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Whatever you RESIST
will PERSIST and INTENSIFY
As many of you know, I am
in the work I do today because of my own physical injuries that
began at the age of sixteen. At that time, I was diagnosed with
a lower back sprain. This was the beginning of many years of pain
and suffering leading up to a ten-day hospital stay in my early
twenties. Since the doctors were unable to identify the problem,
I was given drugs to deal with the pain. When MRIs became available,
I was diagnosed with protrusions on four of my five lumbar disks.
Finally, a diagnosis. Now I could get help, so I thought. Then my
medical doctor told me nothing could be done and I would live in
pain the rest of my life.
In that moment I heard a
voice that said do not believe him, you will find something to help
you. I cannot explain the voice only to say for me it was a spiritual
awakening that started me on a quest for healing. This journey with
my body has given me many gifts of self-discovery. Even to this
day, the unfoldment of my body leads me to greater and greater discoveries
of my self, living life and deepening my connection with spirit.
As you can well imagine,
receiving bodywork with a body that was full of pain was not easy.
However, I intuitively knew that bodywork was going to help. What
I had to learn was not to resist, and to let go. This was not a
simple task since we have a natural response to avoid pain. In addition,
our society encourages this form of spiritual opposition.
What do I mean by spiritual
opposition? This is the fear of not feeling what can ultimately
lead you to a deeper spiritual place and understanding of life.
You see, we are taught not to feel our pain and to avoid or resist
it at all cost. But pain is not our enemy, it can be our teacher.
This conflict with pain hinders our growth as spiritual and human
beings.
Resistance is a creating
energy; this creative energy reinforces the very pain you are trying
to avoid, giving it strength to continue in your life. This is not
confined to your physical body: I am talking about all pain in your
life.
Here are some examples of
how we resist life on a daily basis: impatience, stubbornness, lateness,
arrogance and procrastination are just a few. Anger is another good
example. Have you ever felt how your body responds to anger? That
feeling you get in the pit of your belly or maybe even a headache.
This type of intense energy can leave deposits behind long after
the angry feeling is gone, building up over time, growing in strength,
and then you can feel angry and not even know why or it can be out
of proportion to the event taking place. Storing energy in the body
like this happens with all our resistance to life, not just with
anger.
I have been working with
resistance in the body since 1986, but realizing we resist in every
day life was a revelation. Paying attention and beginning to recognize
when I resist in everyday life allows me to live more in the moment,
releasing the effects of the past; it allows me to be more of who
I am in the present, not holding on to something I no longer need.
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