Do you remember the skeleton song?
The foot bone's connected to the... leg bone
The leg bone's connected to the... knee bone
The knee bone's connected to the... thigh bone
Doin' the skeleton dance
If there were an updated version, it would go something like this:
The heart bone’s connected to the... hurt bone
The liver bone’s connected to the… anger bone
The brain bone’s connected to the… stress bone
Doin’ the mind/body dance
(The mind/body dance has been my muse as a writer and healer for the past 30 years, but I’m still working on my songwriting skills ;)
We’ve all heard about the mind/body connection, but it seems abstract to a lot of people. The idea of letting their body talk to them seems like crazy talk.
How does my liver talk to me?? I can’t hear it!!
The word bone’s connected to the... awakening bone.
That’s what one of my writing programs has done for people dealing with conditions that frightened, confused, depressed or defeated them.
Like the 30-something mother of two active boys whose diabetes diagnosis had completely shut her down. She knew she should make changes in her life that would make her healthier, give her more energy and enable her to be active in her two sons’ lives. But she was STUCK. And in being stuck, she felt helpless and guilt ridden.
Her breakthrough moment during our 2nd session was discovering through writing that her own childhood experiences were weighing her down…causing her to ignore the needs of her body and her children. Her parents never had energy for her as a child, and now she was doing the same thing to her boys. As she sobbed her way through reading what she wrote, she cleared the emotional barriers that were making her miserable and also making her sick. Her body had spoken and she listened.
Diabetes is all about converting glucose to energy the body can use. Can emotions impact the body in such a literal way?
If you asked that woman, she’d tell you YES. And she’d also tell you that the body can, indeed, talk.
Grief in the body
Another story I’ll never forget is about a woman who was debilitated by grief. She had lost her beloved husband at a too-early age from cancer, and she was struggling with a very painful neck and shoulder. It was so bad, she couldn’t sit at her desk and type and had to take leave from her job.
Her breakthrough moment while writing about her pain was realizing that in some irrational way she was trying to carry her husband on her back to keep him with her. She felt guilty moving on without him, and the pain kept them connected. As she wrote, she felt her heart open up to make space for her husband, where he could stay with her even as she moved on with her life. Before she finished writing, the pain in her neck and shoulder dissipated. And as she reported to me later, it never came back.
The awakening bone’s connected to the… healing bone.
Our bodies contain every story, every experience, every emotion we haven’t cleared in some way. The reason I focus on writing is because it is a powerful conduit for awakening us to what is really going on inside.
We don’t normally think too much about past experiences until they start to cause a breakdown in our health - be it physical, mental or emotional. And we certainly don’t usually consider letting our bodies talk, because how do you hear words in the silence?
dreaming in silence
everything flows together
into nothingness
waking in silence
nothingness flows together
into everything
We don’t have to be enigmas to ourselves. And we don’t have to accept defeat when our bodies break down and cause pain or disease. When we can engage with the nothingness and find the words to say what lies within us, our potential for healing is magnified.
If you’ve hit any sort of wall in your life, don’t give up. The power of your pen on paper will amaze you. It will give you a chance to shed some tears, and then it will fill you with hope, understanding, and the motivation you need to move forward. You are wiser than you know, and you absolutely have the ability to do this on your own.
But please let me know if I can help. My process is gentle and it is quick. And that breakthrough moment will change your life.
Click here and send me a note via the chat button to find out more.
© 2020 Kathy Curtis Ink