A reader recently mentioned the work of Irene Lyon, a specialist in somatic (body) healing. When we’re unable to fully process a traumatic experience, that stress may be stored in the physiology. Even if it’s only stored energetically, it’s next to the physical body and thus prone to affect it. Many chronic issues directly relate to unresolved trauma.
“…pretty much ALL chronic and mental illness can be connected to dysregulation of the nervous system and unresolved traumatic stress.”
– Irene Lyon
As she notes, the key in healing is becoming more present and aware of our body and our emotional state. As there is often a backlog, this can be challenging at first, even like poking a hornet’s nest. However, as we experience and process what surfaces, the pressure and load ease and our quality of life improves.
“Research has found that helping individuals expand their emotional vocabulary can help them regulate their emotions more effectively.” (Irene Lyon) This, because being able to name how we feel helps make them more conscious. And that allows the feelings to be experienced and resolved. But note that concepts about emotions are not emotions and will not help process them.
Of course, I recommend an effortless meditation, as transcendence has the major benefit of loosening up stress and allowing it to dissolve away. However, it alone will not clear all deep-rooted stress that we’re habitually suppressing. Some hard nuts require direct action.
If you’ve been meditating awhile, it’s likely that you have cleared a lot of the backlog. But old karma, ancestral trauma, and collective issues can still surface in the experience. This is because some of it is scheduled. Understanding the basics of how to be with purification and to allow it to complete becomes very valuable.
If you’ve had a rough life with more trauma, you may find her work particularly valuable.
Here is a sample of her videos:
Trauma is not in the event, but the nervous system
How Stored Trauma Creates Somatic Symptoms
What it looks like to Process Survival Stress
Davidya
❤
Thanks again, Michael.
“…our bodies do know how to heal. We just have to have the capacity and the regulation on board to allow healing to happen, organically.
Where we struggle is not in a lack of resources or information in either area, it is in our amnesia to truth and what deep, systemic human and global health is all about.”
“…a lot of our chronic symptoms are nestled deep in neurobiological and survival patterns that can’t be hunted down in a single remedy.
Therefore, I suggest you consider leaving the quick fixes aside (for now at least) and simply focus on building your capacity. ”
– recent newsletter