The Burning Hut
This story was posted online by my friend Kristi P. who lives in Los Angeles.
The Burning Hut
The only survivor of a shipwreck washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions. But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had happened; everything was lost. He was stung with grief and anger. “God, how could you do this to me!” he cried.
Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him. “How did you know I was here?” asked the weary man of his rescuers. “We saw your smoke signal,” they replied.
It is easy to get discouraged when things are going bad. But we shouldn’t lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of pain and suffering.
Remember next time your little hut is burning to the ground- – it just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of God.
This story speaks to me on a few levels. When I first read it, I heard how we as humans judge outside events or circumstances as good or bad when really neither is literally true. Things that happen are inherently neutral. We create thoughts of judgment about the happening which then informs how we feel about it.
I've had the experience of being late for working with clients in New Hamburg because there was construction on the route that I hadn't planned for and then an accident at the light I turn at right before the clinic. I'd been feeling grumpy about being late until I realized that had I been through that light 10 minutes earlier, at my usual time, I would have been in that multi-car accident. Yikes! Then I felt lucky and grateful to be taken care of in that way. And so glad that the construction slowed me down just enough to not be there then.
When I applied for chiropractic school the first time in University, I didn't get in. Oh no! Not you Dr. Sara! I was devastated at the time. I went back to UW for another year in Biology. That year I got married to Scott (who I'm still married to...lol) and we both made a number of friends that year that turned out to be lifelong friends who we still keep in touch with regularly. Twenty-four years later NOT getting into chiropractic school on the first try looks like the best happening ever! I'm not sure Scott and I would have stayed together had I gone to Toronto that year without him. That's a pretty huge deal.
The last line in the story of the burning hut is - "Remember next time your little hut is burning to the ground - it just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of God."
All humans are equipped with an inner GPS, an inner wisdom, an inner connection to the grace of God that moves in some pretty interesting and mysterious ways. I notice this wisdom and connection the most in times when I think my hut is burning down. It's constantly fascinating what shows up next and what I'm guided to do in those times. Especially when I get quiet and settled in my mind and being.
We are often spontaneously moved to take certain actions that don't seem to have much of a reason until looking back. Other times events and circumstances just line up in a way that seemingly has nothing to do with us. Our ship arrives. What I've learned is that humans just do better with less on their mind. When we show up relatively clear, things start to happen. Problems start to look less like problems. A lot of issues clear up on their own. Nature takes over and we are guided to inspired action when needed.
It's not that you have to be happy when your hut is burning down, just more watchful and waitful (if waitful is even a word!).
See what happens next.
I Choose NOW
I Choose NOW
Hi all! Nancy here. In case you’ve forgotten (or didn’t know), I am Dr. Sara’s Office Manager. I’ve taken over the blog this week!
As many of you will know, Dr. Sara has always been big on books that inspire and impart knowledge. She recently shared with me It’s That Simple - A User’s Manual For Human Beings, by Mavis Karn. Rather than chapters, this book is a series of letters to the reader. The other day, I just picked it up, set the intention to find something I needed to know, opened it to a page, and started reading. The chapter, or letter, that I came upon was “Letter Thirteen – In Praise of Now”. Wow! It was exactly what I needed to read!
Do you ever find yourself worrying or fantasizing about the future? What about reliving past experiences? I think most of us do it at some time. What this letter highlighted was that there is no past or future. There is only NOW. What we call the past or the future is just a collection of thoughts we have, either memory or imagination. And those thoughts are not always accurate, to say the least! The only real moment is now. That is the only time that exists. Mavis says “it is only ever NOW”.
So why does this matter to me so much? As I get older (and wiser) I don’t want to waste the time I have. I don’t want to feel the “woulda-shoulda-coulda” of the past. Those memories are just what I can recall of something that happened or didn’t based on what I knew at the time. I did the best I could with what I had. I also don’t want to feel anxious about the future or think “it will be great when…” Why does something else have to happen for me to feel complete or happy? What if that thing or event doesn’t ever happen?
Mavis says this early in the letter:
“So if we are the experiencer – the creator or our own thought by thought experience of our life and the author of our every moment – the most important question we can ask ourselves is simply this:
How do you want to feel (experience) NOW?”
