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Has emotional or physical pain ever manifested in your body? Did it seem to leave you feeling debilitated in some way? Did you feel like you couldn’t breathe or move freely? Were you perhaps unable to think clearly, due to the space it occupied in your mind?

Before you realize it, you can “collect” your anxiousness, concerns, fears, misunderstandings and worry into a heap that finds a place to lodge in your body. You believe you have a physical problem because your body hurts. Feelings like these could certainly make you feel like you can’t concentrate on anything else, and even leave you feeling helpless or hopeless.

There is always hope. There is always help. Our beings are incredibly good at carrying on with life’s activities in spite of feeling so miserable. Most often we work around these physical, emotional and mental burdens— frankly, because we have to. What we don’t often realize, though, is that we don’t have to. You can shed the weight of pain holding you back from living more fully, without that pain or discomfort. What you do have to do is stop and take the time to untangle whatever got you feeling this way in the first place.

“But one had to go back to the beginning of things, always. Trace the thread of life—find the knot—untangle it.” – Martha Ostenso

There is a wonderful therapy practice called Somatic Integration. I refer to it as talk/touch therapy. It is a unique combination of body awareness, verbalized thoughts, breathing, meditation, guided visualization and informed therapeutic touch. The benefits to this are many. Most notable is the immediate relief that is felt when awareness brings understanding, understanding brings peace of mind, and peace of mind brings emotional and physical release. When you experience this shift it also arms you with the tools to prevent it from happening again.

This type of therapy is most beneficial to those who are ready to feel better, ready to have a better relationship with themselves and let go of old patterns that have kept them believing ideas, concepts and lies that no longer serve them. To give you an idea of how this can work, I will share an example of this therapy from a session I conducted.

Please note that while I will share some of the techniques involved in the treatment to help you visualize it better, it is not recommended to take excerpts and apply them to yourself or anyone else without a full understanding or training in this method.

“A change in thought can change a lot. A changed thought can untie and untangle the knot.” – Ernest Agyeman Yeboah

One client was burdened with a heavy, consistent pain in her chest that restricted her breathing and caused much discomfort. We first talked about how she was feeling in her body and life. It helps to say out loud what thoughts come to mind before beginning a session.

To make the client comfortable on the table, we begin with guided, intentional rhythmic breathing. I establish touch with the client to partner in comfort, safety and trust. With guided techniques we talk about what she is feeling in the area of pain. We discover together that the pain has taken shape as a ball of wire. It has a metal texture and it is large and weighted, making it very heavy. Its color is black and it fills the space in her chest completely.

Now we have something to work with. More talking reveals what the tangled strand represents. It is a surprise to the client as she hadn’t “thought” of these things as problems. She just moved through life thinking she had “handled” these issues long ago. As more thoughts come, it becomes clear that she has actually “collected” these old unresolved problems and they have created this burden in her body that has become unbearable.

Continuing on with guided questions (the answers always lie within you), we work to see what must be done to untangle the mess. As a place to start, she sees that the way to untangle the ball of metal is to mentally cut the wire with heavy-duty wire cutters. Continuing on, she will take pliers and follow the tangled mass to begin unraveling it. Patience is required in this situation. She also realizes she can use the cutters to break through more blocked areas. Remember, this visualization of breaking down this object of thought is tied to the issues that surfaced during the talking portion of the session. We connect these together in order to reveal the lies she was holding on to, making her think she had to bury these unresolved issues instead of realizing she could let them go and break free from the weight she ended up carrying.

We are not meant to carry such weighted burdens. There are guides, gurus and resources available to free you from your thoughts and even the physical pain you carry. Begin to be more aware of what and how you are feeling inside. Let it take shape and form so you can find a starting place to turn it upside down and shake it out, enabling the freedom you inherently deserve.

“Free yourself from the burden of feeling the need to hold on to anything. Let go . . . you are a part of everything.” – Steve Maraboli