The 5-element theory from the ancient Chinese system of healing can add a further understanding of how trauma creates health problems in the physical body.

A simple understanding of the 5 Element Theory

The Five Element Theory is the foundation of the ancient Chinese system of healing.  It includes awareness of the meridian system, 5 elements of life, emotions and the relationships between the organ systems and symptoms.

The five elements are Wind, Fire, Water, Metal and Earth.  Each of the elements relate to a pair of meridians, emotions, and organs.  All symptoms in the body will relate to one of these elements.

Here is an image showing the relationships between the elements, organs and emotions:

According to the Five Element Theory, the health of the organism / body is dependent upon the flow of the energy through the body via the meridians.  If a meridian is blocked or weak, the functionality of that organ or the related organs and give rise to symptoms in the body.

How this relates to trauma

A trauma can be defined as an experience that is overwhelming to the individual that cannot be fully felt, integrated, and released.  In other words, a part of the individual gets frozen in time and the flow of energy gets blocked.  As emotions are energy-in-motion, this translates into emotions being held within the body.

When you feel an emotion, you are simply feeling the flow of energy through your body.  If the emotions are blocked or repressed, the flow of the energy gets compromised and the related organ system become compromised leading to symptoms. The symptoms are the body’s way of signaling to you, that there is a problem that needs to be resolved.  Once the emotion is felt, the trauma is resolved, the energy moves, the flow of energy is restored, and symptoms can resolve.

A trauma does not have to be a huge event.  It can be a small incident.  Yet if many small incidents collect over time, the body can reach its toleration point and then one final event can break the camel’s back . . . so to speak.

 Ongoing stresses in your life can have the same impact as a trauma. Such as ongoing financial stress, work related stress, family stress, or relationship issues. When you are stressed about a situation,  you can contract physically, emotionally or energetically, which also leads to reduced flow of energy.  

Complimentary with other approaches

Our modern system of medicine looks at a symptom as something that needs to be gotten rid of.  It does not generally appreciate the symptom as a signal from the body that something needs to be resolved.  Medications are given that relieve symptoms, yet the underlying imbalance is often not resolved.

This can be very helpful for intense symptoms, yet, unless the underlying imbalance is resolved, the imbalance may lead to additional symptoms or worse symptoms.  Also, medications normally have side effects which can create additional problems.

Even dietary, exercise, lifestyle changes, herbs and supplements can be complimented by resolving trauma for the greatest results.  

The interrelationship of the organ systems 

Another factor to consider is the interconnected relationship between the organ systems.  For example, unresolved grief, impacting the lungs and large intestine, may lead to anger which impacts the liver and gall bladder.  The symptoms the show up may be related to the liver and gallbladder, but the underlying cause is the grief.

In the Chinese system, all spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical symptoms can be traced to one of the organ systems.  Stay tuned for additional blogs addressing this!

How this applies to Fibromyalgia 

In the case of fibromyalgia, there are often multiple traumas.  Often a build up over time of small traumas that eventually lead to a breakdown.

When we have traumas and suppressed emotions, our mind attempts to create a mental understanding of why we feel the way we do.  This can lead to unconscious beliefs, that block our happiness and health and undermine our authenticity, vitality, and passion.   The most commonly held underlying belief is, “there is something wrong with me” or some variation of that.

From my perspective a well-balanced treatment plan for fibromyalgia, would include a way to resolve the underlying trauma(s).   Resolving the traumas not only lead to a reduction in symptoms, but also a greater sense of inner peace, empowerment, and fulfillment.

I often get referrals from medical doctors and holistic practitioners to assist their patients with resolving the underlying emotional and psychological imbalances.   They deem this to be an important part of a patient’s treatment program.

It is rewarding to see that there is a growing awareness of the importance of healing the heart and emotional wounds in the field of fibromyalgia and other chronic health issues.

Assistance is available

If you would like some one on one help in this area, I offer a free Discovery Session to explore your situation and see if we would be a good fit.  You can request the Discovery Session via this link. All sessions can be done via phone, skype or zoom!

I will also be unveiling group programs sometime this year, so stay tuned!

May you grow in health and happiness.

Bindu

breathing The pain body, is an integral part of fibromyalgia. It is the blend of destructive cellular memories, suppressed emotions, sub and unconscious negative beliefs that cause emotional pain, stress and contribute to physical symptoms. 

