Time-Pain

When you cut your finger, it heals. When you have indigestion, it passes. Without any real thought, our healing system does its job, allowing us to get on with our lives. If it did not, then we would eventually die from a cut on our finger, for example. With this in mind, why does the same system not cure our acid reflux, chronic migraine or low back pain? Why does a person accept wearing a brace to bed to prevent grinding their teeth? Why do we accept such life-consuming health issues as if they were a part of living, when they are very much a part of suffering?

Chronic-pain is created slowly over a long period of time. The root word of chronic comes from chronos, a Greek word that refers to time. It is interesting that this condition and all its relative symptoms occur, due to time-related dysfunctions: our constant need for more time and feeling stressed that we do not have enough of it or it will run out before we gain or achieve something and we can never gain or achieve enough.

Our “time-pain” has it origins somewhere in our very early years, a process that started and was supported by our parents and society as a whole. It was one that separated a link between mind and body. It sounds simplistic, but a more accurate description would be that we became deaf to our internal lives. As we grew older fear, regret and accumulated emotional pain left with a great sense of lack and the need to constantly do and plan took over. We said good-bye to our spontaneity and joy. Now we join the rest of society in its obsessive thought and control dominated reality. This is a familiar place where the ego and all its different costumes keep us always needing more and looking to the future for a faint dream of happiness. Chronic pain ironically is our original self that is trying to get our attention trying to bring us back to ourselves.

Most people confuse curing with healing. It is easy to cure a cold or cure a stiff neck in most cases. It is not possible to simply cure something that took a lifetime to establish itself. Our inner intelligence, the wisdom behind our healing system, knows that we are simply trying to get back to our “normal lives” with all its fragmentation which is the cause in the first place.

Healing occurs at a different level. The word 'heal' comes from the old English word hal, which means entire or whole. It is a return to the whole, a reunification with mind, body, and spirit. This place of wholeness is the place that all eastern spiritual traditions essentially seek it is also where healing starts and suffering ends, it is called the present moment.

We are all on the brink of this healing. All of our stress and dis-ease that we hold onto out of fear and ignorance is just there to push us onto the healing path. Healing is a journey from the external to the internal world. Through a dedication to meditation, nutrition, yoga and therapies such as massage in order to stimulate our healing, we can foster a change of consciousness. This change of consciousness is not simply another change within the same pattern it is a new life... one the whole world needs.

1000 Face's

If there is one condition that has a thousand faces and undermines our body’s balance so completely and silently, it has to be stress. Stress is the common denominator of all disease, yet most people only notice it when it is gone.

When we feel threatened, disturbed or trapped our body naturally jumps into action. We release the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. These speed up our responses preparing us to fight or flight. Our digestion and bowels slow and our immune system becomes inhibited, as energy is diverted to our heart, muscles and lungs- all the systems that enable us to react quickly during a crisis. We feel our mouth become dry and our palms sweat. This is essentially a healthy response.

It takes only a small amount of stimuli for the body to react with stress. Just a thought can trigger stress in the body. Our body cannot differentiate between a perceived threat and an actual one; it responds to both the same way. Just thinking about a possible future challenge can keep us up at night.

If we compound the delicate stress response with all of the troublesome thoughts we experience everyday, then we have a self- perpetuating system. This cycle of thought and reaction is so common and so real, that most people consider it a normal state of reality.

What happens inside the body while this is happening to you? If your body has stress chemicals floating around that are inhibiting its normal function, then homeostasis is disturbed. You are never going to feel the way you did before. If your body is tight, bracing itself for the next disaster, slowing down your digestion, stifling the bowels, and retarding the immune system, then we can expect a lifetime of progressive chronic conditions.

People come to massage therapy wondering why they have headaches that last for weeks at a time or why they suffer from many types of chronic pain. We chronically tense our muscles, preventing healing and trapping toxins. Our jaws clench and grind down our teeth, we brace our necks and deform our posture.

When you relax, at best, it is only a temporary escaping. We attempt to escape what we see as stressful surroundings and go somewhere where stress is not, but stress is never external, it is always is internal. Escape reminds us of what it feels like to be at peace, but it is not true peace.

