MESSAGES FROM THE BODY
Everything is communicating
Everything is communicating, speaking a language, which we may or may not understand. The body is no different. It speaks. It’s language is sensation and most of us aren’t versed in understanding it. When we experience sensation, we react to it rather than relate with it. We’ve been conditioned, and continue to condition ourselves, that sensations are either good or bad. This is the equivalent to thinking that everything someone says to you is either good or bad, rather than just recognizing what is said as information. Because many of us live like we are under attack, consciously or not, we are always scanning for threat. What we look for we find. When we come from the polarized perspective of right or wrong and good or bad there are very few options available to us. We don’t have choice. Instead we are pulled to one side or the other, not able to listen or see clearly. This inability to hear and see keeps us feeling separate from our body and unable to relate to its communications.
When we perceive that sensations are bad, the endless quest to find something or someone to fix our body begins. One wonders why we don’t stop to pay attention and listen to the information rather than just try to get the sensations to stop or change. Our fears take over. We are reacting to what we perceive we might lose. We create our sensations to mean things that they very well might not mean. But we are not in our logical mind. We, and no one else, can speak rationally to the part of us that is in reaction to the fear of loss and the stories of dread about what the future might hold for us because of the presence of this or that sensation. We are not open and available to listen. No information can get in. Our reactive mind has made up its mind. The system is in a closed loop. Some loop here their entire life, not allowing any other information in. This is not a conscious decision for most, but rather it is that the mind is so determined to believe what it believes that there simply is not room for anything else to enter. No other possibilities are seen to exist. If possibilities are presented they get shut down or thrown out.
If there is one thing that seems to be true, its that the mind likes to be right. The validity of it’s perceptions are deeply connected to sustaining our sense of identity and safety in the world. If the mind is questioned it shakes the foundations of everything we think we know. For many this equals too much instability or a resting into the unknown which is massively uncomfortable and thus avoided at all costs. Even when those costs mean that we grip tightly to beliefs that we hate simply because they give us a sense of safety. It is but an illusion of safety they provide and this must eventually be seen in order to find true safety, because if there is one other thing that is certain, its that the body doesn’t last eternally. If our stability is dependent on the body only having certain sensations and not having other ones, we will never find true safety.
RELATING WITH THE BODY
Desire and patience
Where do we go from here? How do we shift what doesn’t want to change inside of us so that we can relate with our body and hear its communications instead of react to them? Boy is that a loaded question that doesn’t have one direct answer. There are a thousand modes, means and methods of change. Endless, what I might call permission slips, to make internal shifts. If we zoom out big picture though making inner change is a process of working with yourself in order to create cracks in the physical and energetic armor that keeps you from listening, relating and connecting to more of you. The fundamental ingredient in all inner change is true desire. A desire that originates inside of you. It might come from desperation of having perceived failure so many times that you finally reach a point of true surrender and something opens in you. The light can enter and you become willing to release that which feels true to you, but that you can no longer carry. The desire may also simply be present. It is different for each person.
In addition to desire there needs to be patience. The reactive mind hates this more than anything. It wants everything to happen yesterday. It thinks everything should be figured out, healed up and ready to go, but the thing is that you just don’t work that way. Unwinding your inner workings to open yourself up to greater inner and outer communication happens slowly overtime. You need to be willing to see small changes you’ve made and recognize the subtle shifts along the way. They add up and with time you do change radically. It’s just that most people accommodate to their changes relativity quickly and then go into a mental loop that says they are never going to change, even after they have made a ton of it. It is quite a fascinating process to observe in one’s self.
When we have sufficient desire and patience learning happens. We open and communication with our body becomes possible, and dare I say, even easy. As easy as talking with your best friend, because truly you and your body can become like BFFs. When talking with your bestie the conversation flows, it’s smooth, things are said in the right timing and pacing. You hear each other and know what the other is communicating, even in challenging times or topics. You don’t try to fix your best friend (hopefully) when they talk, you just listen and provide insight. In that way they become clearer and clearer, and then all the sudden, its like they know what to do. They might not always like what gets revealed in that conversation, or what is required of them in terms of things to do or actions to take, but they aren’t confused anymore.
It is just like this with our body. The communication becomes clear where you tune in and listen. Think of it more like a relationship that evolves over time, one that has many pieces and parts. Just keep listening without trying to get somewhere. Be in the unfolding of it, even when it’s uncomfortable. By approaching in this way you keep the dialogue open so you can keep tuning in and responding appropriately. There is no one message that the body speaks through a sensation, and no one sensation means one thing for all people all of time. It is much more dynamic than that. We are not static, nor do we fit in any box. Same it true for the body. The more you really understand this the more you see that everything is constantly shifting and changing. Nothing ever stays the same. Sameness is simply perception, and when you transcend the boxes you open into possibilities. This is where real safety is found. Not in the never changing or the static idea of what the body should or shouldn’t feel or express like, but in the ability to dynamically relate with the moving parts that will always change.
Dr. Amanda Lalita Love, Subtle Energetic Chiropractor practicing Network Spinal & Integrative Somatic Healer utilizing Somato-Energetic Integration, Boulder, Colorado
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