In order to heal the pain body, it is essential that you break your identification from it.  Otherwise, it literally feels like you are trying to kill a part of yourself.  Your defenses will come up and sabotage your success.

In order to break your identification with your pain body, we need to develop Witness Consciousness or Awareness.

To understand awareness, we must first understand multi-dimensionality.  Multi-dimensionality is the awareness that we are not one-dimensional linear beings.  It acknowledges that we are the sum of many parts.  The parts can be summarized in 6 dimensions:

1. Physical – body
2. Emotions – feelings, emotions
3. Mind – thoughts, belief systems
4. Expression – how we interact with others and the world
5. Spirit – the spark of God, consciousness that is the enlivening of our existence, our connection with God, Consciousness, Spirit
6. Energy – e=mc2 – meaning everything is energy

Why is this important? 

When we are connected with our spiritual essence, we can become “identified” with our body, mind and emotions.  We have forgotten that we are more than the body, mind and emotions.

When we have been subject to trauma, negative conditioning, or negative life experiences and haven’t resolved those experiences, they congeal into what is called the pain body.  The pain body feels separate from God and everyone else and creates a separate identity to keep itself safe.  The downside of this is that it also holds onto its pain.

In order to free our self from the pain body, we need to step outside of the pain body and view it from a detached perspective.  Stepping outside of the pain body is accomplished through Witness Consciousness.  Witness consciousness is the part of us who can step back and observe the body, mind and emotions.  It is intimately connected with our spirit.

How do we do this?

The biggest block to Witness Consciousness is the mind.  The mind is where we store memories of our past experiences.  It evaluates and creates conclusions about those experiences and makes decisions and forms beliefs based on that.  Many of those decisions and beliefs keep us stuck in pain and limitation. 

To access Witness consciousness, we need to step outside of the mind.  There are many tools to do this.  I will provide a few here:

1. If we connect to our breath and watch our breath, it creates a momentary gap in the stream of thought.  That gap is the doorway to Witness Consciousness. 

2. Deepening the breath. When we slow down and deepen the breath, that gap widens, and we come into greater connection with our body and Witness Consciousness. 

3. Pay attention to the current moment. Look around the room.  See the furniture, photos on the wall, other people, animals.  

4. If used correctly, positive thinking can quiet the mind. Our minds are habitually filled with negative thoughts and beliefs.  When we balance the stream of negative thoughts with positive thoughts, the mind can slow down and become less identified with the old negative thoughts and beliefs. 

5. Becoming aware of our emotions. Many of us demonize our negative emotions and suppress them.  Emotions means energy in motion.  By suppressing an emotion, we block the flow of energy and create increase tension and pain.  We also block our awareness.  By breathing and being present with our emotions, we can release the emotion.

6. Intend to step into awareness. By using this languaging, you are speaking from the witness.  It encourages breaking identification with the body, mind and emotions.
   • Simply say, my mind is thinking . . .
   • A part of me is feeling . . . (insert emotion).
   • My body is feeling . . . (insert sensation)

The Benefits of Embracing Witness Consciousness – Awareness

By breaking the identification with the mind, and becoming more aware of our breath, body, emotions, the environment around us, we are entering the present moment and Witness Consciousness.

From a state of witness consciousness or awareness, and its natural connection to our spirit, we can receive answers to the challenges that we have from outside the mind, our conditioning, and our deeply held sub and unconscious belief systems.  This new awareness holds the key to healing and transforming every area of your life.

Awareness practice:

1. Take some time each day, even 2-5 minutes to just stop and notice your breath. When you are at a stop sign, waiting in a line, or every time you open a door.    When you go to bed at night or when you first wake up in the morning.  Put a reminder on your phone.
2. Pick any one of the steps above and take some time each day, even 2-5 minutes to practice it.

This begins the process of breaking the identification with the pain body and reclaiming your power.

Stay Tuned

I am working on a new 21 day program called Reclaiming Your Power,  that will walk you through steps to break the identification with the pain body and bring you into Witness consciousness and Awareness.

May you grow in awareness,

Bindu

Reclaiming Your Innocence 

Last week, we talked about the pain body and how it was an important factor in fibromyalgia.  This week, we are going to explore how to break the cycle of the pain body.  Freeing our self from the pain body is an essential piece in rebuilding our health.

But it isn’t in my head, it is in my body!

The pain body is part of the energy body.  It is not the mind, although the pain body feeds negative messages to the mind.  The pain body also feeds negative stress messages to the body via the nervous system, keeping the nervous system in fight or flight that doesn’t allow the body to rest and repair.

