Pursuing Symptoms In Healing

One thing we do in healing that is misguided is trying to heal the wrong things.  I don't mean to make it sound like a mistake, even if it is.  I mean that we focus and pursue healing symptoms more than we do in healing the entire mind, body, and spirit.

Every licensing year in the massage world here in Florida, I see the "new" modalities and classes come through.  Everyone out there is promising relief from pain, relief from this situation or that situation.  Use this electrical stimulation device and get rid of the pain.  Use this technique and alleviate the pain.  Provide pain relief with this modality.

While there's some truth and benefit to all of those things, many of them are so misguided.  Sometimes they offer a placebo effect all the time proving to you that the system works.  They get so caught up in their own paradigms of what is going on that they miss the bigger picture.

It meant painful discoveries...

Take, for instance, if I would have focused only on the symptoms of Conversion Disorder that I was experiencing, I would have not made it very far.  No, I had no clue how to heal my life, but it was in that never ending questioning that I found ways to heal.  The symptoms of paralysis, seizures and a numbed body were not where I needed to focus to heal.  I had to go to the core of those issues and yes, it meant some painful discoveries.

Another instance of when this applies is when I had a full body rash.  I could have focused on the symptoms only but little progress would have been made.  While I was trying to find anything that helped alleviate the itching of the rash, I knew that something was kicking it up.  Through deep work into the mind and body, I soon discovered what was fueling the rash.  No, it wasn't easy to go into this space of healing, but without it, I would still be fighting the symptoms.

Stress to a Physical Stressor

One time I was working with a client, doing to their office and doing weekly chair massage.  One of the ladies would often complain how torqued her back felt and how painful it was.  I would work on the symptoms while I was there and often alleviate it.  However, the next week I went back, it would be as if I had done nothing.  I soon discovered that the way she had her computer positioned on her desk was twisting her back.  When you apply the stress of the day to a physical stressor such as this, you're going to get pain.  If I would have just focused on the symptoms of pain in her back and not observing what was behind it, I would have missed the healing part.

There are times of course that you have to focus on the symptoms because you or others need relief.  We need to know that we can get out of that pain.  Sometimes, it is just a moment of "please take the pain away".  Unfortunately, if we're just treating symptoms, we're going to miss the bigger picture of healing.

I kept asking the questions...

I would have never made it out of Conversion Disorder and paralysis if I would have not kept asking the questions that I needed or searching for what could help.  I looked for ways that would physically help me and make a difference, noticing that they helped me heal to my core.

Sometimes we just get caught up in the symptoms as we so badly want them to go away, but more often than not, this does very little for us.  It numbs us.  It helps us disconnect from it, but it doesn't go to the core issue of what is causing it.

Medications and medical procedures don't always do what we think they are doing.  I knew a lady that had 52 surgeries in 48 years.  No one stopped to think about the overall big picture.  They were treating the symptoms.  When she started on healing her core mind and body, it is then that her body started to heal and surgeries and medications were no longer needed.

I know this probably sounds too easy to be true.  I know some will read it and say, "but you don't understand my condition" and "you don't know what I have to live with".  To that, I can only say, no I don't.  I just know what I've seen in my own life and that of many others and I will urge and prod you to go deeper, dig further, and work toward healing the symptoms, not necessarily treating the symptoms.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

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How I Write Blog Posts

Sometimes, I am sure that people wonder where my blog posts come from and I'm sure that it seems at times, the topics I write about are all over the place. While this blog is a collection of thoughts about the mind body connection, it is also my personal journey into the awareness of the mind and body.

My personal journey is where I draw inspiration and by writing and sharing my personal life with the world, I hope that others will benefit and grow in their own awareness as humans. There are too many in this world that preach the word of truth to others not based upon personal experience, but founded upon what others have told them to be the truth.

I don't claim to have the complete truth either but I share my experiences, my learning and what I gather as I become more aware as a human. Throughout my life, I have never shied away from pushing myself to my limits and beyond. In fact, most people would struggle to keep up with the pace that I have taken on in my life.

Many years ago, a boss once told me that I was harder on myself than they ever would be or could be on me. I have had to learn how to temper those expectations over the year and go a little easier on myself. However, the point I am trying to make is, I don't back down much in my life when it comes to pushing myself into awareness, learning and all that there can be.

As I take these things that I experience and apply them to life, others that read the words that I write, are then getting a glimpse into those experiences. In doing this, my hope is that many will identify with my words, understand the process and be inspired as a result. It is my hope that others will be inspired and will push themselves to greater places than they are currently.

It is never easy to push ourselves and step out of the comfort zones. In fact, our society and culture really does not push us to do that for the most part and there is plenty of evidence to prove this point. Yet, if we want to be all we can be and evolve into a better human, we must constantly question ourselves and not accept where we are as the absolute truth.

Further Reading:
1) Hope And Possibility Through Trauma
2) Your Choice To Awareness



Blog Post & Images (c) 4/24/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

Emotional Pain Is Physical Pain

According to a recent study conducted at the University Of Michigan, researchers discovered that the same regions of the brain that become active in response during pain are activated when there are experiences of social rejection or hurt (i.e. relationship breakups).

According to Ethan Kross, lead researcher of the study stated, that on the surface, spilling a hot cup of coffee on yourself and thinking about how rejected you feel when you look at the picture of a person you broke up with, may seem to elicit very different types of pain. According to Kross, his research shows that may be more similar than initially thought.

Through two tasks that induced the feelings from a relationship breakup in 40 participants, they found that regions of the brain were activated that are the same regions of the brain which are involved in physical pain sensation. All tasks were performed while participants went through a functional MRI scan.

In addition, they compared the results of this study to a database of more than 500 previous studies which again showed the brain response to physical pain, emotion, memory and resolution. The research team hopes that these findings will lead to new insights into how, intense social loss, may lead to various physical pain symptoms and disorders.

Personally, I am grateful to see studies such as this being conducted. Although, I have went through some very physical ordeals related to emotions, the more credible scientific research that backs up this normal part of life, the further we advance ourselves.

Pain is a direct result of what is going on in the mind and body of a person. All too often, we try to ignore it, numb it, avoid it or think happy thoughts hoping it will just go away. The part that matters though is not just recognizing that a connection between pain in the body and the emotions of the mind exist, but that we take proactive steps to learn from this and evolve ourselves in awareness.

When you connect the "felt sense" of the body to the what is going on in the person's life (or your own life) at that particular moment, that realization starts the process of healing. It is a powerful realization that may take us into moments of hidden fear and unknown spaces of our lives. If we allow ourselves to travel into these moments, than we can transform ourselves beyond just the pain. There is no greater gift we can give our self then to awaken and evolve and we do that by going into the pain, not by avoiding it.

These researchers have the right idea and a good first step. There is much more though to the healing process. It involves more than taking medications or numbing ourselves through alcohol or drugs or anything else that has become our crutch in life. We cannot think these things away because the connection is in the body and in order to heal it, we must feel it. Happy thoughts, religion, spirituality and new age practices may get us closer but until we go in and feel that which we do not want to feel, we'll still be searching for the answers to pain for a long time.


Further Reading:
1) Social Rejection Hurts Like Physical Pain - PsychCentral.com

2) Study Illuminates The Pain Of Social Rejection - University Of Michigan

3) Felt Sense In The Body (Blog Post on Nov 6, 2010)




Blog Post & Images (c) 3/29/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com