One of the most important opportunities for healing occurs outside of the treatment that follows a “diagnosis”, especially when that model is westernized and allopathic, or otherwise does not acknowledge the relationship between mind and body.
A friend of mine, also in treatment for Lyme Disease, shared recently that she missed being able to manage her life with the same strong mind and skill for organizing, but she was also quick to acknowledge this controlling behavior did not always serve her. She admitted too that there was freedom for her in letting go of the need to control, anticipate, predict.
The soul work that comes with extraordinary challenges functions as part of our healing process. Cultivate that awareness, own the implicit ways in which you contribute to your own suffering, love that part of yourself that needed this thing, then release it. Or at least try. If it doesn’t serve you, if it is yours to change, then you have the opportunity to upgrade your DNA and reboot your emotional and physical system.
I was working with a gifted bodyworker several months ago when she shared that she was reading a book about the mind-body connection and the relationship between anger and back pain. She talked about how she was experiencing her own repressed anger for the first time in her life. I listened and thought to myself, “wow, I am glad I am not angry.”
Two months later, my mom died.
I had already starting reading the book my friend had recommended “Mind-Body Prescription” and I understood the concept of repressed anger. I was actually really good at the “repressing” part and not so good at recognizing it, owning it and giving it room to breathe. But suddenly I saw it.
I was angry.
The truth is I was angry even before my mom died. Apparently I was angry often because once I had access to this information, I recognized I was frequently triggered. Sometimes for nothing, but often for something. For imagined insults, for intended ones, for lots of things; things relating to my own projections (which incidentally is powerful to own) and also for good cause (because there are plenty of things to be angry about in this world).
And what would it look like if I expressed my anger?
Initially I simply observed it. I let it be there without judgement. I noticed where I experienced it in my body and simply breathed into those constricted places. I observed that a lot of what was triggering me resulted from old hurts.That was cool A-HA moment, because then I was like, “hey, maybe the world isn’t against you after all.”
In a way, it was easier to be angry then afraid, so I directed my anger to supporting better ways of communicating (well, mostly) and forgave myself when things got messy. The more room I gave it, the less room it needed. And I felt so much more like me and happier too because, well, I was bringing a fuller expression of my most authentic self into the world again.
Loss, anger, pain, sorrow, shame, fear are all low-vibrational states. Frequencies that are more aligned to healing are forgiveness, vulnerability, gratitude, wonder, curiosity, ease, benevolence, charity, generosity, humor. Remember the absolute power you have to reinvent this moment and every moment by simply owning your right to choose how you will define what is happening to you.
(Language also has a frequency; use words that empower you!)
Take that prescription from Well Scent with some humor because we take healing seriously, but not ourselves.
Love, Light and Smiles, Stacy Shuman
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