It isn’t always easy to stay in the NOW. Even though now is our default state (you don’t see babies worrying about the future), external things pull our attention away from it. We get sucked into the vortex of social media, other people’s opinions, etc. We can choose differently. We choose where we put our attention, what we create. When we remember that the past and future aren’t real and that in this moment, we are just fine and whole, worry and anxiety dissipate.
I don’t know about you, but this feels a lot freer – and that’s exactly how I want to live my life. How do you want to experience your life? You get to choose. Choose wisely.
If you’re interested, below is the full letter from Mavis. And if you’re really interested, you can find her book on Amazon!
In Light and Love,
Nancy
Letter Thirteen
___________________________
IN PRAISE OF NOW
Dear reader,
Let’s do some simple math regarding time. If the past is made up of memory (stored thought) and the future is made up of imagination (dreamed thought), then the only time that has any reality to it is NOW. Which means that it is always NOW, it will never in your lifetime be any other time than NOW, and we can only ever experience NOW.
So if we are the experiencer – the creator of our own thought by thought experience of our life and the author of our every moment – the most important question we can ask ourselves is simply this:
How do you want to feel (experience) NOW?
We are often advised to “be present in the moment” as if there were actually any alternative available to us. For example, when I was a very young girl, my father was in the armed services in the war in Europe. One day someone mentioned it was already Tuesday where my dad was, so I asked if we could call him so he could tell us what happened. Everyone laughed, but no one explained to me why that plan wasn’t likely to work out.
It took a few years, but I get it now. It is always the same NOW everywhere. It is always just NOW. And NOW is always enough. So why don’t we just stay here and live from moment to moment?
I suspect it’s because like with most habits, leaving the present to hang out in the past or future seems reasonable to us. To begin highlighting the faulty thinking behind those reasons, I’d like to share some thoughts I have about “the past”.
It seems to me that we don’t really realize that the past doesn’t even exist outside of our own minds. What we call “the past” is a collection of memories that, more often than not, are inaccurate and incomplete. It is a blend of spotty thinking, revised facts, selective editing, blatant falsehoods, and unconscious fantasies.
Our pasts are stories stored in our memory banks about the best we (and everyone else) knew to be possible at the time they happened. This is the simple truth. Nobody could do better until they knew better. It is also true of NOW. We are doing the best we know to be possible, moment by moment. And when we know better, we will do better.
I think it would be really, really helpful if we all understood that about ourselves and others. It explains everything. It is why we cannot have a better childhood, and it is why we need to stop telling ourselves we can’t enjoy life NOW until some mythical moment in time when our pasts never happened.
The same thing is true about the future. For example, many years ago I was at a family gathering, sitting in a rocking chair with a relative’s newborn daughter in my arms. It was a lovely, soothing feeling to just look at her and marvel at her perfect tininess.
I began overhearing some snippets of conversations nearby:
• “Won’t it be nice when she sleeps through the night?”
• “Just wait until she starts smiling – that’s the best!”
• “I bet you’ll be glad when you can wear your regular clothes again!”
• “Won’t she be lovely when she grows some hair?”
Unwittingly, everyone was creating subtle dissatisfaction with NOW by focusing on how much better things would be in an imaginary future. Then it occurred to me that I did the same thing on a regular basis, using phrases like “I can hardly wait until…”, “Won’t it be nice when…”, “I wish___ would be over so that ___ can start happening”, etc.
Isn’t that an interesting habit of using one’s thinking?
Since NOW is the only time that actually exists, it seems a shame to waste it by always wanting to trade it for something better in an imaginary future.
If you are anything like me, keeping your attention on NOW has been an elusive task at times. But the good news is, leaving NOW to get lost in the remembered past or imagined future is just a habit. That means we can catch ourselves at it in any moment and come straight back home to NOW.
The more clearly I see this, the more I notice myself and others doing so naturally, without effort. I see that we were all born with the present moment as our default state, and just got slowly, innocently, incrementally educated away from hanging out there.
This is as true in our actions as it is in our thinking. There is an ancient Taoist concept known as “Wu Wei” which roughly translates as “effortless action” or “spontaneity”.
This is the state of mind babies and small children exist in most of the time. It is also a good description of “the zone”. Most athletes I have known, both personally and professionally, are well acquainted with “the zone”, as are artists, musicians, scientists, writers, and anyone else who periodically finds themselves completely absorbed in something beyond themselves.
