This post was originally written by me for the Rising Fire blog. I highly encourage you to check out their website at https://www.rising-fire.com
Have you ever been sitting in a class, ritual or healing session and found that the deeper into your core issues you get the more physical pain comes up in your body? Have you ever felt disconnected from part or all of your body when working on your spiritual practice? Or maybe you have hit a wall that none of the usual ritual or energy work is able to shift? First off, I want you to know that you aren’t alone and that these are all very common issues as we move through our healing journey. I have been where you are, I know how hard it can be healing generations worth of trauma, especially if our body is in pain.
There are reasons why we have these kinds of body based symptoms or stuckness in our healing journey and it has to do with the mind, body, spirit connection. The good news is, Bodywork can help!
In the “western world” we like to think of ourselves as brains riding in our meat suits that are just elaborate biological machines. Often, in spiritual circles we like to refer to ourselves as spirits having an experience of being in a body. But neither of these views holds the fullness of what it is to be a human living in this plane of existence. Indigenous traditions often don’t see separation of the mind, body and spirit and the more that western science probes this issue the more we are rediscovering just how right they are!
In the book My Grandmother’s Hands the Author, Resmaa Menakem, puts it this way “The body, not the thinking brain, is where we experience most of our pain, pleasure and joy, and where we process most of what happens to us. It is also where we do most of our healing, including our emotional and psychological healing.”
Here is how that can work. When we experience a stressor, be it something mundane like being late for work or something intense like abuse, our body goes into what’s called sympathetic nervous system arousal. This is commonly called fight or flight response. Ideally we are able to either fight off the danger or run away, then we can reconnect with signals of safety. Imagine running into work late and seeing your boss and co workers are relaxed and acting normal. You had the physical exertion of running then saw you were safe because no one was upset that you were late. This process allows our system to fully discharge the energy and chemicals that are released when a stress response is activated and feel safe coming back into the more relaxed nervous system state commonly called rest and digest.
You probably have a sense of this already, have you ever taken a walk after a stressful day of work and notice that you are less tense and ready to be with friends or family afterwards? Maybe you have seen how a frustrated child just needs to let it out, punch a pillow or run around the yard then suddenly their whole mood has shifted? These are ways we instinctively release pent up energy from a stress response.
But what happens If we are unable to release the built up energy? What if we can’t fight back the stressful or threatening thing or run away from it to safety? When that happens we may go into freeze or appease (also caused fawn) mode. Over time when fighting or fleeing aren’t available or safe options, freezing or appease can become habitual behaviors that we jump to anytime there is a stress, skipping right past the option to fight or flee. But that is a topic for another day. What is important for understanding how bodywork can help your healing journey is knowing that if we can’t act on the need to fight or flee, those impulses don’t just go away with time. They get stored in the tissues of the body as tension, stuck energy, pain and even illness.
The stress response might manifest as that headache after a day of family drama, or getting yelled at by your boss. Long term stress that remains in the body might turn into a backache that starts hurting around the holidays every year. It could even be the reason you get the same ear infection every year at the same time. Over time these can develop into chronic patterns as more and more layers of energy, that blocked fight or flight impulse, gets stored up in the muscle and connective tissues (fascia.)
Now, I’m not suggesting that you go running out of a staff meeting every time you feel the impulse. The mechanism to override the fight or flight response is important and is there for a reason. It’s what allows us to be such social animals, sometimes suppressing the desire to fight someone is critical not just for safety but also for good relationships. But when we make a habit of stuffing it down or haven’t ever been taught to give it an outlet it becomes a problem for our mind, body, spirit complex.
Over time these tensions, pains and sicknesses can just become part of who we believe ourselves to be. Even justifying it as “everyone in my family has ____” or “I’m just getting old.” Until one day you decide to work on your shit, get yourself unstuck or heal from known trauma and suddenly you have unexpected or unexplained roadblocks. You might find your physical pain is worse than ever. Or you might start noticing that your low back feels constantly blank when you try to tune into your felt sense. Or perhaps you just can’t seem to integrate that one thing your teacher has been telling you for months now. Or any other physical manifestation of the fight flight response stuck in the body.
So how can hands on bodywork help? A licensed massage therapist (LMT) experienced in trauma informed care can feel the tension patterns related to stuck energy and work with you to release them. I like to tell my clients, every body has a story to tell and the body doesn’t lie. By listening closely to the various rhythms and tension in the physical tissues, your body will point the LMT to exactly where it needs support. By manually working the tissues where those impulses and traumas are stored we can give ourselves a second chance to work through them.
When we have been stuck in our heads for so long because our bodies weren’t safe, massage can be a bridge to reconnect with this part of ourselves. The same way that you might want your shaman there the first few times you venture into your underworld it can be helpful to have a skilled LMT there as you learn to reconnect with your body. Emotional or memory releases are common when doing this kind of work. I’ll often have a client say something like “that’s weird I haven’t thought about _____ in forever.” or express that they are suddenly feeling anxious, angry or even giddy for no reason. These memories or emotions are coming up as the body releases the area where it has been storing that particular event or emotion.
An example from my personal experience comes from ealy in my massage career when I was still in school. I had broken my hand a few years before and it had been painful off and on since then. I was already an energy worker and had struggled with sending and receiving energy through this hand as well. One day my instructor was working on my hand and managed to get some scar tissue to release. Suddenly I felt I was back in the emergency room on the day I broke my hand. I could see the fluorescent lighting, smell the antiseptic, and even feel the way they had to pull my bones back into place as they put the cast on me. This sensory memory rose up in me and then faded away. Since then, I haven’t had pain and I have been able to use it in work energy movement easily.
That is an intense example, but it definitely illustrates how we hold events within the very tissues of our bodies and how that holding can block our access to our energetic senses. Your LMT should be able to hold space for you as you process these things, helping to bring you back to the sensations of your body and titrate in and out of these memories and emotions until they have found release. There are, of course, some situations where you will want additional help, working with a shamanic healer or mental health therapist after an intense physical release.
I often say that all bodywork is energy work. We can’t help but engage with a person’s energy when we put our hands on them with caring intent. The wonderful thing about this is that people are often able to release both the physical manifestation of the trauma or stuck energy as well as the energetic imprint at the same time. When we can really support your body as it goes through unwinding how this trauma is living in the tissues
While I do think there is benefit in most, if not all, bodywork regardless of what style the LMT is practicing I encourage you to look for someone doing lighter more somatic style bodywork or at least insist on lighter pressure. The reason for this is that we tend to push ourselves around a lot in our culture and deeper messages can feel very normal, even good but might be blowing past the subtle signals our body is sending. Deep pressure on a body that is already stuck in fight or flight mode can just reinforce that you are still in danger and that it’s not safe to change. The good news is that more and more LMTs are being taught to listen closely to clients’ bodies instead of just pushing on muscles. Our bodies send clear signals when the pressure is too much and a trained LMT can read those even when we aren’t connected enough to our bodies to notice ourselves.
If you have found yourself struggling with your healing journey, If you have felt stuck or blocked or been struggling with physical pain then massage could be a great next step. Especially when combined with other practices like Shamanic healing, journeying, mental health therapy etc. Massage can be a powerful tool for releasing trauma and furthering personal growth. Take your time finding the right therapist. Most therapists will at least email with you if not offer a free consultation where you can discuss your needs and concerns. Trust your intuition, make sure it’s the right fit. If this blog has resonated with you, here is how we can work together. Visit my website www.livefree-bodywork.com or email me at [email protected] to schedule your free 15 min consultation.