Mum Was Right, Our Bodies Really Do Talk to Us
When I was growing up, I would cringe every time. Some kind of ailment would appear - be it a stomach ache, or a sore knee - and Mum would always say, "It's your body talking to you."
Why don't you just take me to the doctor like normal parents do, I would cry out. And by cry out, I mean silently, in my own head.
Next she would pull out Louise Hay's groundbreaking and encyclopedic book, "You Can Heal Your Life". After healing herself of the big C with affirmations and mirror work, Louise associates all manner of physical ailments with thoughts, fears and beliefs. This spearheaded a movement of alternative modalities and experts in personal development that continues today under the banner of her publishing company "HayHouse". She was, it turns out, not so insane after all. Rather, a pioneer in the formerly closed-minded western world.
When I saw her live on stage, by this time past 80 years old, she was nothing short of awe inspiring. Cussing like a trouper, laughing her way through the presentation, she delivered her trademark wisdom with grace, warmth and ardor.
Back to my childhood home, when Mum heard word of any physcial complaint, calling the doctor was the last resort. Most often we didn't get anywhere near an appointment with a medical professional. Hurts would heal, pain would pass, or we'd simply accept it as the body talking. When we listened, the ailment would most often pass.
Now here we in the 2020s and ongoing research by luminaries, like …. and former scientists like Joe Dispenza, Bruce Lipton, and Deepak Chopra combine with thousands of years of Ayurvedic and Chinese Medicine to spur significant shift in Western mainstream thinking.
The longer I live the more confirmation there is that the mind/body connection is key to our experience of health and wellbeing. Being a Black Belt in the martial arts, an avid student of yoga, and a long-time fan of acupuncture, my personal life has been significantly altered by a deeper understanding of these forces at work inside of us all.
Here is a partial list of ways this has played out for the better in my life.
- Recovered from addiction, early life trauma, domestic abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] without medication, anti-depressants, nor any kind of medical prescriptions.
- Had two babies after the age of 40, both conceived and born naturally, without the use of IVF and despite being told I was infertile by a leading fertility specialist.
- Graded to Black Belt level in the Korean Martial Art of Hapkido aged 50.
So when a girlfriend and mentee called me recently to share that she has been having pains in her pelvic region, with no known medical cause, I was keen to help her work it through.
Listening to her, and encouraging her to trust her instincts, I learned that she felt strongly that there was a 'spiritual' cause for her pain.
This is not a new idea. Apart from the books and experts already mentioned above, I have found great relief from ongoing discomfort in the body with the use of programs such as Vidyamala Burch's "Mindfulness For Health" which offers a series of chapters and guided meditations to navigate and reduce chronic pain.
Interestingly, when I followed Vidyamala’s framework whilst in a "book club" group, each of us sharing our results and navigating our hiccups along the way, it was all the more effective. A topic for another day, but groups with similar intentions (like a yoga class) seem to amplify the impact of such processes, if only by adding a layer of accountability and shared intentions.
Considering again my friend's pelvic pain, I had hinted to her in an earlier call that there may be an element of the base chakra involved. It sounded to me like one of her chakras was blocked. It's not 'woo, woo' it's jus an older and less Westernised science than many of us are familiar, or possibly comfortable with.
What's a chakra, did you say? Glad you asked.
The chakras originated in a long lineage of Eastern oral tradition in India sometime between 1500 and 500 BCE. The word chakra refers to an energy centre that runs along the spine, conceived of as a spinning disk or wheel. There are seven main chakras, although possibly as many as 114 throughout the human body.
Each chakra spins in alternating directions as you follow them up the back (clockwise or anti) and connects directly to a person's physical, mental, and emotional health. Clockwise spinning chakras are active, yang, or masculine in their energy, whilst anti-clockwise are characterised by feminine, more passive or yin qualities.One goes out and gets it to make it happen, the other receives, allows, and gratefully accepts the gift.
My friend, let's called her Lola, has been actively pursuing a successful business career for many years. As time went by she has stopped enjoying her career, and began to question her direction. Recently she wound down a part of her business that although financially lucrative no longer brought her any joy.
And that's when the pelvic pain started….
'Interesting', I said to her.
'I've noticed you seem to have a resistance to accepting help, it's as if your brain is trying to keep you safe, or keep the denial of the truth of this situation alive so that everything can simply remain the same - because that's what brains do, they protect us from the risk of changing. They maintain the status quo.'
'Oh my gosh, you're so right', she said, almost gasping.
We continued exploring the possibility that her base chakra - that's the one related to finances, stability in the physical world, and survival - was blocked. Unsurprisingly, the base charka rests in the pelvis.
Seeing the connection, yet?
Her husband had asked her if she was ready to accept his help, to back off the striving for success long enough to take some time to receive and allow her new direction to appear, and unfold.
This was mildly confronting to someone accustomed to going out and getting it.
I shared this fact with her —the base chakra in women, or Muladhara, is passive. Even our physical differences as men and women hint at this. Men protrude, women do not. Men move outwards, women receive inwards. Without getting explicit about it, the base chakra is off-kilter if it is being asked to spin in the wrong direction to its natural inclination.
So my friend Lola, with all her years of striving and actively pursuing success, was blocking the receiving, allowing and natural unfolding of her business passions and thus her financial potential.
AND HER BODY WAS TRYING TO TELL HER ABOUT IT
When we discussed it, we both got chills. Both our bodies agreed.
So you see, Mum was right all along.
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