“The zone” has been described as a feeling of timelessness, a “no-thought” sensation, a sense of complete well-being and responsiveness where we have everything instantly available for the task at hand.
Most of us tend to believe that this seemingly magical state of flow is only available in a specific activity or set of circumstances, and even then only sporadically, appearing out of the blue when we least expect it. But what if “The zone” is portable? What if it’s experienceable any time, anywhere by simply getting out of the way and allowing ourselves to fully experience whatever it is that we are doing NOW?
Can you see that means we are only ever one busy-headed moment away from being in “the zone” and experiencing flow NOW?
Could it be that simple?
Love,
Mavis
Your Impeccable Word
Your Impeccable Word
The following is an excerpt from The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.
It's the first part of the First Agreement where he speaks about being impeccable with your word.
He later defines impeccability as "not going against yourself" with the creative power of your word.
I have worked with many people over the years (23 years, to be more exact) with chronic pain and other acutely painful mental health diagnoses. One hundred percent of these people told me (without me expressly asking) that they were very "hard on themselves". On further digging, I realized that all of these people were actually truly horrible to themselves with their internal "word". They constantly "went against themselves" and created a hell on their earth and especially in their bodies. We have the power with our word to create our heaven or our hell.
Be Impeccable with Your Word
The first agreement is the most important one and also the most difficult one to honor. It is so important that with just this first agreement you will be able to transcend to the level of existence I call heaven on earth.
The first agreement is to be impeccable with your word. It sounds very simple, but it is very, very powerful.
Why your word? Your word is the power that you have to create. Your word is the gift that comes directly from God. The Gospel of John in the Bible, speaking of the creation of the universe, says, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word is God.” Through the word you express your creative power. It is through the word that you manifest everything. Regardless of what language you speak, your intent manifests through the word. What you dream, what you feel, and what you really are, will all be manifested through the word.
The word is not just a sound or a written symbol. The word is a force; it is the power you have to express and communicate, to think, and thereby to create the events in your life. You can speak. What other animal on the planet can speak? The word is the most powerful tool you have as a human; it is the tool of magic. But like a sword with two edges, your word can create the most beautiful dream, or your word can destroy everything around you. One edge is the misuse of the word, which creates a living hell. The other edge is the impeccability of the word, which will only create beauty, love, and heaven on earth. Depending upon how it is used, the word can set you free, or it can enslave you even more than you know. All the magic you possess is based on your word. Your word is pure magic, and misuse of your word is black magic.
The word is so powerful that one word can change a life or destroy the lives of millions of people. Some years ago, one man in Germany, by the use of the word, manipulated a whole country of the most intelligent people. He led them into a world war with just the power of his word. He convinced others to commit the most atrocious acts of violence. He activated people’s fear with the word, and like a big explosion, there was killing and war all around the world. All over the world humans destroyed other humans because they were afraid of each other. Hitler’s word, based on fear-generated beliefs and agreements, will be remembered for centuries.
The human mind is like a fertile ground where seeds are continually being planted. The seeds are opinions, ideas, and concepts. You plant a seed, a thought, and it grows. The word is like a seed, and the human mind is fertile, but only for those kinds of seeds it is prepared for. What is important is to see which kind of seeds our mind is fertile for, and to prepare it to receive the seeds of love.
Take the example of Hitler: He sent out all those seeds of fear, and they grew very strong and beautifully achieved massive destruction. Seeing the awesome power of the word, we must understand what power comes out of our mouths. One fear or doubt planted in our mind can create an endless drama of events. One word is like a spell, and humans use the word like black magicians, thoughtlessly putting spells on each other.
Every human is a magician, and we can either put a spell on someone with our word or we can release someone from a spell. We cast spells all the time with our opinions. An example: I see a friend and give him an opinion that just popped into my mind. I say, “Hmmm! I see that kind of color in our face in people who are going to get cancer.” If he listens to the word, and if he agrees, he will have cancer in less than one year. That is the power of the word.
Have fun observing where you "go against yourself" and experiment with being "impeccable with your word".
A few spots are left this weekend for our Immersion Day. Let Nancy know if you would like to join us.
Love,
Dr. Sara
Stress is Not a Thing
Stress is Not a Thing
Following on with how we use the energy of Thought and how we design our lived reality using three fundamental universal principles, stress doesn’t actually exist. Outside of our thinking.
