Pain
"...the pain keeps the reservoir of rage hidden..."
— John E. Sarno, The Divided Mind
“Wilhelm Reich's research in the 1930's suggested that the unexpressed pain and trauma of our past is stored in the musculature and connective tissue of our bodies, creating tension, blocks in circulation, and ultimately pain and disease. Such memories may be stored, in my experience, in internal organs as well. By entering this ‘room of illness’ in hypnosis, we may be able to identify both the external persons who are connected to this stored pain and the specific memories from which the pain originated. We then utilize emotional release and child rescue processes to alter the memories stored in the body, and thus release the pain and tension created therein.”
— David Quigley, Alchemy Institute of Hypnosis
Some quotes from Francis Weller’s The Wild Edge of Sorrow.
….In truth, without some familiarity with sorrow, we do not mature as men and women. It is the broken heart, the part that knows sorrow, that is capable of genuine love. The heart familiar with loss is able to recognize “a still deeper grief….a sadness at the very heart of things…” that binds us to the world. Without this awareness and the willingness to be shaped by life, we remain caught in the adolescent strategies of avoidance and heroic striving. Page 9
As we begin to pay attention, we notice that grief is never far from our awareness. We become aware of the many ways it arrives in our daily lives. …..It is the recognition of time passing, the slow emptying of our days…….. Grief enfolds our lives, drops us close to the earth, reminding us of our inevitable return to the dark soil. Page 20
When we were able to see times of loss as inevitable and, in a very real way, necessary, we are able to engage these moments and cultivate the art of living well, of metabolizing suffering into something beautiful and ultimately sacred.
Page 21
We find the bodies of forgotten ancestors, abandoned dreams, ancient remains of trees and animals---things that have come before us and that have the power to lead us to the place to which each of us will return one day when, we too, leave this life which has been gifted to us for a short time. The descent is a passage into what we are, creatures of earth. Page 22
Relax into this exercise and soften around any discomfort.
Identify the pain and feel it gently.
Now, identify the fear around the pain. Hold onto the fear, and let it get bigger. As the fear gets bigger, let the pain sensation fade. As I count from 1 to 5, make the fear as big as its ever been; 1. getting more intense, 2. moving through your body, 3, it's like the flood gates of fear are opening up all over you, 4, like the first time you felt this way, and 5. the fear is a bridge to the past... Go to a time and place in your life when you felt this fear like you do now…,
What's happening?
“What is the genesis of a psychosomatic disorder? As we shall see, the cause is to be found in the unconscious regions of the mind, and as we shall also see, its purpose is to deliberately distract the conscious mind..”
“In our view, all of [their] symptoms, affective and physical, hysterical or psychosomatic, served the same purpose, that is, as a defense against powerful emotions in the unconscious that were striving to come to consciousness, or were being repressed because of their emotionally painful nature...”
— John E. Sarno, MD., The Divided Mind