Is your mind & body living in the pain of the past? Past experiences, especially traumatic experiences, can create memories that are stored in the tissues and cells of the body. The body has it's own memory and acts and responds accordingly. The term "second nature" often refers to the fact that our body knows how to do something without our minds even having to think about it. What do I mean by this?
Well, let's take, for instance, the daily act of eating breakfast - you put food in your mouth, you taste, you chew, you swallow, your stomach digests, etc. Most people can focus on other things while doing this such as reading, planning the day, texting, or day dreaming,... Your autonomic nervous system takes care of most of the physical act while your mind is "elsewhere."
You can probably think of many autonomic or automatic actions your body performs every day. If you are fairly good at typing/keyboarding, for example, your fingers know where the keys are without looking at them. But if you were asked to describe the keyboard to someone or tell them where the letter "P" is, you will probably have to think about your fingers on the keyboard and take a moment to visualize this in order to reply. This is the memory of your body, and it is this memory that usually controls us by becoming a habit. A habit becomes a subconscious, hardwired program.
But what about the conscious or unconscious habits that are not so good?
The good news it that these programs can be re-written, they can be upgraded. Changing synapses in the brain (rewiring), can be as easy as witching up simple things - like changing the hand you usually use to brush your teeth, which foot you automatically put under the other when you sit cross legged on the floor.
The more difficult changes come when we try to alter the negative emotional responses that have become a habit for us.
Why is change so difficult?
Our feelings are the result of the nervous system releasing chemicals and hormones into the body. These feelings create an emotion and when this happens repeatedly, these emotions can define us.
Who would you like to be?
Feelings of gratitude, love, and joy can cause the body to release “feel good” hormones such as dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin.
These hormones and chemicals are beneficial to the body and have been scientifically proven to give the brain and body an upgrade – a healing. Not only that, we are happy, engaging and pleasant to be around. People may even be drawn to us, as this is the magnetic field we create from our hearts.
On the flip side - feelings of anger, fear, resentment, or judgement can cause us to react unfavorable in some situations. Even if we know that how we are responding is not the best way to be, not our "best self," we may say that "I just cannot control it" or "I just can't stop myself."
When the human body and brain perceive a threat (real or imagined), it reacts from it’s past programming of similar threats and automatically goes into defense mode (fight, flight or freeze response). The body starts to produce adrenaline, cortisone, and norepinephrine and begins to assign a reason for this response – which is our perception of the event happening at the time. This experience could be physical or emotional, or it could be a threat to our ego, or our sense of autonomy. Our bodies are designed to survive.
However, our bodies are not designed to be existing in the hormones of stress long-term. The constant release of these chemicals and hormones results in damage to our cellular structure – our tissues, our organs, the molecules of our physical form. We inevitably develop emotional issues such as anxiety and depression. Mentally and emotionally, we start to become familiar with the feelings of these chemicals in the body and then we become addicted to them. Yes, addicted. Our body no longer knows how to live without stress in our lives and the beliefs we have created about ourselves and others. Suffering begins in the mind.
(See this page - What & Why)
Consciously or unconsciously we have created the life we are living, either by an automatic program that has been created, or by making conscious choices. Now you are probably saying to yourself - "Whaaaaat?! But this thing happened to me, or that person did this to me, and that's why I am this way now." We all have our "story" and you may feel that some stories are more terrible than others, and they may be. But each story can be overcome, and this has been proven time and time again.
Can you continue to live in the pain of your past? Your soul is crying out for change! But how? Where do we begin? The first step is to take responsibility from here on - Moving forward. No more blaming, no more self-pity. Yeah, that's a hard pill to swallow... but it is the only path to true liberation and freedom.
If you really want a better life, you have to create it!
Reach out and let's get the conversation started. You don't have to do it alone.