We’ve made it up. I know! I’ve been telling people for years how stress is negatively affecting them and how it’s a real thing! Doesn’t stress cause 95% of all disease? Or something like that.
Dr. Kelly McGonigal, Stanford lecturer and health scientist, surprised everyone by talking about research showing that “stress” only has a detrimental effect if you think the life event is stressful. What? Confused yet? If it’s “stress” isn’t it inherently stressful? Well apparently, only if you think it is. This really bugged me for a long time.
She advocates thinking positively about stressful situations and reframing them. I see that it goes deeper than putting a positive spin on things.
If you dump a bucket of ice water over someone’s head, they are likely to yell at you and get upset and tense up in their body. Over time with repeated situations where you tense up, your body develops biomechanical compensations and eventually pain.
However, if you dump a bucket of ice water over someone’s head at the beach on a hot day, they are likely to enjoy it and find it invigorating or refreshing. You may get thanked or you might even get a bucket over your head! There is no negative effect with the same ice water bucket happening when it's fun rather than traumatic.
My point is that different people respond to different situations or circumstances differently. If a situation was inherently stressful, all humans would respond the same way all the time. But we don’t. Our experience is variable.
What is stress? Stress is a feeling. Usually a spinning, overwhelmed, tight tension feeling. Maybe related to or the same as anxiety or overwhelm.
Around Christmas last year, I started to see something odd about stress. I’d always taken for granted or assumed that stress is part of life and affects everyone to greater or lesser degrees. There is a list floating around, for a long time now, of life stresses ranked from worst on down. In case you were feeling pretty good about your life, you can look up how many of these events had occurred in your life in the past year. Then you would know that you were actually stressed out. Unbeknownst to you!
I began to notice that “stress” is variable. One person may not find the same thing stressful as someone else. You may not find the same situation stressful depending on the day. How is this so if stress is so universal? If it's supposed to be a real thing?
I’ve learned that if my response to something is variable then my feeling is caused by my thinking in the moment rather than some inherent stressfulness of the external event.
I started experimenting with my lived experience.
First, I looked at what I mean by stress. What is it when I feel "stressed out”? For me, it meant a sense of spinning thoughts that built up into more and more negativity and a feeling of overwhelm. I don't have enough time or I can't do everything.
We generally use the word stress to describe a sense of tension in the body, pressure or overwhelm. As I noticed my response to different day-to-day life situations, it became obvious to me that “stress” doesn’t actually exist.
I started noticing that stress is a body signal that we are caught up in our unhelpful thinking.
We live in the feeling of our thinking. Not the feeling of any circumstance or situation. Everything that happens outside of us is a neutral happening until we have a thought. Recognizing this, as we do it, allows for a neutral experience. Stress only exists in our thinking.
My New Year’s resolution this year is to live without stress. So far, it’s going wonderfully.
Love,
Dr. Sara
P.S. Join us to experience an exploration of living from Inner Wisdom. It's April 15th, 2023, from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm in New Hamburg. Lunch is provided.
Register with Nancy at frontdesk@drsaraoneill.com or 519-880-0003 by April 6.
The Rapture of Being Alive
The Rapture of Being Alive
I love that phrase - “the rapture of being alive”. It's from a Joseph Campbell quote. He's an American author and sociologist who is maybe most famous for saying to follow your bliss.
"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning of life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive."
For me, the feeling of being alive is a tingling along my skin on the outside of my arms. Then over my whole body and out into the air around me. The air feels like little sparkling bubbles. It's exquisite. Then I feel a spreading warmth in my chest. The warm feeling spreads out along my arms. It feels like love. This is the feeling of being alive. I am connected to my own sense of aliveness. It's really interesting that people can feel being alive. An electricity that runs through our whole body and enlivens our cells. It is us. And it animates us.
In this space, I also feel ultimate secureness. My body relaxes. There is no need to be anything or to get anywhere. There is no need to defend anything. This is our default state as humans.
I realized fairly recently that from this state I can have any experience of any emotion and be in ultimate secureness. I can feel the rapture of being alive during any and all circumstances because it's me and I never go away from myself. I only make up in my thinking, sometimes, that something can hurt me or make me angry. You cannot lose yourself.
