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Cleaning
Out the Attic: Thought-Form Impediments to Healing
by Mike Macy
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Why
aren’t we aware that buried material is causing illness? |
Our
mind—what we think and what we believe—can make us sick. For
starters, if we believe that our illness is personal, pervasive, or
permanent, we won’t get well says Paul St. John, creator of
NeuroMuscularTherapy. Personal means we think our case of ‘x’ is
the worst case anyone has seen. Pervasive means we believe our illness
affects every aspect of our life. And permanent means we believe that there is no cure—for
example, that our illness is age-related and/or fatal.
St. Johns’
approach is to create doubt. He
describes a new patient who announced that he had a bum knee and
insisted there was nothing St. John could do for it. “Why?” asked
St. John. “It’s 72 years old,” said the patient. “How is the
other knee?” asked St. John. “Fine,” said the patient.
“And how old is the other knee?” asked St. John. With these
simple questions, St. John maneuvered his patient into entertaining
the possibility that his knee could heal—which it did.
More
problematic are the societal and familial sick-making tapes that many
of us run continuously. Although
we hear these messages in our head, they may be being broadcast from
anywhere in the body. These messages suggest that some
flaw—stupidity, ugliness, klutziness—is responsible for our
suffering. Together, body
worker and patient locate, expose, and deactivate the message,
sometimes replacing it with its antithesis.
One variant of
the flawed theory is the notion that our illness runs in our family.
Here the implication is that your flaw is your inheritance and,
more importantly, it is inescapable. Talk about self-fulfilling! This
prophesy is especially pernicious because every member of the family
is likely to repeat it like a mantra at every opportunity, until we
get sick—and even after.
This health
challenge that everyone in the family is supposed to have is often not
innate, but merely reflects learned behavior: how the family reacts to
life. Unless you buy the inheritance myth, or feel obligated to carry
on this great tradition, you can probably choose health. Even if the
problem is encoded in your genes, however, a growing body of research
shows that our minds can over-ride the gene.
I know people who have dialogued with, and turned off,
disease-causing genes.
Some of us
become attached to being sick or impaired, even though we hate our
illness and wish for health. This attachment can stem from our having
used the illness to gain attention, avoid unpleasant chores, duck
responsibilities, etc. Perhaps in the beginning that sickness seemed
to be our best, or only, option. But often that is no longer true.
Over time, we may gain safety, space, strength, wisdom, and permission
to say no.
People who
survive perilous childhoods tend to over-rely on thinking, and
specifically on the cerebral cortex. Brilliant as our cerebral cortex
may be, if it could think your way to health, you’d already be
healthy. Sometimes we just have to ignore the cerebral cortex, or
distract it. Like Daddy,
it doesn’t always know what’s best.
Another reason
that health eludes us is the myth that our feelings, emotions,
beliefs, and issues, are in our heads. However, the mind isn’t
limited to the head. Therefore, if we are going to “clean out the
attic,” we have to clean out the material where it is located. And
that clutter is often closeted throughout our body.
Many of us
think we have worked through these emotions: forgiven, forgotten and
moved on. And we may have, on a conscious level. However, all too
often that material remains in the body, without our awareness,
causing the same dis-ease it always has. Life has a way of keeping
these parked emotions fresh as the day they were born/borne. If you
are willing, you can free yourself once and for all from these toxic
emotions and issues.
Why aren’t
we aware that buried material is causing illness? Some of us simply
aren’t in touch with our feelings. Or, our cerebral cortex may be
over-protective (as in telling us, “You can’t handle this.”)
Frequently, the issues and feelings causing so much dis-ease
aren’t even ours. Indeed, it’s exceedingly common to take on the
issues of family members and others.
We can do this when we are quite young (even in utero and
infancy); therefore, it shouldn’t be any surprise that we don’t
recall having done this.
Upon
discovering someone else’s issue or emotion in their body, most
clients have little trouble evicting it and moving on. If a negative
emotion like anger, resentment, or a desire for justice (revenge)
forms part of the glue, the twin realizations that 1) the other person
can’t really work on their emotion so long as you carry it and that
2) carrying it only hurts you will help to dissolve the bond.
While
frequently ignored by physicians, an almost universal cause of illness
and injury is an emotional or spiritual injury.
