Why Do I Have to Feel it to Heal it?
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what drives people to turn to holistic medicine. The majority of individuals I see in my practice have arrived at their homeopathic intake with this being sort of their last resort. They’ve tried everything, they feel like the symptoms they’re experiencing have been with them forever. They’ve tried medication to manage the symptoms but when they go off, the symptoms get worse, or the side-effects have become worse than the condition itself. They feel like they’re managing the suffering, but it’s not really going away.
At the core of it, there’s this inner feeling that maybe these symptoms are more than just something that cropped up one day and aren’t going away. It’s as if there is a sense that the condition or the symptom is connected to something deeper. Maybe it’s a chronic headache that feels like it’s connected to stress around work, or chest pain that started after the loss of a loved one. You don’t know why you know what you’re experiencing is connected to something deeper, you just know. Maybe that’s been the case all along, but you don’t know how to make those connections or how to just get some relief.
So you hear the word “holistic” and something deeply resonates. There’s this feeling of “yeah, I knew all of this was connected somehow.” Etymology online defines the word “holism” as “the process of unification of separate parts.” Holistic healing is a process of integration, of bringing all these experiential levels together. It’s this idea that we are more than the sum of our parts. We don’t function like machines, with parts that can just be removed, fixed, replaced. There is something unseen that connects our mind to our body or our spirit to our feelings.
Imagine you are already whole. Your energy body or spirit are connected to your emotions and thoughts, which are also connected to your physical body — the symptoms and sensations you experience. If those levels of being are all connected, then the physical body is a material representation of what is happening on a deeper (energetic) level. Yes, what is happening on the deepest level of you, often subconsciously, is expressed in the body through emotions, sensations, and physical symptoms.
Part of being human means we experience traumas that throw our systems out of balance. These traumas can range from the physical level — like a car accident that happened fifteen years ago — to the spiritual/energetic or mental-emotional level — such as childhood trauma, this is a big one for so many people. In order to survive traumas (from minor to severe), we adapt. When the trauma goes unhealed, it creates a “mistunement” or imbalance on an energetic level, which can result in suffering later on.
Our Life Force or Vital Force — the energetic force that connects and sustains us — communicates through emotions and physical symptoms and sensations. What is it communicating? The location of an original wound, or the root of what is causing our suffering.
In homeopathy, we view all symptoms as an expression of the deepest level of our being. It’s like our deepest self is saying, “Hey! The wound is right here! Can you pay attention to me!?”
But this is where we get tripped up… Because most of the time, those emotions or sensations or physical symptoms, they’re painful. To add to that, as humans, we’re neurologically wired to stay away from pain and discomfort. So what happens is, instead of feeling the uncomfortable emotion or allowing ourselves to fully experience a physical symptom that’s uncomfortable, our brains go “Nope, not going there.” And guess what happens? We suppress the physical sensations and symptoms. Or when it comes to uncomfortable feelings that arise, we pick up our phone and we start scrolling through social media, we use addictions or coping mechanisms to temporarily numb out, or we try to think ourselves out of the emotional pain — by creating a story about it, or intellectualizing our feelings. We go up into our heads, or we numb out, anything to get away from feeling because feeling is uncomfortable or it feels unsafe. The problem with this is that avoiding this discomfort causes us to disconnect from our bodies and our emotions.
Why is this a problem when we’re trying to heal? Because feeling is a portal to the source — the direct connection to the original wound, the root cause. To put it simply, emotions, sensations, symptoms, they exist to be felt. They’re a message from the locus of our suffering telling us what needs our care.
The thing is, for many of us, feeling isn’t that simple. Mostly because being in our body is so deeply uncomfortable or even foreign. The important thing to remember when we are feeling something uncomfortable is that we are safe in our bodies. So sometimes all we need to remind ourselves is, “it’s safe to feel.”
You can practice feeling and getting in touch with your body by doing something I often practice with my clients:
find somewhere you feel safe and comfortable
close your eyes
when feeling a particular emotion or sensation, scan your body, locate where you feel it
inhale and exhale into that space — bring all your attention to that area
observe without judgement — notice if the sensation moves, notice how it feels (is it stinging, burning, aching, dull, sharp, tight, etc.), pay attention to any words or images or colors that arise (it is not uncommon for emotions to come up during this)
stay with it as long as you can
grab a journal or piece of paper, write down what came up for you.
notice how it feels after you gave it your attention
This practice is a great way of getting reconnected with our physical bodies and can also be really helpful in alleviating discomfort. Ultimately, part of healing holistically is reintegrating all levels of being. We’re making conscious connections between our energy, our thoughts, our feelings, and our physical sensations.
What does this have to do with homeopathy?
As a homeopathic practitioner, my aim is try to understand what your Life Force is saying so that I can find a well-suited homeopathic remedy that will stimulate your body’s natural healing response. I don’t treat diseases or diagnoses, I treat people. To gain a holistic understanding of what someone is experiencing, I often ask my clients to describe what they’re experiencing as best as they can. This could be a physical sensation like burning in the chest, or a headache that feels like a nail being driven down from the top of the head — yes, it can get that specific and descriptive! I might ask you what makes it better and what makes it worse. What I ultimately want to know is what you are experiencing as an individual. Then, I take this collection of mental, emotional, and physical symptoms and I find a homeopathic remedy that matches your unique symptom picture. A well-chosen homeopathic remedy stimulates your body’s natural ability to heal. It’s kind of like a gentle nudge to redirect you onto the path of healing. (To learn more about Homeopathy, click here.)
I want to remind you that the root cause of your suffering is not your fault. Being human is an uncomfortable experience. We get sick, we get hurt, we hurt one another, it’s part of being alive as a human being. Giving yourself unconditional love is important in moments of discomfort and especially necessary when we move through the healing process. Remember, that you are divine, you are powerful, you are deserving and you are capable of deep and lasting healing.
Did this resonate with you?
Are you feeling a pull toward healing on a deeper level? Are you feeling stuck or like something is missing but you don’t know what it is? My door is always open! I take clients from all walks of life and from all over the world and I would absolutely love to work with you. Just fill out the form below and we’ll get a conversation started.