At our upcoming Immersion Day on April 15th, we are going to be exploring this feeling of being alive and the feeling of being you in much more depth. What does it feel like for different people? How do you experience the rapture of being alive? What did Joseph Campbell know that I don't? What does it mean to live in our natural state versus our normal state? How do I know if I am there or "off"? What if I just want a nicer experience or life without stress?
Immerse yourself in the rapture of being alive.
To join us, call Nancy at 519-880-0003 or email frontdesk@drsaraoneill.com. Space is limited. Only 10 spots remaining!
Love,
Dr. Sara Joy
The Feeling of Who You Are
The Feeling of Who You Are
There is a space inside each of us that is who we are. It's actually who we are all the time. It is a space of warm love, compassion, generosity, and peace. From this place we are all infinitely creative, effective, clear-minded, and calm. No exceptions. We are all fundamentally ok. We don't have to get anywhere or do anything. We are not broken. There is nothing to learn to be a better version of ourselves and we don't have to let go of anything.
This is the basis of why entrainments work so well. My light touches along the spine get your mind and your brain to self-observe in a way that allows you to shift from habitual thoughts or a habitual postural way of being into your fundamental nature. Your body unwinds itself.
This is also the basis of transformative coaching. We point people to their own inner peace and wisdom, to their health, to what is already working. People can then have an experience of who they really are without any filters of thought. We then explore the possibility of living from this space and having a life that inspires you.
I have found for myself the more time I consciously spend in the feeling of me, the more my body relaxes, then renews and repairs itself. Things from previous injuries that weren't supposed to be able to heal are healing. Huh. Cool stuff.
We are made to be powerful.
The upcoming Immersion Day 2023 is a retreat from our usual habits of self to explore who we are and what new possibilities for ourselves arise. To immerse in your peace within and what that space feels like uniquely for you. Do you want more energy? More rest? To completely trust in your self and your ability to follow your knowing. How to discern which nudgings to listen to and which ones are just a low mood speaking.
Join with us to experience this space within from a few different perspectives. It's April 15th, 2023, 9:30 am to 4:30 pm. There will be a delicious organic lunch. All in the countryside in New Hamburg.
Register with Nancy at frontdesk@gmail.com or 519-880-0003 by April 6.
We are opening the Immersion Day up this year to people who are not already practice members, so if you have a friend or family member interested let us know.
Love,
Dr. Sara
The Principles Behind Life
The Principles Behind Life
When I work with people as a transformative coach, we look at and explore the impact in our lives of three universal principles: Mind, Thought, and Consciousness.
I'm finding that when a person is familiar with how they construct perceived or experienced reality for themselves, things like stress, tension, indecision, insecurity, anxiety, chronic pain, and suffering just don't exist. This is a BIG statement. Our society today is filled with messaging about how "stress" is the cause of 95% of disease (Mayo Clinic), and how everybody has "anxiety", and how young people have incurable depression, and how our veterans are being offered medical assistance in dying due to intractable PTSD. I'm not making light of any of these experiences as I know they make life a living hell. The experience of these feelings doesn't exist outside of a person's thinking. This is empowering as all get out. Here's why...
First described by Canadian mystic and philosopher, Sydney Banks, the three principles are an understanding of how humans construct their lived experience.
"The Universal Mind or impersonal mind is constant and unchangeable. The personal mind is in a perpetual state of change. All humans have the inner ability to synchronize their personal mind with their impersonal mind to bring harmony into their lives."
The founder of chiropractic, Daniel David Palmer, said that the purpose of chiropractic is to synchronize universal intelligence with the body's innate intelligence. Connecting the wisdom of all there is (Nature, Universal energy, God, the force out there that grows a tulip...) to the inborn intelligence in us (the energy that beats our hearts and breathes our lungs).
Mind can be described as our spark within, our inner light. It is the source behind all things in life: everything seen, felt, and experienced. Everyone has access to this innate wisdom. The spark inside that guides us naturally, sometimes called intuition or common sense.
"Thought is the creative agent we use to direct us through life. Thought is the master key that opens the world of reality to all living creatures. Thought is not reality; yet it is through Thought that our realities are created."
Thought is our creative power in the world to evaluate, imagine, and remember. Habitual thinking and planning, deciding what to have for lunch, and worrying are all examples of our use of Thought. Unlike many teachings around thinking and our thoughts, the focus is not on positive or negative thinking, but rather on the fact that we, as human beings, were created with the free will to create our reality through our thinking.
