You don't need me to tell you how healing is a truly remarkable evolutionary feat - sometimes my mind boggles to simply think of the many cuts and bruises I have received in a lifetime, and how so few have left lasting marks physically, in a matter of days or weeks the cells in my body have done their great healing work without my conscious awareness. Incredibly all living things possess this skill, microscopic cells working together to heal the whole.
In the past my body has required some more extreme medical assistance. Maybe, like me, you’ve had an organ removed (appendix) or had some surgery (knee ligaments) which has prolonged your life or enhanced it. How fortunate we are to live in a time where we don’t have to die young from a faulty organ and it didn’t cost us more than a percentage of our earnings (tax).
One of the most astonishing things I have uncovered on my healing journey is “the body keeps the score” - to quote the title of Bessel van der Kolk’s book - Which, I have found to be true. Post-operations have come with their own healing process, on an emotional & mental level, as well as the obvious physical.
You see, even when unconscious from anaesthesia the nervous system is still very much awake. The conscious part of my mind may be vacant (not sleeping, but producing coma-like brain waves) but the intricate system of millions of nerve endings is going into overtime, sending signals to my brain I am not receiving. “MAYDAY! MAYDAY! We are cut wide open and someone is poking around inside of us.” Would usually result in all sorts of pain and reactionary movements, and survival mode would kick in as a result. Obviously, I had no way of receiving these messages from my nervous system and, thankfully, stayed frozen still for the surgeon to do their work. Only later down the line, through breathwork was I able to unlock these trapped messages, that had been piling up in my body, similar to a neglected email inbox. Thankfully I didn’t have to feel all the pain I was once numb to, it was more the act of acknowledging and releasing through movement and emotion that could let the messages be released.
Phew! It was like an unclogging of a blocked drainpipe. What a relief.
The reason I tell this story is that not only does the body keep the score in regard to physical trauma, but it also traps those unreceived messages through emotional and mental trauma too. Those “MAYDAY! MAYDAY!” Survival messages might have been activated in those times of abuse, bullying or pure fear for our life, yet during that survival flight or fight response, we froze instead. Sometimes our only form of survival is to vacate the building in our mind.
These learned behaviours can become patterns, and we deliberately become less conscious via drink, drugs, TV, Food and any other numbing process when we can’t find a way to fight or flee from the overwhelming emotions we feel as adults - we freeze, we vacate, we numb. I see this as our own mental and emotional anaesthesia.
The other incredible thing I uncovered on this journey was that the chemicals our bodies release when we are “in love” are the very best chemical concoction the body can create for cell longevity. When a culture of cells is exposed to the chemicals of stress, fear and survival, the cell not only lives a shorter amount of time, but when it replicates / duplicates itself, it does so at a determinant to the DNA. The DNA over time deteriorates, passing on less and less “good information” and therefore producing lower and lower quality cells, hence why youth is usually healthy and robust, whereas old age is the opposite. The old adage of “he must’ve had an uphill paper round.” means, he must’ve had a hard life and is usually said when someone looks older than their years. This is true, the more stress our life gives us, the quicker it ages us.
Amazingly the opposite is true too, the more love, joy and stress feel living we can experience, the healthier our body remains - love is the fountain of youth. This is about getting your mind into a state of thriving over surviving, changing the chemical environment in which your cells exist. The key is perception is everything. Read or listen to Bruce Lipton if you want to learn more on this matter.
And finally on this major topic of health. As someone fascinated by our ancient, primal humanness and what it was to be a human before the modern day of cities and jobs - I like to imagine our old and ancient ways of being. Simply by looking at all other mammals on the planet, particularly primates, we see that they will sit still, relax, nap and most beautifully self inspect & enquire, each and every day if they feel safe enough to do so. Do we make enough time to rest, massage, inspect and introspect? A habit I enjoy is sitting in the garden and physically scanning my body. Finding knots in muscles, massaging my feet, and querying my aches and pains. I ask myself, “What would my ancestors do about this?” Translating to, “What is my intuition telling me to do about this?” I think we can all benefit from slowing down and paying closer attention to our physical body and translating it’s many clues and signs into what we most need.
If you'd like to spend this month on a journey of healing the body, emotions and mind, along with some incredible nervous system work, then join us at DEVOTION. We have a breathwork ceremony, a shamanic masterclass, a healing ceremony, an EFT tapping workshop, a journaling workbook and 4 guided meditations! It's going to be mega!
Head to https://www.ookushana.com/devotion and sign up
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