Listen to Your Body: 4 Steps to Heal Yourself

We all know that our body is capable of amazing things. From the growth of a baby out of one single cell to the healing of a wound after we have been hurt. Even more remarkable is that our body is able to compensate if full recovery is no longer possible.

Like most people we have multiple physical and emotional experiences in life. Some positive and some negative. In today’s society, we often suppress our negative emotions in order to move forward. When we suppress it, our body will too, but after a while there will be a moment when our body can’t take it anymore. It starts to speak by giving us signals as pain, unpleasant or depressing feelings and other dysfunctions.

These signals are not a problem, but simply a message that it is time to process something! A positive sign because it means we are ready for it and it can help us get rid of old stuff, bring us closer to our true self and open our heart! Again our body is showing us its unbelievable intelligence. It knows what to process first to find its way to a healthier balance.

The only thing we have to do is to listen to our body. As Jean Pierre Barral (founder of visceral manipulation, a therapy derived from traditional osteopathy) used to say “The body hugs the lesion.” Here are four steps to learn how to best listen and heal ourselves.
1. We have to take a moment for our self, sit still, and be silent and open to hearing our body (as in a meditative state). Then we will most likely feel an area that draws our attention. And, sometimes we can even feel our body move toward that area, to hug the lesion.

2. Let our mind “sink into the area that we are drawn to.” This means not observing it from our head but actually start feeling it as if we are standing in that area. How does it feel? What do we see? Here we can use our intuition. We should never distrust our intuition, it is a great tool that can lead us to the cause of the blockage/most restricted area.

3. Once we have found the most restricted area and we are really in contact with it, we only have to let the story unfold. This is the tricky part, because it can take a couple of minutes or maybe even a half hour or longer! Patience and the ability to sit and really listen is the key here.

4. Practice, practice, practice! Once we get more experienced, we will be amazed by what our body knows and has to tell us! And, we may even release some of those restrictions that we thought we had to live with!

Emile van der Hilst, CST-D, CVMP is an integrative craniosacral therapist and woks as part of the Live Well / Stay Well Program at Tournesol Wellness; www.tournesowellness.com. Learn more about Emile at www.emilevanderhilst.com.