If my post last week was reminded you of times you were told it is all in your mind, that is truly not the case.  The pain body isn’t the mind.  You don’t have conscious control over it.  It controls you from a sub and unconscious level.

Acknowledgment of the pain body and our health

Dr Bruce Lipton explores this in his book entitled, The Biology of Belief.

Dr John Harrison also explores the pain body in his book, “Love your Disease: It’s keeping you Healthy.   In his book he revels the connection between physical and emotional symptoms and deeper traumas and childhood conditioning.  

The ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) study was done by the US Health Organization, Kaiser Permanente, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which also verified the connection between physical illness and childhood experiences.  

Science is just now beginning to acknowledge the connection between the mind, body, emotions, energy body and physical illness.  Yogic theory, Chinese medicine and Ayurveda are just three of the ancient methodologies that have known this connection for hundreds of years.

That said, let’s explore how to neutralize the pain body.

Part 2:  How do we break the cycle of the pain body?

Component 1:  Awareness.

Being aware of the concept of the pain body is a first step.  Being able to observe yourself and your patterns, reactions, habits, emotions, thoughts, fears, triggers.   Knowing yourself very well.

Component 2:  Dis-identifying with the pain body

The second essential component in breaking they cycle is dis-identifying with the pain body.  When we identify with the pain body, we think the pain body is us.  If it dies, we die.  From this perspective, there is very little chance in breaking the cycle.

By developing Presence or Witness conscious, we can dis-identify with the pain body.  The pain body is only a part of who we are.  A very dysfunctional part.

There are other healthy parts of who we are, but they have often been suppressed, exiled to banished.   This happens when we are raised in an environment where we had to behave or act in a certain way to be safe, receive love, be accepted.  Yet when we banish those parts, we feel incomplete.  Our aliveness, joy, excitement dies with them.

Presence or witness conscious is engaging the part of us who can witness or observe all part of who we are.  Awareness practices can help to build our Presence / Witness Consciousness.  This enables us to dis-identify with the pain body and allow for an environment where healing can take place.

Component 3:  Identifying the Parts.

Once we have awareness and are beginning to dis-identify with our pain body, we can begin the sorting and reclamation process.  We need to be able to feel the suppressed emotions.  Not all at once, but over time.  We need to become aware of our negative thoughts and belief systems.  Reconsider them and be willing to change life negative thoughts and beliefs to positive life supportive thoughts and beliefs.

We need to identify and heal traumas from our past; not just on a mental level, but on a cellular and energetic level.  If you work on the mental level only, you will have a different perspective on what happened, but the negative emotional and cellular memories will still create ongoing drama and trauma and negative experiences in your life.

Component 4:  Reclaiming our Banished Parts

The fourth component is reclaiming our suppressed and exiled parts.  The deepest and most rewarding work is reclaiming our wholeness.  All parts of us are valuable and part of the whole.  If we approach our healing thinking that we must never feel negative emotions or have a negative though, we are fooling ourselves.  Even our so-called negative parts are there for a reason.  They are normally protective parts, protecting an exiled part or banished part.

Perhaps we have banished a part that feels sad or frightened.  Or we have banished a part of us who loves to play, sing and celebrate.  Or the part of us who is clear and direct.  Or the part of us who just knows stuff without knowing why or how.   The part that is naturally joyful for no reason.  The part that loves unconditionally.  Or the part that was hurt or abandoned.  The part that was traumatized, physically, sexually or emotionally.  The part that sees angels or talks to animals or plants.

We are a kaleidoscope of parts.  To be whole and beautiful inside and out, we need to reclaim all of who we are.

Fifth Component:  Love unconditionally

All our parts need more love, not less.  Our exiled or banished parts are hiding because at some point in our life, they were unloved and rejected.  We have both “positive” and “negative” parts that have been banished.  Loving a part doesn’t mean we like a part.  It means we can be compassionately present with that part.  Just like you might be compassionately present with an angry child.

In order to be whole, we need all parts.  When we encounter and can be compassionately present with all our parts, they integrate, and we experience wholeness.  We feel complete.   A deep sense of wellbeing ensues.

In this process, we also reclaim our power.  When we have the ability to love and accept all of ourselves, all of our parts, we no longer seek love and completion from the outside, from another person, place or thing.    We no longer give our power to something outside of ourselves.   We are free.