"Consciousness is the gift of awareness. Consciousness allows the recognition of form, form being the expression of Thought. Mental health lies within the consciousness of all human beings, but it is shrouded and held prisoner by our own erroneous thoughts. This is why we must look past our contaminated thoughts to find the purity and wisdom that lies inside our own consciousness."
Consciousness is the awareness and experience of life around us, our personal life, personal thoughts and our access to our spark inside, our inner wisdom.
"No one, but no one, can ever explain intellectually what Universal Consciousness really is. Yet, as thinking human beings, we use this magnificent gift every day of our lives. It's a gift that enables us to experience the existence of creation." Sydney Banks, The Enlightened Gardner.
All of us, as human beings, use these three fundamental principles to create our moment-to-moment experience of life. Misuse or misunderstanding of how they work creates problems. This innocent misuse shows up as dysfunction in the body, stiffness in the spine, physical symptoms, tiredness, exhaustion, stress, anxiety, mental health dysfunction, and many other manifestations.
Stay tuned for "Stress is Not a Thing"
Love, Dr. Sara
Body Signals
Body Signals
We, as interesting, fascinating, dynamic, smart human beings, quite often ignore signals coming from our bodies. In the ignoring of information and timing of needed behaviours we can run into problems. I started noticing the category of "body signals" about 6 months ago and found, to my surprise, that there are a lot of signals from our bodies and I was ignoring or putting off many of them.
I started being curious with noticing more and then taking the obvious action straight away without thinking about it.
People have been increasingly telling me how they are fatigued and tired. I would tell them to rest. Generally, this recommendation is met with a range of negativity from "that's ridiculous, I'll rest when I'm dead" to "well, I wish I could rest, and here are all the reasons I can't". Rest is also different from sleep.
I started to pay attention to "Do I rest enough during the day?" or am I going from task to task at top possible speed like a mad woman?
The answer was some of both.
The first step, though, was to recognize my body's signal for "Hey! You need a rest". Human beings aren't designed to go, go, go until we drop. It's part of why many people feel overwhelmed much of the time.
Overwhelm is the mental equivalent of peeing your pants.
When you are little and learning to notice your body's signal for going pee or the signal for "I have to poop", there's a natural process of having accidents. We see the consequences of not listening to the signal for pee. And we learn to pay attention to those signals.
In exactly the same way, we have a signal for rest.
In my experiment to become more sensitive to my need for rest or taking a break during the day, I started to notice the feeling earlier and earlier. There was no longer a need for overwhelm (a loud alarm) and I was more productive in less time. Also, I started sleeping better at night when the rest-o-meter was kept in good balance during the day.
As I do, I got curious.
I noticed that there are a lot of body signals. Some I was listening to and some not. I found that the day flowed more and more smoothly the quicker I took action on these signals.
I was ignoring the signal to go pee! Like a little kid, I wanted to do just one more task or "oh in a minute". As if going to the bathroom takes a long time!
I was good with the thirst signal for the most part. Sipping water all day. When I paid attention, I realized that every time I felt a bit thirsty, I reached for the water bottle. I rarely ever got very thirsty or dehydrated.
I am a champion at ignoring hunger. And then I get grumpy or have a hard time focusing. You're hungry silly! Eating a bit fixes that up.
Another big one is the feeling of stress or tension in the body. It's actually the signal for "you're overthinking". I'm coming to the understanding that stress doesn't actually exist. It's only a body signal, like having to pee, that tells us to correct our current action. Wind ourselves down.
I asked my daughter if she could think of any others. Here are her additions to the list:
Feeling the need to move one's body
Feeling the need to be around people and friends
Cuteness aggression (this is an 11-year-old girl thing)
See what you notice for yourself: What body signals are you good at paying attention to and which are you ignoring? Then if you are up for an experiment, see what happens if you stop ignoring your body signals. Or just notice them more.
More later on how stress is not a thing. And much more on rest and sleep.
Does Anything Need to be Done?
Does Anything Need to Be Done?
After writing about pain and its meanings last week, I noticed myself having a lot of conversations about pain in the office this week. Ha! Of course.
I began to see deeper into pain as part of our healing response or part of our body's innate health and repair systems. I also saw that "pain" can be broadened in this context to include uncomfortable feelings or emotions we don't like. Also, tiredness or fatigue fits into this category.
