Optimize Healing:The importance of talking to body sensation

We can’t ask clients why they have their problems. If they knew the answer, they wouldn’t be coming to see us.

We can, however, direct them to the one who knows - “discomfort” that was born at the same moment the problem came into existence.

We believe that all of our problems that cause us suffering come from one source – something that can’t be integrated. This is our definition of trauma. When something cannot be integrated, life creates a dense energy in our field. We experience this energy as a physical discomfort. It may be pain, queasiness, lightheadedness, “no feeling” (so, if your experience is, “I’m not feeling anything, you simply scan your body to find out where you’re feeling, “I’m not feeling anything”).

This pain is in some ways exactly like us. It was born in a moment, it has a life of its own, and it knows the story of its origin. So, if we want to discover why we have a problem, what we simply need to do is become this sensation. By becoming the sensation, I don’t mean “our" sensation. Its proper name is sensation. It is not our stomach ache, it is “stomach ache”!

It is our job to become aware of, allow, bring all our attention to, and accept discomfort. This means being fully engaged with it with an open mind and heart. It means embodying it and then being in a place of active receptivity. Then we simply ask, “sensation” , “ what have you come to share? where are you beginning ? what’s happening ? ” Anything that comes to you next, is the “sensations” story, even if you think it’s your experience in the here and now. For ex., if the first thing that comes to you is, “I can’t do this,” it is the “sensation” that is sharing it - it has nothing to do with your experience in the present moment.

When we do this, worlds open up to us that are unavailable when we try to talk about the problem. This is because when we talk about the problem, we don’t understand from the inside out, we only project from the outside in.

Working in this way solves the problem of people needing to analyze and understand. The nature of the problem is simply revealed. This is also the path to master the problem. For when we choose to become the discomfort while simultaneously witnessing and hosting it, we no longer are identified with the one having the problem and unconsciously reliving echoes of it, we are simply the one who has perspective on the one having it. And this movement from being identified with the problem to being the one having a problem makes all the difference

Let’s look at a simple example that makes the point. Suppose a war veteran comes into my office and a car backfires and he jumps. And suppose 40 years earlier, a bomb went off near him that nearly killed him and he could not integrate this. From that moment on, he loses perspective. For him, he is still living the war and the bomb going off. If he could choose to become the “sensation” associated with the unintegrated bomb experience, he would then be the one who is the witness, and not the character, in the play. This is what leads to healing and freedom. From this example we can see that every problem that causes us suffering is on another level an invitation to re-member so that we can heal and grow. 

So the next time you are suffering, we invite you to scan the body and notice any associated discomfort. Bring all your attention there and simply ask, “what have you come to share?”  And the next time you have a discomfort in the body, before taking a pill or anything else to try to get rid of it, we again invite you to ask it, “what have you come to share?”

We will spell all this out in more detail in our upcoming book, The Freedom Trail.

In our next blogs, we will further explore these sensations and what they are revealing. We will explore diseases and pain as narrative and explore the difference between pain and suffering.

We’d love to hear about your experiences becoming “body sensations” and opening to their stories and messages. We appreciate any comments and invite you to subscribe to our blog to hear more of our thoughts on the subject. If you have liked this blog or found it helpful, please share it with your friends.