We are Stardust! (Healing the Individual)

Our bodies are incredible. Each holds our individual story of who we are. Modern Western Medicine has only barely begun to tap this concept. Science is only now discovering a link between the brain and our immune and lymphatic system. (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/important-link-between-the-brain-and-immune-system-found/)

For all of our modern science and technology there is so little we don't understand about the body and how it deals with trauma - mental, physical and emotional. We are still learning how the sympathetic nervous system, parasympathetic nervous system and stress affect our physical body's healing process. Yet, Eastern medicine understands that the physical body is intimately connected with our mind, emotions and our spiritual body. Western medicine - tends to treat the symptoms - often without treating the underlying reason of how we got the way we are. My personal experience with muscle and myofascial pain has not responded much to Western medicine, which prescribes physical therapy, drugs, injections and surgery as treatment. Drugs cause all kinds of other side effects and do not treat the source of the pain. Physical therapy usually only goes so far to help us repattern movements. A combination of therapies has worked best for me - chiropractic, massage, acupuncture and craniosacral therapy - and now dynamic body balancing. I want to be clear that I am not bashing Western medicine - it definitely has an important place in wellness. We have made incredible strides and advancements in our treatment of illnesses like cancer and heart disease. But, I feel Western medicine works best when applied in conjunction with additional Eastern/alternative methods of therapy. Addressing nutritional needs with a naturopath and using meditation and body work as you recover from cancer treatment can assist the body's healing process towards wholeness especially as it recovers from surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. One of the reasons I am drawn to yoga therapy is that it works on the body as a whole, based on the 5 "koshas" (or energy sheaths - according to Vedantic philosophy). Annamayakosha (the physical body) Pranamayakosha (the breath body), Manomayakosha (psycho/emotional body), Vijnanamayakosha (wisdom body), Anandamayakosha (bliss/spiritual body). "The five kosha model describes the person as multidimensional, with the source and foundation of the person being the spiritual dimension. By using the five koshas as a starting point, yoga therapy addresses every level of the person individually and as an integrated whole." (From Joseph LePage's Integrative Yoga Therapy Professional Yoga Therapist manual, p 1.10). I went to see a practitioner of Dynamic Body Balancing today which utilizes gentle chiropractic techniques, functional movement therapy, craniosacral and myofascial release techniques to assist the body in going back through past trauma and releasing it to become whole again. Blockages in the body are released to allow nerve signals from the brain to get through to the body and vice versa. I went for my shoulder and neck issues and found imbalances in my feet (which I knew about - I am a severe pronator) and pelvis. I left feeling much better, (not cured - but better - it IS a process) and my body feeling like a new person (or like the new "old" me - before the many injuries I have had in my life - from falls to major car accidents that have left my body holding onto trauma and compensating by creating new holding patterns so I can find balance, albeit a false sense of balance). There is more work to be done, and I look forward to continuing to heal on this journey.

I left with a renewed respect for the complexity of my body's nervous system and the function of ALL our body systems together. We are truly light bodies - bodies of light. We are Stardust! (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/01/150128-big-bang-universe-supernova-astrophysics-health-space-ngbooktalk/) When we turn inward to seek answers instead of outward - there is so much we can learn. Of course it is a process - a journey - that typically requires the assistance/guidance of healers and experts to help us on our journey towards wholeness. Because our bodies all hold different stories - the same treatment cannot be applied randomly to each individual suffering from the same symptoms....The individual must be examined and SEEN. What is their body story? What trauma have they experienced over their lifetime and how has it affected their body? It may take time to fully reveal itself.