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JCSchneider 1 year, 5 months ago.
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I have just come back from a week of classes in Victoria, BC. It was beautiful there and I got to spend some time engaging my inner journey through the process of really listening to my own emotions and my body. It is so profound to experience what naturally emerges when one simply lets go emotionally and physically. When I stop all the inner chatter some rather scary and wonderful things happen.
Within what I practice is a naturally occurring phenomenon of what we call “unwinding” of the body. It is process where the body moves in an altered state that is on the edge between consciousness and sleep. Cats do this lengthening type of unwinding all the time. It is also a state where the body can release trapped energy due to trauma that tend to lock people and animals into fear states. I have treated a number of horses who have been traumatized and watched them shake and release tremendous amounts of heat and emotion. I have found that talking can only take me so far. At some point I have to acknowledge the visceral language of my own body to be able to shift.
This last week I was able to move, to shake, to sob, to grieve, and laugh freely with an incredible group of therapists. I have been doing self unwinding every day since I have returned and it’s difficult to explain the sense of peace and satisfaction that I have returned with.
There is so much propaganda teaching us to not trust our own inner healing processes and no matter what I think, it seems that my body and my emotions always tell the truth.
I leave you with a video of a polar bear releasing trauma after being tranquilized. You can see the discharge of energy as the bears natural systems restore his body to balance. Too often we medicate or want to stop these natural recovery processes and the energy of the trauma ends up stuck in an endless loop of holding and unconscious fear.
Thanks Richard. This is interesting!
Yes thanks @richard … I appreciate the way you encourage us to ground ourselves in our bodies. This is something that I am having to learn from scratch in a way. To be present, now, in my body, sensually aware, is a new and difficult but rewarding challenge for me.
I can remember being in constant fear as a child because of what I was taught to believe. It made it rather confusing when I started counseling because my counselor was looking for “events” because I tested out as high for early molestation. The fact that I couldn’t remember any instances was explained as blackouts from the trauma.
It was clear that my body remembered something, but my mind had no clue. I would shake like the bear in the video and feel terrified, but no specific memory. It wasn’t until I had a lucid dream, during one of the times I was releasing physically, of turning the tables on a Mayan priest trying to cut my heart out that I made the connection. Religion had been trying to cut my heart out symbolically. I grabbed the priest while in the dream and threw him on the alter and cut his heart out and then rolled his body down the pyramid like he had planned to do to me.
From that point on I had such peace and a sense of confidence. And the fear largely resolved. I could have done years of talk therapy and never reached that point. There had never been a point in my life that I had such clarity until that point.
I think this is why religion is so afraid of people having authentic feelings because these feelings don’t lie. They may not tell you why, but they won’t leave until you honestly confront whatever is behind them. And this requires one to engage the full aspect of what it means to be human and that includes the body with all its feelings.
Interesting clip, Richard! Thanks!
As one who has been through emotional trauma, and has had considerably counselling over that, I can appreciate the psychology of the process. It is going to take some thinking, but I wonder how that process has applied to my recent spiritual exploration. Food for thought.
Wade.
So much of my spiritual journey in the past couple of years has included learning to listen to my body … and learn to hear the rhythms of nature. What a healing, liberating journey! Yes, there is so much hidden in our cellular memory, which means there is also so much gold to be mined. Kudos to you, Richard, for allowing yourself to learn to listen.
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