I’ve spent many years using hypnosis to help people prepare for surgery and other medical procedures and I have always been enchanted and heartened by the body’s response to these interventions. The research is wonderful around hypnosis and surgery preparation. It supports the fact that people who have had hypnotic preparation require less pain medication after surgery and have a tendency to heal more quickly.
There is a recognition within the more alternative healing community that the body is, itself, a community of intelligent beings—all the microbes and other critters that live as part of our body’s landscape. What healers know is that the intelligences inherent in our bodies respond to our emotional and mental states, and also respond to the frequency, the energy of love (as well as fear!). In one of the chi gong practices I’ve explored, we are encouraged to send love to any part of the body that has had an injury or that is ill. Often, our awareness tends to leave parts of the body that are hurt and, from an energy point of view, returning our awareness to these parts enhances both circulation and energy flow.
For this week’s practice in conscious living, I invite you to explore perhaps a bit more deeply your relationship with your body as a community of intelligences and as a part of you that benefits (or suffers) from your awareness and attitudes towards it. Notice what it’s like to imagine that when you send love to your body, you send that love to a community of living beings that, together, support your physical existence. Notice what it’s like to think about your body’s inherent intelligence, the blueprint for health that resides at the core of you and that benefits from being bathed in the energy of love. This last statement may sound a bit “woo-woo” to you but, what if it isn’t? What if the frequency and energy of love actually affect what they touch?
Be sure to allow any mixed feelings that may arise as you play with this week’s practice. Western culture doesn’t yet fully recognize the more subtle, energy-based, aspects of health and well-being, so you might have responses that reflect a certain Western skepticism. There’s nothing in particular to do about these mixed feelings but to notice and acknowledge them so they aren’t impacting your experience unconsciously. The beauty of awareness, which I’ve mentioned so many times, is that with awareness comes choice. The choice to notice mixed feelings and continue with the practice of sending love to your body is the opportunity here.
As with all these practices, there’s no right way to do this one. Rather, it offers a chance to explore yet another way in which you live consciously, allowing curiosity to be a constant companion and noticing whatever judgments may arise without taking them too seriously.