Here again, we frequently manufacture personal responsibility
for the injury, concluding—usually erroneously—that some personal
short-coming occasioned the injury, maltreatment, or illness. These
emotional and spiritual injuries are often at the heart of what we
call core issues. We
might spend decades living and proving this falsehood—unless and
until we decide that the cost has become prohibitive. When we tire of
the high personal cost of maintaining the falsehood and move toward
health, we may find a rich spiritual path.
Too
often our culture encourages us to hammer our symptoms into
submission, using will-power, supplements, medicine, and surgery. As
often as not, however, symptoms are our body’s way of getting our
attention and leading us to awaken to our own true, perfect, if
all-too-human, natures. Typically, as soon as we realize the nature of
the original misconception, our lives improve dramatically.
Mike
Macy is a CranioSacral Therapist in Anchorage which provides
frequent opportunities for him to experience both the debilitating and
curative powers of the mind.
Contact: 258-7261 or mmacy@acsalaska.net
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It’s
Not All in Your Head: Post-Concussive Syndrome Explained
by Jocelyn Paine
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I became
my own (and my naturopathic doctor's) experiment… |
After my third minor whiplash
injury in two years, a friend gave me a star on a hook. "Hang
this over your bed," she said. "It will distract 'bad star’
energy—maybe the third time will be the last!" I took it down
after my fourth whiplash (as a passenger) one year later.
By that time my neck and upper
back were so damaged and vulnerable that a very low velocity
car incident caused a very bad effect. After whiplash number
three, I'd noticed some disturbing problems: speech hesitancy,
imperfect or mixed-up vocabulary recall (such as saying
"mirror" instead of "window"), and memory gaps (I
not only couldn't remember where I put my keys, but couldn't remember
the model of car they went to). This was in addition to constant
headaches (some so bad I had to go to bed), photophobia (fortunately,
it was summertime so wearing sunglasses inside wasn't too strange),
and inappropriate social behaviors. I acknowledged that I was in
serious trouble when I melted down over deciding what kind of laundry
soap to purchase!
I then faced another issue: Was
this all in my head? Would anyone believe me? Was I overreacting?
Was I imbalanced? Or just plain weird?
As a health professional, I
treat clients who report whiplash problems similar to what I had
experienced. Although I had never doubted my clients, I knew that some
were treated skeptically by others, particularly health care
practitioners and people in the insurance and legal fields.
I am very fortunate to know some
wonderful health care providers, including my naturopathic doctor,
Birgit Lenger. However, though my colleagues validated my reports of
symptoms, none had a concrete plan of action. Metaphorically clutching
my damaged brain, I thus began some Internet research.
Now, Internet self-diagnosis has
the pitfall of leading to hypochondriacal tendencies. In addition, I
was attempting to wade my way through scientific abstracts and medical
descriptions/vocabulary with an already damaged brain. At that point
in my healing process, I was having trouble holding the beginning of a
sentence in my mind until I got to the end. However, one of the cures
often suggested for failing function is doing brain exercises, so I
figured the research was my form of cognitive push-ups.
Not only did I want to find out
what I might have, I wanted to find out what would help me heal. In
the beginning I didn't have a name for my many symptoms. Naming a
thing is part of the Western way of coping with it. I ran across an
article about a professional football player who had suffered several
concussions and became so depressed that he ended up killing himself.
A Pittsburgh doctor ascribed his mental dysfunction to
"post-concussive syndrome." I knew that sloshing the brain
around, such as the whipping back and forth of rapid deceleration that
happens during any type of collision, could cause concussive patterns
even without loss of consciousness. Now I had confirmation for what I
had.
Yet what exactly did I have? The
symptom list for post-concussion is long and includes:
 | Attention deficits,
difficulty sustaining mental effort (check) |
| Fatigue and tiredness (yes) |
| Impulsivity, irritability
(and how) |
| Low frustration threshold
(super stressed) |
| Temper outbursts and changes
in mood (up and down) |
| Learning and memory problems
(I was brain-lame) |
| Impaired planning
and problem solving (dithering) |
| Inflexibility, concrete
thinking (well, no) |
| Lack of initiative
(apathetic) |
| Dissociation between thought
and action (I think so, whatever that is) |
| Communication difficulties
(duh!) |
| Socially inappropriate
behaviors (see 'melt-down') |
| Self-centeredness and lack of
insight (no) |
| Poor self-awareness (maybe) |
| Impaired balance (thankfully,
no) |
| Dizziness and headaches
(vertigo, no; headaches, big time) |
| Personality changes (ask my
friends) |
I scored thirteen or fourteen
out of seventeen listed! I also found out that anywhere from 38 to 80%
of people with "mild head injuries" developed
post-concussive symptoms, and that they can take as long as three
months to show up. Of course, the great physician, Hippocrates (4th
Century BC), said, "No head injury is too severe to despair of,
nor too trivial to ignore." In other words, I shouldn't give up
hope, but I definitely should take my symptoms seriously.