How can we change this? How can we prevent ourselves from being so effected by so many events? As a first step, bring your consciousness into your body. Start the reconnection process within yourself. When a thought arises that is stressful (and most thoughts bring some amount of stress with them), put your attention into the body and feel the tension. Be present with it and this will help to dissolve the tension. Do this each time a stressful thought comes into you. This is also a form of meditation, where we allow ourselves to move away from our thinking mind and move towards consciousness. Ultimately one’s life will always be a repetition of stress and escape until we move into a different realm of existence. As Eckhart Tolle says, life it is meant to be stressful because if it wasn’t, then we would never seek a higher consciousness.”

Into The Wild

Our skin is the outer layer of our brain, the furthest extension of our localized consciousness. Your skin and central nervous system (which includes the brain and spinal column) once shared the same cells, called the ectoderm. Since the time you were an infant, it was through the surfaces of your skin that your nervous system received all the information it needed to develop into a unique human being. All that input from the outside world, fed and still feeds into your nervous system where it is stored and constantly drawn upon, influencing your behavior. It creates millions of tiny building blocks that act as a reference library steering you through life. A more accurate term for the nervous system would be the awareness system as every one of the 10-billion neurons is intimately connected with each other, conscious of everything that is going on, holding the entire history of one’s life within itself.

When you are touched, every part of you is touched. The whole system ripples with the effects. Thoughts, dreams, and trauma can hide, begin or end at any place within your system. We are a 24-hour absorbing, processing and reacting bundle of life. Combine this with genetic information that we were born with and we get the complete you, moment-to-moment

Ask yourself about the nervous or vascular system, and you might conjure up a brief description that is much like household plumbing or wiring, something reminiscent of high school biology. Ask many doctors and you will get a similar boiler plate description.

Our inability so far, to truly grasp and understand a whole person perspective in terms of the body could be attributed back to the era of Rene Descartes, and what could be termed as ‘Cartesian jet lag’. We are wrestling with an outdated concept that separates mind and body, one that science and western medicine have been nursing for years despite the mountains of evidence to the contrary. One such concept is that of the brain sitting on top of our shoulders as an all-controlling dictator and our organs are minimized to their functional roles. This view results in a mechanized model of the self, devoid of consciousness and beauty. The cures and treatments that we are offered by most mainstream approaches, match these un-conscious stories.

When you think of your body, think of a mountain that is thick with forest and animals. A place where rain falls from leaf to leaf and seeps into the deep rich soil creating countless minute streams. These little channels, like our nervous system, are infinite and pull in from the outside deep into the core. They are part of a cycle of nature, perpetuating life-supporting streams and rivers that are rich with minerals and the molecular memory of the mountain itself. This is much like you, drawing in experiences and expressing them out into life.

We are walking extensions of nature and as a practitioner, treating such a complex and beautiful creature is sacred work. If you charge into a forest, the animals scatter, the trees go silent and you can’t see the trees for the wood. Instead one must adopt a forest whisper, a soft voice that comes naturally when we find ourselves surrounded by nature. It is then that we become an assimilated respectful visitor, not a threat, but a companion sharing the space. This is the same space that all good therapists share when they start the healing path with their clients.

The task then of a good therapist is to listen to the client’s body and to allow the dysfunction to lead them through the skin, the body’s forest floor and into the tributaries of the awareness system. This skill requires from the therapist not just physical competence, but also to have walked the same path themselves and to know the lay of the land through their own personal healing. The skilled massage therapist uses the same forest whisper spoken through their hands, to invite the body back to health through skilled pressure, gentle glides and an ear to the ground.

Healing has to be slow. It is the gentle art of your personal evolution, your healing path. There is no quick fix, no silver bullet cure. The body speaks for itself through every cell in every part of the body, always on the brink of healing and ready to step… into the wild.

Pain Evolution

Pain for most people is something that must be avoided at all times. We spend much of our lives consciously avoiding things that might cause us pain both emotionally and physically. We separate our body from our mind and yet, they are one in the same. Physical pain causes emotional distress and emotional pain manifests in our bodies as a multitude of pain sensations, some developing into actual pathologies or dis-ease. The market for pain medication is probably the biggest cash cow for the pharmaceutical industry; as soon as pain comes up we must get rid off it! And why not, who wants to suffer?

Pain though, is our nervous system telling us something is not right in our body. That is an over simplification however, of a vastly intricate and intelligent system. We could say that pain is a voice from within, part of a deeper language that most of us do not understand and so we resist, cover our ears, and want it to stop. There are many things that cause pain and most are not serious, but should be checked out by a doctor if they persist. Some pain is connected to events in our past that have not been dealt with, previous injuries or traumas that have not fully healed.

