I slammed the car door on my finger at Christmas. This mishap caused a huge hematoma (blackish blood spot) to be created at the cuticle base of my finger. I've been watching it now for a few months. I expected that the body would eventually absorb the blood spot, my nail would get all yellow and grotty and I would lose it. But that didn't happen. As my nail has been growing, the hematoma under the nail has been moving along with the nail's growth. So I then surmised that the hematoma would slough off as the nail grew out. That didn't happen either. What did happen was the nail, with the blood spot now in the middle of the nail, having grown that far from the cuticle, erupted (!), broke through the nail above (as the new nail is growing under), freeing the debris of the hematoma. Extremely unexpected! (ok, "gross" part over; fyi, it doesn't look as bad as described. And it doesn't hurt at all.)
Healing is unexpected. How the body deals with trauma or illness is largely mysterious, despite the plethora of knowledge as to how the body works. The body has its own ideas.
A client suffering with uncharacteristic impulsivity and poor decision-making of late wondered why this was happening, what was going on. We delved into the question with the intelligence of an open body by doing some Authentic Movement. What arrived for her was an experience of the self named "Magnificent Vertical Beauty"; a part of her that respectfully follows the quiet, delicate and Knowing; that finds exactly the right note, tone, gesture and movement needed in a moment rather effortlessly. A part that knows when to be still and is guided by the listening and the moment's quiet. With the surfacing of this 'character', she recognized she had been indiscreetly generous in a host of ways, too often; not respected nor appreciated by the receiver. Post session, she realized how she had taken for granted this more sacred aspect of herself, and all the giving it away would not relieve the need to share it. Somehow this Magnificent Vertical Beauty was for her alone, not to be shared (at this point), was delicate and fine and required protection and discernment, but most of all an acknowledgement of its value, her worth.
This information for her gleaned from this session was unexpected. Could we have arrived at it through analyzing the events of life that were troubling? Maybe. Would that approach have been embodied, and poetic and using more of herself, a larger intelligence, to understand the dis-ease? No, most certainly not.
Unexpected Healings. Staying open to the surprise of what is possible, what transpires, what is.
Writing about protoplasm in general and cells in particular, Mabel Todd (The Thinking Body) wrote:
ReplyDelete"Each breathes, assimilates and displays irritability, and in varying degrees all can repair and reproduce themselves."
I mentioned that to a cardiologist once, and he just stared at me. Whereas ... a lot of my own thinking -- as they say, all the way up, and all the way down -- is linked to that understanding.
You must have an amazing book collection Walt, I appreciate your resources mightily.
ReplyDeleteYes, when in relation to western medicine, it can sometimes seem as if one comes from another planet. The apparent self-satisfaction that a bulk of knowledge/information can bring a "medicine (wo)man" and entrenchment therein can be discouraging, especially when curiosity and inherent interest are nowhere to be found. When medicine becomes a job and the empathic, creative thinker is left behind, practicing same is a woeful exercise.
Here's to the amazing healing power of the body! May it be always so.
Thanks for your contribution.