Being with Sensation; Healing Through the Body

The more connected I get to my physical and energetic body, the more I experience Spirit speaking through me. I used to picture my Guidance in my mind, and then "hear" the answer to my questions, and then feel the relief of following that information. I practice strengthening my connection to my Guidance every day by asking the question "what is loving for me now?" Then, I follow what is loving and find that it feels good. My challenge comes when I ask Guidance the truth about something and then ignore the answer or indulge my wounded belief anyway. Like when my Guidance says, "you are safe, it will all work out", and I think "yeah whatever" and then I feel scared all day and keep running the belief that I am unsafe and everything is going to fall apart. The price of not trusting is immediate because I still feel wounded and scared. This also happens right inside my own body. When I follow Guidance, I often experience a flow in my sensations, a sense of rightness, an ease, and more vital energy. When I don't trust Guidance, I feel constriction, lethargy, and a disconnection from my body punctuated by an overwhelm of thoughts (trying to figure it out). Clearly, our bodies tell us the truth.

Lately, I experience Guidance talking to me through my body more directly. The more I stay inside my sensations, my breath, noticing my belly and my heart, grounding inside my spine, muscles and bones, the more I can feel what is loving for me. It is as if my body is a tuning fork for love. It's a very exciting experience because there is less doubt about what is good for me, and what is in line with my truth. My body shows me now because I am actually experiencing the signs. I can literally feel where the love is and move towards it. There is less hearing Guidance and much more feeling Guidance as me, as part of me, as speaking through me.

The Inner Child (our feeling Self) also speaks through the body. She/he lets us know that we are off track by going into pain and contraction. Often, when the Inner Child is not being listened to, is being ignored, criticized, or shut down, she/he will create physical ailments and pain to get our attention. There can be a whole spectrum of pain that is screaming out for awareness. In the Western medical model, physical ailments are treated like chaotic, coincidental, random occurrences. Ailments are treated as if they are not connected to anything else in our lives. With Inner Bonding, the tools give you a way to explore physical pain by going through the six steps and finding out if, in fact, a child inside needs something or is being treated poorly by us. We can use our physical sensations as a way into what is true, what is untrue, what we are telling ourselves, what we remember or don't remember about our past. Often, when we have not dealt with an old hurt or family false belief, our bodies show us what is unresolved. It tells us, "I remember something that hurt, can you please listen to me and pay attention and let me feel what happened?" Sometimes, just allowing old pain to surface and be acknowledged is enough to heal the body. Other times, a false belief needs to be acknowledged and corrected, for example the belief "it was my fault" will need to be healed into "it was not my fault." I make it sound easy but it requires a deep listening and slowing down. It requires going into your body sensations and emotions and being with them in an open, curious way.

In American culture, (the only culture I am intimate with), the body is treated as a thing. It is treated as a commodity. It is sexualized and judged. It is objectified through photographs, movies, television and other media without consideration of feelings, experience, or empathy. It is no wonder that most of us have separated from our bodies and the feelings within it. We are literally trained in school to be in our heads, our minds, our thoughts, and whoever can do that best, wins. We get graded for how well we can contain and regurgitate information. We are belittled and criticized when we don't master this skill. Then as adults, our bodies show us the toll of time. They show us the effects of our wounds. Often, ageing reveals a deeper language that wants to come forward.  A language of the body and of our true self. Though it speaks to us all our lives, as adults we have the chance to truly listen. To go inside and respond. Your body is a whole magical world that is profoundly connected to Spirit and the Universe. It is not a separate thing that gets dragged around with our brains in the forefront. The body is a mind too; an expressive, alive, creative, pleasurable, intricate organism that is you in the truest sense. Don't take my world for it, check it out for yourself.

This article was written by Rythea Lee. Her new book Trauma into Truth: Gutsy Healing and Why It’s Worth It is available at Amazon.com. Rythea Lee has a private practice in Northampton, Massachusetts and teaches workshops and classes fo rhealing and self-expression. You can read more about her and her dance theatre company, the Zany Angels, at www.zanyangels.com.You can also see Rythea Lee perform on youtube.