Pain and a Different Approach

Alternative approaches see the body as a collective intelligence or perhaps another way to describe it is simply, a body-consciousness. This body-consciousness constantly speaks to us , communicating its needs through stress, fear, and worry for example when something is not right. Yet, we often do not hear what it has to say as we are so caught up in our lives, and we become separate from this vital force. When pain does finally rear its head, it is often the result of our missing a long line of signs to the point that the body-consciousness finally demands to be heard.

A Solution

Bodywork is a great solution, as its very nature of consistent human touch speaks the same body-consciousness language. When you lie on the massage table, you are taking the first step on a new path as this consciousness reverberates both within you and within your massage therapist. A joint listening occurs where you both try and unravel the cause or the root of the imbalance. Massage, like all healing approaches, is not trying to simply get rid of the immediate problem (pain), but rather is working on the root of the problem, to bring you closer to it so that you may move through it (healing). In some cases on the healing path, you have to endure more pain before you discover change.

Body movement is an extension of bodywork and aligns with the same inner voice. Yoga, tai chi and meditation work on the same level as massage therapy. The most difficult step for most people is to first step onto the healing path, as the path itself requires moving towards both emotional and physical pain, as opposed to away from it. With each step on this inevitable path, inner growth expands into your life. The pain evolves and reveals deeper aspects of your self that remained hidden until you step onto the path.

The Invisible Man

It was a bright, clear, early morning when the air was still crisp as I headed up a winding narrow path that lead into the forest. The open pastures slipped behind my backpack until there was no company but the low canopy of spreading pine needles. The sky was still bright above, despite a growing westerly wind that swept through the treetops. Stopping periodically when my legs recommended it, I looked out through the gaps in the green curtains to distant empty hills. The forest took my attention as my daily thoughts left me. I walked further and deeper, feeling the peace of the wilderness overtake me.

After a while, I found myself sitting up the hill just off the path with a cup of tea in silence, watching the life of the forest creep back. It was blissful. It was not long though before I heard voices coming up the path and I looked down to see a couple walking up towards me. The man was in front with his head down and his eyes on the path. Their conversation was continuous, even ceaseless and growing louder as they grew closer.

“I’m not going to pay that kind of money without a tenant!” he shouted back to his wife.

“I’d like to know where he thinks he is going to get the money if he doesn’t!” She called back to him. I let out a slow breath, bracing slightly. Lowering my cup and loosening my fingers, I prepared for a friendly wave and a smile. Louder and louder the conversation continued, dispersing the wildlife in their wake.

I waited until they were exactly in front of me. In fact, if I dropped my cup of tea in front of me, it would have hit their legs. I knew they would be a little startled when they realized I was sitting there, so I braced myself still further. I was just about to break my silence to say hello, when I stopped, almost biting my lip. That tiny pause stretched out before me like an undefined path in the woods. I realized I was invisible. The couple marched on past me, walking in their distraction and I was left alone as one of the trees sinking deeper into the forest floor.

Healing lives in the wild and the unpredictable. This place for most is awkward and uncertain, something that they are essentially at odds with. Healing for many is a distraction at best, or an enemy at worst. When we leave the beaten path of our constricted safety and wander into the wild, if we pay attention to the present moment and accept it as the totality of who we are moment to moment, we find ourselves hiking alone deep into the hills wandering closer to life and all its potentials. I call this place the healing path.

Monday Night Meditation

We will be starting a weekly meditation practice on Monday nights hosted by Adam Sell, CMT. This is a non-denominational, non-affiliated approach to releasing stress and finding peace.

Meditation represents a doorway to a less stressful life. It is a simple practice that affects every aspect of our nature. If you find that you are often tense during your day and worn out at the end, then sitting quietly and “being” instead of constantly “doing” is the place for you. It may not seem much at first, but just the act of sitting in stillness, silence and solitude will affect everything you do in a subtle yet positive way.

Gradually, we will start to free ourselves from stress, fear and tension as we start to realize that all of our problems are internal. By sitting in meditation, we unlock a gift that is always with us, the present moment. The mind is addicted to thinking and keeps us from experiencing peace. Meditation starts the undoing process, allowing peace to find us.

At the beginning of the session we will have a brief discussion on our approach to meditation. The rest of the hour we will sit with our eyes closed in a comfortable sitting posture together. When we are done we can sit for a short while to calmly gather ourselves before the group concludes. Please bring a cushion and/or two blankets to make sitting more comfortable.