Self-healing and body dialogue

Self-healing by talking to the body is not essentially a metaphysical telepathy, but through active body awareness, reestablishing the connection between brain and body signals, helping you awaken emotionally suppressed physiological feelings from the subconscious level, and fundamentally dissolving long-term emotional internal friction and chronic physical discomfort without organic disease. This is the most direct conclusion I have come to after practicing body awareness for 6 years, studying with teachers from different schools, and accompanying more than 300 clients to adjust.

Two months ago, I met a 32-year-old girl who works in cross-border operations. She has been suffering from migraine for 3 years. She went to the neurology department 5 times and had brain CT and Doppler. She had no problems except for a slight vasospasm. She took half a pill to two painkillers, but she still had it at least 4 times a month. The first time I did the awareness exercise, I asked her to close her eyes and feel her shoulders and neck. Just after 30 seconds, she shed tears and said, "I have never noticed that my shoulders are so stiff, as hard as a rock." It was only later that she realized that every time her boss gave her urgent work and forced her to change the eighth version of the plan, she would subconsciously tense her shoulders and neck and bite her back molars. This state could last for two or three hours. She was completely unaware that by the time she felt the pain, it was already a migraine attack.

Interestingly, regarding this conclusion that "the body remembers emotions", researchers in different fields have already confirmed it from their own dimensions, and no one has an absolute "standard answer". In traditional Chinese medicine, it is said that "all diseases are internal and must manifest externally." Whether it is zhanzhuang, Baduanjin or meridian tapping, it essentially uses active body stimulation to make you notice congestion points that are usually ignored. Many novice Zhanzhuang practitioners have had a similar experience: After standing for about 15 minutes, the knees, lower back and even the back molars, which are usually not felt, suddenly become tight and sore. That is because the body is sending you a signal, and you were too busy to catch it before. Research in the field of embodied cognition in the West is more straightforward. Behavioral psychologists at Stanford University conducted experiments as early as 1988: subjects were asked to hold a pen with their teeth (forcing facial muscles to make a smile), and their pleasantness ratings of comedy short films would be 32% higher than those who held the pen with their lips (unable to make a smile). Your emotions never only exist in your brain, they are actually hidden in the tension of every muscle in your body.

Of course, I have also encountered a lot of doubts. Some friends in clinical medicine said that this is the "placebo effect caused by attentional shift", and it is not a formal healing method at all. In fact, I don't refute this statement at all, and I will even take the initiative to tell visitors who come to me that there is no need to worry about whether it is "science" or "metaphysics", as long as you can get the results. Just like the girl with migraine, every time she feels tightness in her shoulders and neck, she stops to press the Fengchi point for 3 minutes and does abdominal breathing for 5 times. In the past two months, she has only had one migraine. Even the neurologist she often visited asked her if she had changed any new medicine recently. Regardless of whether it is a placebo or something else, if it can solve the problem, it is a good method.

Many people always feel that there is a threshold when they first come into contact with this concept. Do they need to learn mindfulness meditation first? Do they need to sit for half an hour to be effective? Not really. The first exercise I often tell newbies is that when you read this article, just stop for 10 seconds: feel the touch of your feet and shoes, and the contact with the ground, feel the pressure of your butt and the chair, and scan the muscles all over your body. Are there any that are unconsciously tightened? I have seen too many people shrugging their shoulders, gritting their teeth, and breathing only into their chests while scrolling through their mobile phones. They are completely unaware of it. Just take 10 seconds to loosen the tense muscles and let the breath sink into your stomach. This is already talking to your body.

I also suffered from chronic gastritis when I was working on a project two years ago. After a gastroscopy, it was an ordinary superficial inflammation. After taking omeprazole for more than half a month, it still went up and down. The pain made me break out in cold sweats. Later, I tried to put my hand on my stomach every time I felt pain. Instead of forcing myself to "meditate", I just asked it honestly: "Are you hurting from swelling or twisting now?" Was I in a hurry just now after drinking the iced coffee, or was the customer I just connected with made you angry? ”One time when I was in pain, after asking, I suddenly realized that I had an argument with a gangster half an hour ago. I felt that I didn't take it to heart at all, and turned around and forgot about it, but my stomach remembered it. I slowly exhaled three times at that position, without taking any medicine, and the pain subsided within 10 minutes. Do you mean God? In fact, it's not weird at all, it's just that you ignored it for too long, and it can only use pain to tell you to pay attention.

Some people also told me that they tried it but it didn’t work. When they close their eyes, their minds are filled with tomorrow’s work, the children they need to pick up, and the express delivery they haven’t picked up, and they can’t calm down at all. It’s so normal. If you haven’t contacted your best friend for several years, and you want someone to break their heart to you as soon as you meet them, would they be willing to do that? The same is true for the body. You have ignored it for more than ten years or even decades. Every time it sends you a signal, you either take painkillers to suppress it or carry it. Now, suddenly, you come close to it and want to "talk" to it. Why should it pay attention to you? Don’t be anxious, do it every time for 10 seconds, and do it as soon as you remember. Even if you are still thinking about work when you do it, it doesn’t matter. You should let it know that you are finally willing to look at it.

To put it bluntly, the words "self-healing" sound lofty, but in fact, they essentially mean that you learn to get along well with your body. When you get along with your friends, you know how to always greet them and don't wait for them to break up before trying to make up for it. How come you forget about it when it comes to you? There is no need to engage in complicated rituals or buy ridiculously expensive courses. Pay more attention to the texture of the food when you eat today, feel the force of your feet on the ground when you walk, and stay for two seconds wherever you touch your hands when taking a shower. That is enough. After all, your body loves you more than yourself.