Friday, April 12, 2013

The Body Speaks

Rob, over at Luna Park Gazette, expressed an interest in one of his comments a few weeks ago that I share more about the work I have done involving alternative therapy.

Therefore, I owe my inspiration for this post to Rob. Thanks buddy!

I would like to start by saying that what I am about to share might make some people uncomfortable because it involves a very raw subject - spouse abuse and its damage to not only the body, but to the mind and spirit as well.

Never has it been more evident to me, through the work I have shared as a certified Reflexologist and Reiki practitioner, that if our feelings and emotions go unexpressed, they will root themselves within our body; causing a “ping-pong effect” from the mental to the physical, and from the physical to the mental, until these feelings and emotions are acknowledged and healed.

I know many people feel that mind/body/spirit correlation is a bunch of bullshit. But I’m here to tell you that it’s not, because have I witnessed it firsthand. And not only with clients, but within my own life.

I’m not saying that every single time we have a negative experience or unexpressed thought, they immediately manifests into a physical illness, or that ALL illness is attributed to our mindset. What I am saying is that over time, if we keep repressing or denying our emotions out of fear of speaking up, they will begin to affect the physical body.

The work I share is a combination of energetic, spiritual, and bodywork. Therefore, it addresses the WHOLE.

As you might have read a few weeks ago in a post I shared, I volunteered for 4 years with an organization that offered alternative therapies to those infected with HIV.

Not only were my clients dealing with AIDS, but many of them were also dealing with substance abuse, spouse abuse, and rape. And what I learned from volunteering with these individuals was not to JUDGE them for whatever situation they were in and how they got there. I was merely there to stand present and share my work; remaining neutral.

I very rarely speak during a session, unless a client wishes to speak to me. Also, I work with my eyes closed and do everything through the feel in my hands.

Many years ago I had a client who came in for an hour session of foot Reflexology and could sense, just from our initial meeting, that she was emotionally and spiritually broken down. She appeared a fragile sparrow.

When I began the session she talked incessantly for the first 10 minutes, but I knew it was because she was nervous and anxious. So I just let her talk, while I worked on her feet.

Soon, she began to tell me her story.

She had been married to the same man for fourteen years. And for most of those fourteen years, he physically beat her. He beat her to the point of being hospitalized several times. And while she was in the hospital, she was tempted to tell the hospital staff why she was there, but was always too frightened to say, in terror that once she got home he would beat her more.

And to top it off, not only did he beat her during their marriage, but he also infected her with HIV from someone who he had been cheating with.

The prior year, she finally found the strength to leave him, after he threatened to take a hot clothes iron and burn the skin on her back.

She then told me that he was currently in the hospital dying, in the last stages of cancer due to HIV.

After about 20 minutes, she stopped talking and fell into a deep sleep as I continued with the session.

It was at that point, her body began speaking to me. I could hear it within every fiber of my being - and not only hear it, but feel it as well.

All the pain, both physical and emotional, that had been suppressed for all those years, finally found a way to voice itself.

Crying. All I could hear was her body crying out in pain and begging for release - every cell within her muscles, bones, and organs cried out at the same time.

The energy force from the pain within her body, hit me like a ton of bricks.

I then had a vision of her spirit. A vision of a little girl who was curled up in the corner of a room with woeful eyes, that said, “Someone, please help me. Please.”

You have no idea how hard it was for me to keep it together because I was so overcome with emotion, that I wanted to just break down and sob. In all the years I had been practicing alternative therapy, I had never experienced anything like this.

I finished the session and then sat there quietly until she woke up.

When she opened her eyes and looked down at me, it seemed as though something had shifted inside her. Her face glowed and her whole body seemed more relaxed.

With tears in her eyes, she softly said, “Thank you. You have no idea how much that helped me.”

I walked over to the side of the massage table and took her hand in my hands, and said, “You are so welcome. And thank you.”

Then she said something that totally blew me away and made me realize how powerful this alternative therapy stuff is.

She said, “Tomorrow I’m going to visit my husband in the hospital, and I’m going to forgive him and myself before he dies. I need to do this, so that I can go on living.”

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

X