How to Heal by Letting Go

I have had my fair share of pitiful and painful moments. Times when all I wanted to do was wallow in my sorrow and feel sorry for myself. I have wallowed in tears and cried in shame. I have lived in fear, and laid buried in blame up to my eyeballs. At times the weight and the heaviness was so intense I could barely lift my body. During those times, I lived in a lot of physical, not just mental anguish.

I have a precious friend who is a PTSD survivor. She was in a horrible car accident and the nerves that control her right arm were severed at her neck. She underwent a difficult surgery to replace those nerves and was told it could be years of physical therapy before she could use her arm. She endured 10 years of 100% of NO IMPROVEMENT before she started to gain feeling in that arm. Ten years of no improvement whatsoever! I cannot imagine the pity parties I would have had I had been her. She writes about her journey in a book that will be published on March 14, 2019. entitled, “Flying Lessons”. She also has a blog by the same title if you want to follow her.

She told me when I asked her how she endured that many years with no improvement, while the pain raged on, that she had to learn again how to love herself again. He biggest ingredient for success was to be kind to herself. Kind. That’s it? Just kindness?

You say, just kindness, but imagine if we woke up every morning and looked in the mirror with kindness and forgiveness for ourselves.

She and I met in yoga class. Yoga was part of her therapy to bring wholeness back to her body and her spirit. She told me she had been to over 352 yoga classes the last year. I’m not sure how we found the same yoga studio, but meeting Angela has been hugely serendipitous for me.

I discovered yoga only after my last child left for college. I am not one to strike out on a new path on my own, but for some reason I did and I went to my first yoga class. I was immediately hooked. Having spent a lifetime in various sports. Yoga was the one ingredient I had been missing. I too became hooked. It was a time for me to tune in and truly learn kindness and gentleness toward myself, and to give my body, and my aches and pain a way to heal and recover from the constant demands on my physical being. Little did I know, if would also heal my mind and my spirit.

The type of yoga studio I go to practices YIN YOGA. Yin is a completely different style of yoga that most have never heard of. Yin involves 3-5 minutes holds, usually flat on ones’ back. It does not involve strength, but does give the body ample time to stretch, release and let go. It relieves stress and tight muscles. It softens connective tissue, the facia. And when the body is open instead of tight and constricted, the body can heal. Facia is the largest organ of our body and it is frequently overlooked. It holds the body today, but it can also hold onto pain and stiffness in places we don’t want it to. Stretching the connective tissue in our bodies allows for space in the largest organ in our bodies.

Giving the body space, and room for the joints to move and open, is tremendously healing. I feel as we grow older our bodies tend to be more and more compact. We have bone on bone and muscles, ligaments and tendons all tend to tighten over time. The body can be very unforgiving. Once injured, it never forgets. It is why so many seniors have trouble moving with any fluidity. The chi, or energy fields, in our bodies can become congested which creates disease and immobility, depression, and sadness.

But the body has a tremendous ability to heal itself when given the right ingredients. Just like Angela’s nerves had to find a new blood supply and grow and heal. It took 10 years of exercise, patience and stamina for her to finally reach a cure. She experienced 10 years of 100% of no improvement whatsoever. Ten years of not being able to move her left arm independently. How does one endure that kind of prolonged absence of any improvement for 10 excruciating years? What makes a person not give up?

Angela had 10 years to trudge through before she saw improvement. What if she had given into the pity and given up on her dream? All would have been lost and she would be a cripple today. She would be miserable and hopeless when her determination was waiting all that time to give her freedom. Angela had a choice. She could be pititful or powerful. I think you know by now which she chose.

You can be pitiful, or powerful, but you can’t be both.

Try making room in your body for the energy of the universe, the Chi, and the Quantum belief that energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only transform. When we transform our bodies, our mind and our spirits must do the same. When we give the body space, we are free to experience new adventures. We will then think and act more creatively and logically. When we are gentler and kinder to ourselves and to others, we empower ourselves and them.

When we are not in pain we are free to give our energy to others in a way that is whole, and true, genuine and sincere.

What will you give space to today?

Be at peace in your body and your mind and heal your soul in the journey.

NAMASTE…..