Hmmm. "Tell me more Dr. Sara," you say. Lol.
With many healing approaches including Spinal Entrainments and also including resting in our true nature, the body starts to wake up as it lets go of tension and tightness.
When an area of the body has been functioning in a defense mode for a while (longer than a day) and it starts to let go, your brain registers this change and can more accurately assess what is going on in that body area. You get real-time feedback. This is the deeper power of opening up.
You can more accurately "see" reality as it is.
Your own body can then decide "Does anything more need to be done?". Often the answer is "Not right now" - just continue the process of letting go and releasing tension. Let the brain and body synchronize to unwind. This process may create uncomfortable sensations because your brain will be registering all the tightness that is still there and figuring out how to heal it.
Your own deeper wisdom is the most important voice to listen to. I can give information or what I know from working with lots of people for lots of years. However, your quiet voice of knowing knows.
Hint: This voice is always neutral and usually quiet. If you are feeling scared, angry, or anxious, don't listen.
As people's bodies start to open up and get back to their natural fluidity with entrainments, with sitting in a space of "no thought", it can start to hurt here and there. Or some people feel exhausted. This is like a detox. It takes energy. Sometimes a cellular replacement process needs to complete.
When people have been low on sleep and they start to get better sleep again, they invariably feel tired when they wake up. This is how you know you've switched from being chronically unrested to getting back to being rested. When you have replenished your "rested" tank or reserve again, you'll wake up feeling rested and refreshed. It takes longer than you want it to.
These are all examples of how the body goes through the process of opening up, letting go, and beginning to heal.
In a space of relaxation, you can neutrally ask yourself, "Does anything more need to be done?" and see what comes up and how that feels.
Pain Doesn't Mean Worse
Pain Doesn't Mean Worse
I've noticed over the years and much more lately that people usually think pain means "worse".
And better means less pain.
I started to look at pain with curiosity: what is happening when we have pain? What does pain mean, in general? What meanings do people put on a painful sensation? How does that affect the experience in your body?
Before reading all the way down, do the following experiment for yourself.
Either with a current pain or a remembered pain, what does pain mean to you?
If your neck or back or elbow starts hurting without an obvious cause, e.g., you didn't stub your toe, what does that generally mean to you?
Wait to see all the answers that come up. Some may surprise you.
Is there a time component to pain for you? Ignore it or must handle immediately?
Does it mean anything about you as a person?
What about intensity or quality? If more intense and sharper, does that change how you think about it?
In all my years of wondering and researching about pain, there are two main causes or reasons for pain:
1) Our healing response in the body uses the inflammation biochemistry pathways to lay down new cells and get rid of old damaged cells.
This causes pain. It's adaptive to modify your use of a body part while it's healing. Pain and swelling slow you down and give your body the opportunity to repair.
An easy example of this is a torn tendon or broken bone. The actual injury or torn tissue in the body never hurts. Sometimes this is counterintuitive. The pain comes when the body begins the repair process. With a broken bone, this process begins pretty quickly with swelling to immobilize the injury so then the bones can knit back together. The inflammation rises and it hurts - a lot. In this case, pain means your body is healing itself. Same with a torn tendon. And it's the same with any pain that I could think of. Musculoskeletal pain, cancer pain, arthritis, everywhere your body is working to lay down new cells and heal.
2) Pain is immensely useful for getting your attention.
When your body is getting tired and worn out from too much thinking, it will become painful. We aren't designed to use thinking in the ways that we do or to use it for very long at one time.
This is a really clever and smart design of the body. Your attention comes off of your thinking and onto the body sensation. The thinking no longer exists and your body can relax and return to its natural default state.
Peacefulness.
Commonly, people just don't allow long enough to focus on the sensation of their body before the next whirlwind of thoughts. Many of these thoughts might be the answers to the above questions about pain. Returning one's focus to the actual sensation allows your body to rest. The pain can then dissipate. You may then experience some of the first type of pain if your body needs to heal on a tissue and cellular level. This will feel much less though, without any thinking about it.
A quote from the Sufi poet Rumi comes to mind as I write this:
"Leave thinking to the one who gave intelligence.
In Silence, there is eloquence. Stop weaving,
and watch how the pattern improves."
– Rumi