"Every sensation and symptom in the body is an opportunity to address or access the important language hidden within!"
-Dr. Henry Grayson, PhD
“It's okay to rest...I'm okay just breathing and just being on the planet. Sometimes, that actually can be a greater gift to the people around me than the striving and the ambition.”-Robin Severn-Fischette
Dedicated to our dad, Bill Severn, on his 35th yahrzeit. May his memory be for a blessing.
It is becoming widely understood that stress is behind illness.
In Robin's episode, she said that her shoulders were always up around her ears, yet she didn't really notice because it was normal. Eventually her body started breaking down with severe symptoms. One doctor told her that if she didn't calm down, no amount of medicine would help her.
Mind/body connection is a popular term these days. The idea being that our mind is responsible for much of what we experience in the body. If we're not aware of what our mind is processing or what kind of stress we're living in, our body can convey that message through symptoms.
We can exacerbate our body with thoughts AND we can also calm it down.
I'm no expert and I don't have any extensive study in this, but it seems pretty clear to me. For example, when I'm anxious about something, I have a physical manifestation; tight muscles, butterflies in my stomach, sweating, urge to flee..it's all one experience. If I have a steady stream of these kinds of thoughts, emotions, and symptoms, my body is disrupted from its optimal function. And then the slippery slope of disease can set in.
If we accept this possibility, then what can open up for us?
Consider that our bodies are telling a story of our lives. Every symptom is a like a metaphor. If we have a headache, perhaps we're grinding in our thoughts. If we have a tight solar plexus, maybe it's acting as armor to protect us from something. If we have auto-immune responses, perhaps we are attacking ourselves in some way.
If your body is telling the truth of your life, what is it saying? And what can you do with that information?