working with the body for healing
The body carries us through each day of our lives, and does generally what we ask of it. This can be in a physical sense or in an emotional sense. For example, the body will pick up that heavy box for us, although our low back may be injured by the effort. The body will also hold strong emotions, such as sadness or anger, that we are not able to process in that moment or time.
Body work is a process through which we begin to greet the body and journey to these places of holding. If we can go with a Listening Heart, with our senses open and our emotions calm, we can receive the messages that our body has to share with us. We can experience and release those emotions that are stored in the body, and that release can be powerful and life-changing. After this work, we may experience a reduction of a chronic pain, a new vitality, or a new outlook on our life problems that allows us to move forward in a new way.
I encourage people I work with to work with their body and develop some phrase, or mantra, that they can say to the body to show their willingness to be present and hear what the body has to share. This, again, is a process - time is an essential element. Over time, the body trusts that we are listening and ready to hear, hold, and process what is waiting to be released. With tenderness, we wait, and show that we are ready and willing to move forward.
In the quote below, Deepak Chopra, MD suggests that we can undertake several practices when we are hoping to have emotional release to support ourselves (http://www.chopra.com/articles/healing-the-source-of-emotional-pain):
"Practices for Emotional Release
When you find yourself flooded with a negative emotion, the following practices can help you find your way back to your core of balance, peace, and wellbeing.
• Resist the impulse to ignore your feelings, push them away, or judge them as bad. Instead ask them what they are trying to tell you. All emotions – including the most difficult ones – exist for a reason: to help you. (They) will help you tune in to the message your body wants you to hear.
• Be objective. If you identify personally with negativity and think, I am angry, depressed, miserable, stressed out, etc., it will be extremely difficult to detach and let go. Learn to see all emotions as only energy, like electricity that flows through you but isn’t about you.
• Practice self-compassion. If you feel overwhelmed, tell yourself, “Whatever fear says, nothing can destroy me. I’m having a strong reaction right now, but it isn’t the real me. This too shall pass.
• Take responsibility. If you find yourself reacting to certain situations in the same way, ask yourself what you need to learn to change your automatic response.
• Meditate. Meditation is one of the best ways to loosen the grip of sticky emotions and connect to our true self. In meditation we disrupt the unconscious progression of thoughts and emotions by focusing on a new object of attention."
May your journey through difficult emotions be an opening through which light and energy can enter your life. I am honored to do this work with those with whom I am privileged to work.
Tina