Last week's post talked about "frozen" states of the nervous system, and used the practice of pendulation as a gentle way to coax the hyper vigilant nervous system out of its overly protective mode.
This week yet another
powerful pain - banishing practice: the mindset shift.
This spring, while working with a private client, I asked her to start describing how she felt by noticing something positive about her body. She took a pause and concentrated hard. We both were overwhelmed by emotion when she said,
" I draw a complete blank. I don't know how to do this."
She doesn't live with persistent pain.
She as quite active and is constantly pushing herself to improve.
Her body moves incredibly well, able to accommodate strenuous activities like backpacking and snowboarding.
It broke my heart to see this beautiful, gifted young woman grapple with a simple concept of self-appreciation.
Simple doesn't mean easy.
The reason my heart ached for her because I recognized my own struggle in her words: just several days
earlier, on a skiing trip, my partner had commented on how good and strong I looked on steep slopes.
My reply?
"My legs need to be stronger!"
I am so immensely grateful for the practice of mindfulness, because I
caught myself right in that moment: I saw how I blew off a kind comment, only to notice some small deficiency in my performance.
That was the exact moment of recognizing how long I've told myself that I am not enough, this way, or the other. And that was also the moment that I chose to step out of that pattern:
" You are right, I am strong, I have trained hard and I am skiing really good today."
What did that do?
Gave me confidence to tackle even steeper runs.
As it often happens, I took that as a cue to investigate my mindset and beliefs that I hold about my body. What I discovered was beyond startling!
I clued in that every time I went to see a care provider of any sort - a massage therapist, counselor, physiotherapist, or a doctor - I was told yet another story
of how some part of me was broken. Having come from a very sick childhood, by this time in my life I've accumulated and ADOPTED a boat load of other people's stories about MY BODY and what it is capable of...
Thoughts and beliefs aren't separate from the body. My "sick and broken" mindset have been feeding into the vicious cycle of overly protective nervous system for
many - many - many years, creating pain and other things chronic.
What stories about your body do you believe?
Is your mindset that of deficiency or wholeness?
