I received a lot of mixed messages about the body in the tradition I evolved from. It was okay to build your body and be healthy, but you shouldn’t be too proud of the edifice. There were also subtle messages about the body being evil and the source of most of our sin. The Scriptures sometimes dismissed it as just a tent or covering for the things that really mattered.
Somehow, feelings and emotions got all lumped into the category of the flesh and the general practice became ignoring most of the physical indicators in our lives. Religiously, we bypassed feelings and emotions because they weren’t trustworthy indicators. Our bodies were just considered sinful and we were hoping for miracles anyway, so we never really engaged in the hard work of examining all of it.
The result is a multitude of wounded, confused people still hoping God will rescue them if they pray long and hard enough or somehow garner His favor. Lately, some have migrated to a hope in the right political party that will also provide a rider on a white horse to liberate them from their misery and frustration. While we searched for magic answers, we may have ignored the solution that was right in front of us all along.
About 100 years ago, Carl Jung proposed the idea that the body, mind, soul, and spirit happen together. I think it is important to remember that even the writers of Scripture, didn’t have some of this understanding we are just now uncovering. The Gnostics and other Christian groups proposed different ideas about body, soul, and spirit; but it never behooves us to lock onto one understanding from one specific time in history. It most always proves detrimental.
In recent years, I have been discovering that trauma from past experiences stores itself in the body. A quick google search will lead you to mountains of evidence and information about this topic. I know of it because I have experienced it. When I encountered my past trauma and found healing from it, I discovered it in my body. Now, when we do focusing sessions with people, the first thing we ask them is “What do you feel, and where do you feel it.” The felt sense of past trauma in the body is a key to unlocking stuck places within us. Ignoring this reality only creates shadow material that will eventually break out and misbehave. I learned much of this from the works of Robert Augustus Masters and my friend Dr. Paul Fitzgerald.
Have you ever wondered why our bodies react to things that aren’t physical, like shame or embarrassment? Why do our faces turn red with anger or flush when we feel shame? The body not only provides information that warns us of other things, but recent information shows that there is an intelligence there, even down to the cellular and subatomic levels. I barely can spell Quantum Physics, but all indications say we’re just getting started in understanding all this.
Of course, our bodies can warn us of impending illness within us, but couldn’t they also warn us of things related to the mind, soul, and spirit? More and more, we are discovering that everything matters, and everything is way more connected that we once thought. This doesn’t invalidate everything that we knew, but it certainly enhances it and makes it much more interesting.
Maybe, you are like me and just need a little proof. Like most things, it seldom helps our journey forward to consult with someone that has their wheels planted in a rut. Talk to people that have experienced real healing and relief from trauma. In my mind, the most effective tool right now is focusing that involves sitting with those parts of us that are stuck and having compassion for them so that we can stop using our past coping skills to deal with modern-day issues.
Mindfulness has been a great vehicle to open us up to modalities that focus us inward, which by the way is where many Sacred Texts says the Kingdom of God is. Once we go inside, we draw closer to the real home of our unfelt trauma, and we can forever stop bypassing and blaming it on demons and get to the real, effective work of healing.
I’ve written a book called “Being” that will be out in January where I share my experience dealing with my trauma and one of the most difficult weeks of my life. I am beginning to find true release from my trauma and a new path forward full of mystery and wonder and excitement! It will also have a companion guide that leads people through a 30-day journey of going deeper and going inward.
I don’t want to tell you how to do your journey, but I do want to encourage you to keep your eyes and ears and heart open. What is really working? What never really worked? Pay attention to your deep intuition and the subtle nudging that you can’t really explain. And, pay attention to your body!
Be where you are, be who you are, be at peace!
Karl Forehand
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