This is an extract from a new book I am working on, as yet untitled, which will be a compilation of my writing from recent years on different aspects of healing. This extract is from the chapter on the wisdom of the body and the importance of taking a somatic approach to healing:-
“I could write an entire book on this one subject alone as it has been such a central focus of my own healing. I’ve been on a very long and often times painful journey to trying to reconnect my mind, emotions and body, involving going deeply into my body to uncover the source of my pain, and to slowly learn how to avoid repeating such debilitating patterns of somatisation, dissociation and emotional suppression. I am now however, coming out of the other side of this process and this chapter tracks and shares what I’ve learned in regard to the fundamental role of the body in healing.
My own experience has been that I am often led to explore my deeper source of pain via my body and my sense is that this is similar for a lot of people. This isn’t surprising really given the severe cleft in the mind-body connection, severed a few hundred years ago and deepening with each passing year with the fervent advances of science and invasive technologies that further disembody us as a species. No other species on the planet suffers this kind of severance, unless they’ve been severely traumatised by humans in captivity, that is. We are the only species alive which has chosen to denigrate our flesh and to elevate our mind and brain to stratospheric heights. This has left all of us with deep suffering and confusion with regards to our own bodies, leading to widespread levels of trauma, mental illness and dissociative disorders, to name just a few.
It is through the body then that most of us are usually dragged kicking and screaming to finally face our deepest wounds and source of suffering. Often via an accident, illness, chronic inflammation or pain; eventually we have to turn to our beleaguered body and begin to listen to it if we are ever to find some degree of peace and for healing to occur. We have to address our own personal mind-body split and find ways of coming back into our body willingly. We also have to reclaim our body’s wisdom and messages AND change something as a result. We have to begin to learn to honour our flesh and bone and to care for our body like never before. This is a particularly onerous task if our primary care-giver, usually our mother, had her own major wound in this regard, as most mothers do, being the recipients of their own mother’s disembodiment and the cultural milieu.
And so it is for me, and why much of what I write about my own personal healing journey involves the body one way or another.
This is a very challenging task, but it is also one which is immensely rewarding when we start to change a lifetime of self-abuse and neglect. Where the fruits of this particular labour can be very beautiful indeed, bringing us back fully into the present moment and intimately connected once again with our best friend: our very own body. Bringing us back into what I call "embodied presence" so that we can live fully in each moment with whatever is happening in our lives.”
©Angela Dunning ~ Extract from forthcoming book, untitled at present.
Artwork: ‘’Repose’ by Cheong Soo Pieng via Wikioo.org