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.
Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by
Don Shetterly
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