop, or don't walk, or don't reach.  And pretty soon you're sitting a whole lot more than you'd like to be.  And that isn't really making you feel any better.

I've had mystery pain.  Excruciating mystery pain.  Saw doctors, had tests, it remained a mystery, and I still had pain.  I had my own shift in perspective.  I let some things go, and I let the pain go.  That was about 25 years ago.

There is just so much more to see than just anatomy, you know? 

Just think about seeing yourself as more than a body.  And think about seeing your body as more than a material vehicle which conveys your spirit around Planet Earth.  There is so much more to BEing than most of us know, and I'm sure you already sense the truth in that.

Peering Inside

I wrote this a year ago, and thought I'd share it here.  Some of you may be able to relate to this post.  Especially if you have unresolved issues--and who doesn't have those?

I'm takin' a squint right now at my innards. Peering inside at the inner workings of the Rita. It's amazing in there. Oh yeah. Really messy. It looks like Chaos, but it's so very synchronized. Quite a thing of beauty.

Over there is the place where I harbor my fugitive emotions. The ones that never got expressed because I was too Busy, or too Bad Ass, or too Frozen. They're all over actually, just waiting to wreak havoc in tissues throughout my body. A sore muscle here, a tight tendon there. Scars and so on.

All the experiences, the good and the bad are jumbled in together, building my inner landscape. 

Peering deeper I see the faceless ones that want to remain hidden. They burrow down, not wanting to be seen. They keep me hidden, and invisible. They keep me from seeing myself. They keep me from feeding myself, from expressing myself, from contributing anything of value, lest it draw attention to me. They keep me anonymous and "safe". They would be happiest if I would just stay asleep.

Now that I know they're there, I wonder what they fear. In spite of their best efforts I have outgrown them. I look at them and they cringe away into the dark shadows, trying to blend into the back ground. I turn away from them and look out into the infinite within my borders. I see galaxies forming and stars being born. I see a landscape of amazing light and color. This is what I am now. I begin to move into that landscape, and the small ones clutch at me. I turn back to face them, and hold out my hand. "Come on", I say. "We'll go together".

This is what I am building now. This creation of me. As I tell this story, it becomes what I am. All the darkness and chaos is every bit as beautiful as the light and color of new forming suns. Even the small faceless ones are evolving. They know they must come along. They must transform to survive. It is inevitable. We cannot help it.

I often use this inner landscape to work something out. It's a natural process for me, and happens spontaneously. In it my emotions become characters in the story with personalities of their own.

I had a small scream one time. It belonged to a foolish memory that I allowed to torment me. It would lay hidden and then it would creep up on me when I least expected, and jump out and scream at me. I tried to ignore it for years upon years. One day when it snuck up on me and screamed it's scream, I realized it was like a small child trying to get my attention, by misbehaving. So I turned around in my inner landscape, and looked it in the face and said in a rather exasperated voice, "What?! What do you want, for heaven's sake?!" It looked at me with big eyes and said in a voice I could barely hear, "Nothing". And then it turned and ran away, and I haven't seen or heard from it since. 

In fact after that, a lot of my more tiresome memories stopped gnawing at me, grew up and moved out. And high time, too. How long can you be expected to support a house full of emotions and memories all feeding on your energy and draining your resources--raising a rumpus and generally just messin' up the place? I ask you.

Their contribution is that I learn from them. I find creative solutions to grow beyond them. And when my perception changes, so do they. They grow up and move on. The result is that I am no longer afraid to look into the shadowy landscape of my inner world.

So now I want to ask you to consider this option the next time one of your unresolved issues won't stay tucked away in it's carefully packed box.  The next time you are wasting your energy trying not to see what is tormenting you, I'd like to invite you to look your tormentor in the face.  See it for what it is.  Maybe the only way to end your struggle with this thing and to heal the wound is just to acknowledge it.  See if it has anything to say to you.  And if not, then allow it to go.

Sometimes when you stop struggling against something, it softens.  Sometimes the only reason you hang onto something is because you haven't heard the message you were meant to learn.  If you can sit with this thing and truly put your attention on it and acknowledge it--letting it have its say, then maybe you can be done with it.

I wish you well on your journey.

Equilibrium

The Summer holiday is over and we're at that in between season where the weather is still mostly fine.  In the Pacific North West we have misty mornings and mellow sunshine afternoons, with spectacular sunsets.

Let's take a moment to reflect.  I invite you to take a breath with me and  bring your awareness into your body. 

What is the very first thing you notice? 

Is it a sensation, or a pain, or an emotion?  Or are you deeply relaxed?

Acknowledge what you're feeling and then take a deep, full, relaxed breath.

So how was your Summer?  Was it restful?  Was it busy?  Did you have some fun?  Take a few moments to breath in the scents and memories of what Summer means to you.

And now come fully into the present moment.  How does that feel?  What sensations are you feeling in your body, when your awareness is fully in this present moment?  Is it different than when you were reflecting upon your memory of Summer?  And if so, in what way?

That short exercise was meant to bring you into an awareness of your Experience of Yourself.  How did you do?  Did you get any insights?  Were you made aware of anything you may not have been noticing?  If nothing else, you just meditated for a few minutes…and that in itself is very rejuvenating.

During this Season consider taking the opportunity to realign yourself.  To come into balance and find center.  Equilibrium.  Stability.

In Chinese Medicine, the Summer season is affiliated with the Fire Element and the Earth Element is aligned with this in-between season.  The season known as Late Summer.  This season of harvest, and abundance.  Still productive. Not quite Autumn.  This allows the opportunity to Earth the energy of the Fire Element, storing it to see you through the colder seasons.

This is a great time to align yourself seasonally with the Earth, and follow Her example as She comes into balance.  To Ground the Creative Fire Energy and bring it to Earth within yourself.  So you may be productive and create a state of balance and stability within yourself.

In that state of Balance you have clarity.  You have breathing space.  You have deep reserves from which to draw upon.  There you will find wisdom and peace.

Enjoy Your Quest.