Why Healing?
Healing is a movement that we all know. The impulse to heal is natural.
Every day we are given opportunities to heal patterns of behaviour or ill movements so that we return to the realness and inner wisdom we have always had, a state of presence which brings certainty, a sense of fulfilment and ease.
We also have a more conscious relationship with healing. Perhaps we have never considered it in these terms but throughout the many moments of our day, movements of healing are an integral part in assisting us to deal with what we are experiencing.
Throughout our life, our relationship with healing will naturally change. Perhaps this is due to being unwell, being diagnosed with an illness or becoming injured or a major life event occuring for yourself or those around you. The change might be sparked because your body doesn’t feel fit for life. You might feel tired all the time, heavy, bloated, sluggish, stressed, anxious or overwhelmed. Or it may simply be an awareness that something isn’t quite right even though on the surface everything looks ok but there is an angst or unsettlement running in the background that doesn’t shift.
In my own exploration of healing over many years I have found that true healing comes from connection to the body. When present with the body during movements throughout our day we are called to take notice of the the sensitivity of our body and move in a way that respects how magnificent it is. We also become aware of our inner sensitivity, the preciousness we are that offers constantly deepening consciousness of what is needed in our own personal growth and development. From a very practical perspective, the opportunity to heal is ever present throughout life and I have discovered when I embrace this I will naturally bring a truer care to the body which will result in a greater readiness and willingness to heal, to address how I am feeling and make movements that support the return of balance, harmony and steadiness, similar to the body's internal processes which are constantly in the movement of healing.
Our body is a magnificent design and has a remarkable ability to heal itself. Throughout our daily and nightly cycle, the body is in a constant state of healing as it works to establish homeostasis – a state of balance, steadiness and harmony between all its organs and systems. Some of the simple ways our body heals itself is through cell repair, regeneration and reproduction, the processes of wound healing, muscle, bone, tendon or ligament repair after accident or injury, the precise mechanisms of our immune system, and the cleansing, clearing and regeneration that occurs when we sleep. We may never think about our bodies foundational processes of healing, the beautiful intricacies that are continuously working in the background to ensure our survival, our ability to function and experience life, but they are there and are occurring all of time.
All of us get affected by life and each and every one of us has learnt what to go to, to seek relief from the tension and the impact we feel. In fact, across our lifetime, we become super precise in knowing what we need for relief, with each situation we will have a certain remedy that we perceive works to address the disturbance. For example if someone yells at you, you might try to relieve the tension you feel and use protective mechanisms to deal with the situation. The fight or flight responses of the nervous system kick in, and you might yell back in reaction or stay quiet, shrinking within yourself, or remove yourself from the interaction and avoid that person. No matter what strategy we choose we will do something to deal with the feelings that got triggered as a result of the interaction and we will immediately know what is needed to ease the un-comfortability that we feel.
Consider what you use when you feel stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, tired or even when you feel happy, excited and everything seems to be going your way. We all know to go to something to take the edge off, this shows us that we all know there is a relationship between how we feel and that this can change with what we do. Hence, all of us seek healing - it is simply our relationship with healing and how we define it that varies. For some, when we become affected by life we might spend time in nature, go for a walk or exercise, call a friend to talk about how we feel, we might meditate, seek comfort in food or drink, in watching TV, reading a book, listening to music, we might dance, laugh or try to pretend nothing is bothering us. The list is endless ...
Whatever we choose, it is obvious that there is an innate knowing within us to seek something to support us when things aren’t right.
Women are naturally very connected to their sensitivity which makes them very attuned to the need for change and the impulse to heal. For some women this increase in awareness often comes around the time of menstruation, or as our body changes with age and we enter the cycles of perimenopause, menopause and post menopause. We might find that with every birthday we are called to reflect and make adjustments.
As our body changes and we get to know ourselves more from the inside out, awareness grows and we may realise the things we did in our 20s to deal with stress, tension and to get through life no longer work in our 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond.
In fact, life is constantly offering us opportunities to reflect, to develop, to refine and move differently so we can deepen into greater levels of awareness and wisdom as we age. To move away from the familiar strategies we use to numb, withdraw, distract or become racy to cover over what we feel and to be honest and real about how we are feeling. The honesty and realness give us the opportunity to stop and use our inner ability to sense what is playing out. This brings an observation, an opportunity to stay connected with the body and make choices based on our sensitivity and make movements to address what has affected us. In this we would still be having a relationship with healing, but it would be a different quality that defines the healing. Healing offers the opportunity to embrace the movement of forever learning and discover the return to lightness, flow and ease.