09/03/2022
מה שלא שמדובר, מתנהג.
What is not spoken, is acted out.
I was taught these words by Einat Lev, my עיסוי רחם teacher.
Let's say you're mad at someone. And you don't tell anyone. That anger might not be spoken, but it will be acted out. Your body language will be different when you speak to that person, your tone of voice will be different, maybe it will come out in the way you give, maybe in the way you take- there are all sorts of creative ways for that anger to fester :) And then let's say you have the courage to speak out what is sitting on your heart and feel the pain, whether to that person or someone else. And suddenly you feel free. Your body doesn't have to carry it anymore. Your body doesn't have to say anymore what your mouth could not.
I see this in massage. Sometimes instead of expressing and facing our fears, anxieties, worries, we quiet them and shove them down, for our bodies to hold for us. And that's where they sit. And our bodies will act out the fear, anxieties, worries as tension, stiffness, or pain for example.
A fellow עיסוי רחם therapist told me recently that a women came to her who had stopped getting her period. Every medical test came back normal, and yet she had only received her period once at age 12.
This therapist asked the woman- What would your life look like if you were to get your period?
Not expecting the question, the client was suddenly overwhelmed by fear. She began to tell a story from her childhood connected to certain fears about getting pregnant that she had been carrying for years. She had never realized how afraid she was, let alone formulated it. Once the story was free, she started to ovulate and bleed monthly.
I heard from another massage therapist who was working on a woman who had lost her husband 10 years ago. Her mid back was super stiff and in a lot of pain. The therapist asked her when the pain started. The woman answered- around ten years ago. The therapist asked if she thought it could be connected to her husbands death. When she heard the question, the woman began to the cry. The more she massaged, the more she cried. At the end of the massage, the woman thanked this massage therapist for giving her body a space to mourn and continue moving on.
Now I'm not saying at all that every problem can be freed by speaking out our conscious/subconscious minds or that the fact that your body is acting a certain way means you're holding something in... no, no. I guess more its just that when I heard these story, it did make me pause. This body/soul thing we live in is wild and so deeply connected to each other. And how important it is to find someone with whom it feels safe to greet and meet those secrets we bury deep inside so that we can shine some light of awareness on them. And I pray that עיסוי רחם can continue to be that space for women if they choose.
And I guess to be curious. Just curious. I wonder what my body might be holding there. I wonder if theres something my body wants me to look at. Sometimes just the question is enough.
Just some thoughts. Feel free to agree or disagree. Either way, always love to hear your thoughts if you have any!
