Issue link: http://www.bodysensemagazinedigital.com/i/879590
10 Body Sense The body has its own intelligence and language-- a sensate, visceral and intuitive language. It continually informs us in a somatic, energetic way about the consequences of our choices on our over-all well- being. It lets us know when the choices we are making are in service to our greater health and happiness or when they are the cause of depletion. One of the facets I often see in my healing work with clients is the need to rebuild trust in that inner guiding system. Our vitality and optimum health depend on both our ability to hear it and to trust what it is trying to communicate. MY CLIENT HELEN I had a client named Helen who lived in a foggy, damp climate on a houseboat on the bay. Her main concern was that she simply could not reconnect with her zest for life. She complained of feeling sluggish and fatigued all the time. Her work as a personal assistant did not bring her joy, and her longtime relationship with her husband had become dull and entrenched in routine. The things that used to replenish her on her days off—gardening and writing—seemed lackluster, and she said she could just as easily curl into bed with her laptop. Friendships took "too much time and energy" and she didn't feel like "putting herself out." After a few minutes of speaking with Helen, we engaged in a guided visualization exercise to help her attune, and listen to her body. It became apparent that she was literally dying for sunlight. Her inner vision took her directly to a warm beach in the summer. She saw herself skipping barefoot on the sand and diving into the cool water with exhilaration. Lying on a bright yellow towel afterward, she imagined what ingredients she might add to a fruit salad. Her towel was a "particular yellow" she said, and she described in detail how her skin soaked up the heat and turned golden brown. It was obvious by the images her psyche chose to show her in the visioning exercise that she needed sunshine, fruit (perhaps certain vitamins), and a particular place and type of activity to feel energized and restore her enthusiasm for life. The vibratory frequency of the particular yellow she described also seemed important to me in resourcing her depleted energy field. After the exercise, we discussed the possibility of a vacation, and she said it wouldn't help, because she would just have to come back home to the same situation. She then gave a list of reasons why it was impractical for her and her husband to consider moving somewhere where the weather better suited her and why they could not change the structure of their lives. Unfortunately, I don't believe her body and energy will be able to come into optimal coherence until those messages are at least heard and addressed. The suggestion for sunlight seemed "too simple" to Helen as a viable first step on the path to improving her well- being. Helen then decided that the symptoms she was having might be from a medical issue and she went to see a doctor for testing. All the tests came back negative, but she knew something still wasn't right. The doctor could not find a technical name for what ailed her, so he gave the diagnosis of depression and a referral to a psychiatrist who suggested she go on an antidepressant. Now she is in the same life circumstances that seem to be exacerbating, if not creating, her condition, but she has been placed on a medication that is muting that discomfort—the very discomfort that Heeding Our Inner Healer By Amrit Rai 10 Body Sense