Sensations

The body’s sensations can be the key to unlocking chronic stress, anxiety, as well as unresolved traumatic experience. Although these conditions are usually filed under “mental health,” they are also entrenched within the body as expressions of an ancient survival mechanism. However, this survival mechanism can get stuck in an open loop, unable to complete itself. This is when we are left with chronic, recurring symptoms.

Sensations come from these symptoms, and these symptoms come from compressed energy trapped within the nervous system. That energy is what we have to work with. The sensations will give you the way out.

The first step is simply contacting the physical responses to stress and noticing how they live inside your body in a deliberate, manageable way. If we can separate the physical sensations of chronic/extreme stress from our fear of them, we go a long way towards closing and resolving the cycle. Then the trapped energy within the nervous system can be gradually, slowly, and safely discharged. This is the work we do together.

However, we are often taught not to trust our bodies and their sensations, so we override them, which makes us vulnerable to maladaptive coping strategies (distractions, drugs, overeating, overwork, etc.). One of our most valuable and untapped personal resources is learning to work with the sensations associated with our experience; which allows us to align our physical instinct, ancient emotion, and human intellect.