Another issue to deal with was
the "It's all in your head" attitude. Back in 1866, a
prominent London physician described the symptoms of post-concussion
and spinal column injury in relationship to the dangers of that
new, trendy form of vehicular travel: the railroad. But his report was
ambiguous and eventually even he deferred to the powerful railroad
magnates interested in avoiding lawsuits and suspected malingering.
These attitudes of skepticism have persisted. If you can't see proof
of it, the wisdom goes, you can't win in a court of law. During my
healing time I had a health professional tell me I certainly
"looked" healthy enough. After all, I had never lost
consciousness, had I? This type of unintentional misunderstanding is
enough on its own to lead to depression.
Only recently has physical proof
of post-concussive damage been possible. Examination of a brain used
to be achieved by dissection after death; now we can look at the
brain's function with positron emission tomography and functional MRIs.
Recent studies have shown reduced glucose use and changes in cerebral
blood flow for as long as three years after an injury. Post-mortem
studies have proved there is diffuse microscopic axonal nerve damage
(it seems the axon stem of the nerve gets twisted in whiplash shear
forces and then atrophies).
When we consider that more than
2 million instances of mild head injury occur in the United States
each year and if only 20% (the lowest estimated number—the high one
is 90%) have some post-concussive symptoms, with 40% of those lasting
a year, we are talking about a very large number of ignored or
misdiagnosed post-concussive sufferers! We are all vulnerable, not
just boxers or football and hockey players, because the brain and
skull can suffer blows from simple falls during bicycling, horseback
riding, skiing. Or, here in Alaska, just slipping on the ice.
Well, now I knew what I had, but
what could I do about it? Unfortunately, the medical profession seemed
to simply throw up its hands. The consensus was that, if
post-concussive syndrome indeed existed, there wasn't any cure except
rest and reducing the physical symptoms with pills, using
psychological therapy for the emotional/mental ones. Time would heal
this wound, was the prevailing wisdom. I wasn't willing to wait it out
when the length of time could be a year or more! So I became my own
(and my naturopathic doctor's) experiment.
If the nerve pathways weren't
working properly, it made sense to find a way to improve their
function. Good nutrition, regular exercise to oxygenate the brain,
supplements intended to 'grease' the way for lagging neuron impulses—that
seemed to be the way to go. We tried one thing and then another when
the first didn't work or backfired. (I spent most of the first summer
getting worse on homeopathics, had an allergic reaction to one herb
and intestinal grief from another.) We finally settled on a
combination of supplements (vitamins and enzymes) that increased my
dopamine level, decreased my serotonin reuptake, boosted my
concentration and memory, smoothed out my mood swings, and uplifted my
spirits. My combination, tailored to my needs, wouldn't necessarily be
right for everyone, so I won't go into the specifics, but with trial
and (less) error, we succeeded. I also made sure to pursue regular
physical rehabilitation, therapies and exercises, to support
healing.
Today, a year after the last
injury, I am again able to write and think coherently. I have most of
my energy back and have more stamina, though still not as much as I
would like, and the headaches are much reduced. Now if I can only
figure out where that evil star is located, I'll feel more secure
about getting into an automobile!
Jocelyn Paine is
unscrambling brains, including her own, in her Anchorage- based
business, Movement Relaxation Therapy, 276-8195.
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Thank
you, Doctors: An Attitude of Gratitude
by Mike Macy
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To his
credit, he had a healthy sense of humor, commenting,
"I consider myself a holistic practitioner: I see a
patient; I cut a hole." |
Perhaps you are striving to
upgrade various aspects of your life. Self-improvement is a
worthy goal, but one of the great paradoxes is that the fastest way to
change the unacceptable is to accept it. From acceptance—not to
be confused with resignation—all things are possible.