We are free to love and to live fully.  We can be in a relationship, not from need, but from enjoying our partner or friends’ company and companionship.  We can work at the career of our choice, feeling fulfillment from within and loving the opportunity to serve and support others.   Our fears won’t stop us, and our bliss can guide us unhindered. 

The need of a loving support system

Trying to heal your own pain body is a difficult endeavor.  The pain body has built in protections.  You often need skilled outside support to help unravel the pain body.

This year, I am going to launch a group program for women who would like that support.  Around the end of March or early April, I will offer a free workshop to introduce interested parties to this program.  Stay tuned.

May you love yourself more fully each day,

Bindu

Fibromyalgia, Chronic Illness and the Pain Body, Part 1

The term the Pain Body was introduced by Eckhardt Tolle several years ago.  The pain body is the accumulation of suppressed emotions, negative thoughts, unhealthy beliefs and destructive cellular memories within one’s body or energy field.  It is what I call the Fibromyalgia Matrix.  The pain body keeps us trapped in the past and interferes with our health and happiness.   It blocks our ability to feel positive emotions and sabotages our attempts at creating a better life for our self.

The pain body is self-perpetuating

The pain body is like an entity in and of itself and strives to stay alive and functional.   It loves conflict and drama.  The conflict, drama and negative emotions triggered feeds it.  The bigger the drama the greater the banquet.    It will attract those situations to itself and then revels in the drama and negative emotions.

The Pain Body is a major factor in fibromyalgia. 

The pain body is behind chronic depression and anxiety.   Suppressed emotions give rise to the feeling of depression. When you suppress a negative emotion such as sadness, you are also suppressing the ability to feel positive emotions and end up feeling depressed.

Suppressed fearful emotions don’t go away.

Suppressed fearful emotions live within us sending a constant message of danger to the nervous system.   It keeps the body in fight or flight mode, always feeling threatened and the need to fight or run away.  The nervous system stays in a sympathetic (on) status and doesn’t know when or how to shut down.  This give rise to insomnia, chronic fatigue and feeling crummy.  When the body doesn’t get the rest it needs, it doesn’t heal, detoxify recharge and rejuvenate the body.  You end up with multiple chronic symptoms with no seeming cause.

The Pain Body becomes our identity.

These patterns become so normal that we don’t differentiate between us and the pain body.  You might say that we become identified with the pain body.  It becomes us.  It becomes our identity.

One commonality between women with fibromyalgia is that many of us feel a strong need for people to hear our pain.  And we often feel defensive when others try to help us.  This is the pain body talking.  It wants to be heard, but it doesn’t trust others.  It also has a commitment to staying alive and well in its misery . . .  even though another part of you wants to be alive, happy and healthy.

Pretty nasty picture.  Yet it is real.  And it keeps us in a state of misery and pain.  Can you relate?  I sure can.  I lived it for many years.  I was a pro at being miserable and in pain.   It is such a relief to be out of this pattern.  You can too.

There is hope.  You can healing the pain body.

My post next week will show the 5 stages of healing the pain body.  Stay tuned.

Healing the Pain Body is an important part of rebuilding our health.

I have been asking myself this last year why I focus to much on the emotional, mental aspects of rebuilding our health.  As I wrote the post, I received my answer.  We can do all the right things on a physical level to rebuild our health, but without addressing the pain body, our health and especially our happiness will be compromised.

Let’s focus this year on healing the pain body!

This year, I am rolling out online group programs that will provide education, training and support in healing the pain body.   One of my goals is to make the healing work that I do available to women and men with fibromyalgia at affordable rates.  The group online programs will do that.

The first program is happening beginning on January 29.

I am really excited about this.  My first program will be launched on January 29^th with a free online guided Integrative Movement experience featuring Chair Yoga.    Chair Yoga is the vehicle, Integrative Movement is the process that I have developed from years of practicing and teaching yoga to create awareness, compassion and gently heal the pain body.

The program on Chair Yoga class on January 29 will be followed with a 3 series movement course including, Tai Chi Chi Gong, Joint Freeing Movement and Freedom Dance.    The Integrative Movement approach will be included in all classes.  All movements are safe for women with Fibromyalgia and will allow you to gently move your body.  Benefits include:

• gentle exercise
• strengthening and toning muscles
• increasing flexibility
• reducing pain and tension
• Improve sleep
• developing awareness
• healing the pain body

To join the free online chair yoga class on January 29, click on the link below.

May you be free, may you be peaceful, may you know your true self. 

Love, Bindu