Dear Maddisen:
I wonder if our bodies are trying to tell us something when we feel physical discomfort or symptoms. I mean on a deeper level. And if there’s a way to understand the messages so we can help ourselves more on our own. What do you think? WM
Dear WM:
Thanks for your question. I think I understand what you’re getting at, and will share my beliefs and two approaches for deciphering the deeper messages we receive via our bodies.
Our amazing human bodies have an inborn, automatic, and powerful urge to survive, heal, and be healthy. Simply stated, our bodies want to survive and thrive.
Twenty-four hours a day, every day, our bodies are automatically striving to keep us alive, by regulating temperature, fluid levels, breath, heart beat, brain functions, and so much more – all without any conscious efforts on our part.
When a body goes out of balance, a person may feel one or more physical symptoms, from very mild to very strong. Whether mild or strong, it’s always wise to pay attention to the symptoms and take care of ourselves in whatever ways we deem best, whether through self care, seeing a health practitioner, going to the hospital, etc.
In addition to taking the necessary actions to care for our health, safety, and well being, it is possible to get the body to give us information by simply asking it, or by giving it a voice. You might receive answers that make sense and that can support better health.
Ask Your Body and Listen
Step 1:
Sit comfortably in a private and quiet place where you will not be interrupted.
Step 2:
a) Close your eyes and take 3 deep breaths. Continue breathing calmly, while you imagine your breath as if it were moving slowly down through your head, neck, shoulders, back, arms, fingers, chest, legs, and feet all the way down to your toes.
b) If you believe in a divine source or higher power, ask to be filled, surrounded, supported, and guided by it.
Step 3:
Keeping your eyes closed, notice where in your body your attention is drawn. Notice if there are any sensations there such as pressure, tension, tingling, etc.
Step 4:
Once you locate the area with the sensation, ask silently or aloud what this area wants to tell you, what it needs, and how you can support its healing. Notice what if any information or answers come forward. Stay relaxed, don’t rush it.
Step 5:
If it makes sense and supports your health, safety, and well being, heed the information or answers that you get when you do this exercise, whether physical or mental.
For example, I worked with a client who was experiencing intestinal irregularities. She was going through a big change in her personal life, which she was reacting to by staying up later than usual, getting up at different times, eating less healthy foods, eating later, etc. In addition to working with her health practitioner to address this, we did a session in which she asked this region of her body for answers. The phrase that came to her was, “I need a routine.” This made a lot of sense to her, and she took steps to get back on her regular routines with sleep and food. It helped. Simple, yet she didn’t think of this until she asked her body.
Holenergetic Healing
I also facilitate Holoenergetics® with my clients, which was taught to me by the Stanford-trained physician who developed it – Dr. Leonard Laskow, M.D. Holoenergetic healing involves healing with the energy of the whole, not just parts of ourselves, but healing the body and mind, and bringing the body and mind back to its natural state of wholeness and wellness. The goal is to heed symptoms and/or sensations as signposts for causes and cures.
Holoenergetic healing work goes deeper and can be more effective than simply asking the body for information, and can usually be done in cooperation with any medical treatments being incorporated by the individual in need of healing.
And so, WM and all my readers, these approaches may sound a bit unconventional, but they provide effective ways to explore the deeper messages that are sometimes connected to bodily sensations or symptoms, and may support healing and better overall health.
Modern medicine, for all its advances, knows less than 10 percent of what your body knows instinctively. – Deepak Chopra
Begin to see yourself as a soul with a body rather than a body with a soul. – Wayne Dyer
I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time. – Anna Freud
From the heart,
your Life Coach Maddisen
Copyright 2013 Maddisen K. Krown M.A.