As a therapeutic bodyworker, I
see this every day: Resistance is partly a refusal to accept and
own that which is or has happened. Moving forward, healing often
requires our finally accepting our history. Ancient or otherwise, we
keep our history fresh and alive by playing it over and over again in
our minds and our lives, as if somehow that will lead to a new
outcome. Albert Einstein called this—doing the same thing over
and over again and expecting a different result—insanity.
This holiday season, I’m
particularly grateful for allopathic medicine, especially drugs and
surgery. The body can do many things better than medicine can;
however, there are times when you really need a surgeon. All of
us know people who would not be here today but for the miracles of
modern medicine. Let me tell you about three such people.
First, I remember how profoundly
helpless I felt in the face of my wife’s acute abdominal pain.
Turned out she needed an appendectomy. Once upon a time,
appendicitis routinely proved fatal. But thanks to medical
advances which we often take for granted, this rarely occurs
anymore. I remember how grateful I felt once the medical cavalry
rode to her rescue.
The second example is my friend
and colleague, Clivia Feliz, who was mauled by a bear here in
Anchorage in August. Even though she had no insurance, she received
the most advanced medical care. Serendipitously, her case was
assigned to a vascular surgeon. Once her crushed brachial artery was
discovered, he and his team had her patched up and on the road to
recovery within hours. Without the miracles of vascular surgery,
she would undoubtedly have lost the use of the hand by which she earns
her living as a bodyworker.
A keen and quiet observer, the
surgeon was initially a little skeptical about his alternative health
patient and her colleagues. I think he realized that our efforts were
largely designed to secure the benefits of his artistry and I hope
that he attributed at least a small part of Clivia’s remarkable
progress to our ministrations. To his credit, he had a healthy
sense of humor, commenting, "I consider myself a holistic
practitioner: I see a patient; I cut a hole."
Clivia’s progress also
demonstrated the benefits of her training, personal growth, and years
of meditation—all of which enabled her to understand and control
much of what was going on in her mind and body. Clivia’s
acceptance of the mauling and her part in it, her forgiving of the sow
for protecting her cubs—even if they never were really threatened—paved
the way for this rapid progress. It isn’t possible to guess how
this experience will change her life, other than turn it completely
upside down financially. (If moved to help with her medical
expenses, please send me an e-mail.) But her friends know that she
will put the experience to good use. Clivia’s injuries did
provide an opportunity to experience the power of both hands-on and
long-distance healing in the treatment of acute, life-threatening
physical and emotional trauma. Perhaps someday Clivia will be
able to say more about that.
The third person who reminds me
of the value of modern medicine was in a car accident three years ago
and would not have survived a day without surgery. The doctors
had to open her chest and deflate a lung to repair a ruptured
aorta; they repaired broken vertebrae to keep her from becoming
paralyzed; and they installed sieves to prevent blood clots from her
leg fractures from reaching her heart and lungs and killing her.
Of course, the injuries and the
surgery left restrictions in her body. As her wounds healed, the
restrictions and the emotions and beliefs parked in her tissues became
more obvious and problematic in terms of producing physical and
emotional pain. It’s been relatively easy to address these
restrictions, largely because of my friend’s acceptance of what
happened and her attitude of gratitude. True, the accident turned
her life upside down, but—like all successful self-healers—she has
incorporated this into her spiritual path. Only because she’s a
medical miracle have we been able to explore the therapeutic value of
doing bodywork on her deepest and most important structures.
In June, a conference celebrated
20 years’ progress bridging allopathic and traditional (Alaska
Native) medicine in Alaska and explored future opportunities. The
conference was not covered by the press, but I can report that we in
Alaska are very fortunate to have the best of both worlds. I’m
grateful to play a small part in the unfolding dance. Most of
all, I’m grateful for all the colleagues, friends, and patients who’ve
taught me time and again that if we want to move forward, we need to
accept where we’ve been and be open to all the support the universe
can provide, alternative and allopathic.
The holidays tend to be
emotionally challenging for many of us. The belief that our history—no
matter how traumatic—can fuel our spiritual growth provides a
well-worn and reliable path out of the dungeon. An attitude of
gratitude will, quite literally, light and lighten your way.
A CranioSacral Therapist
in Anchorage, Mike Macy specializes in treating chronic health
conditions and physical and emotional trauma. He can be reached at
258-7261 or mmacy@acsalaska.net.
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