Karen came in complaining of tension in her low back over her kidneys and into her hips. She was considering possible kidney problems because they’ve bothered her in the past. She asked if I could check to see if I feel anything there in the kidney area. After making a few contacts to help Karen connect more to her body, I asked her what she was noticing. She reported feeling less tension in her neck and less discomfort in her low back as I lifted her legs.
I wondered if she was noticing changes in pain and tension because she was looking in her body for areas of pain and tension. There’s nothing wrong with looking for areas of pain and tension. It’s what you could call a perceptual filter. It’s like playing “Where’s Waldo”. If you’re focusing on finding Waldo, you’ll find Waldo amidst all the other things in the very detailed illustrations. So too with your body. If you are looking for pain and tension (because you’ve learned that this is a measure of how you’re doing), then you’ll notice either the presence or absence of pain and tension.
What you look for in your body can be different than pain and tension. You could look for energy, ease, breath, movement, emotion, vibration, any number of things. One of the things that the Spinal entrainment does is it helps the brain get a better picture of what’s going on in the body. And if all you’re looking for is pain and tension, then that’s all the information the brain is going to get.
So I asked Karen to focus on the energy in her body, whatever that meant to her. Was there movement, or different colours, heat, cold, anything that related to energy?
After she reflected for a bit, she said that she was feeling energy in her head, and throat and she even mentioned what colours she was seeing.
When I came back and asked her what she had been noticing, she said “all of a sudden I saw myself in my mind’s eye swimming.” I asked her if she moved her body as if she was swimming and she said, “no, well only in my mind. I don’t want to look silly making swimming movements with my body.”
Dance like no one is watching
I assured her that no one was going to see her swimming on the table. So she did it. And suddenly she felt grief in her heart. She cried a little. What was the grief about? Don’t know, don’t need to know. Feeling it surprised her at first and then she said she was able to make sense of it for herself. It was like she was denying herself the feelings and the work that we did on the table helped her connect with and express those feelings.
Not having to carry something like that IS letting go of a burden. We use so much energy to carry burdens and to keep ourselves from feeling and expressing. And interestingly, she wasn’t looking for it. She was looking for pain and tension. But when we shift our focus and we start to look at what else is there, other things show up. Just like if we’re playing Where’s Waldo and we decide to look for flowers instead of Waldo.
It’s how we can make progress and at the same time improve our brain/body communication and health.
After she got up I asked her how her low back was feeling, and if she was still feeling the tension over the kidneys. She replied “that’s all cleared and I’m not worried about it anymore”.
Karen is learning the language of her body. In noticing more than the presence of pain or tension, she’s learning more than just a few words. And as she continues to learn the language, she will continue deepening her relationship with her body.