My client is face-down on the massage table, sobbing. Waves of emotion cause her body to quake as she lets go. “Breathe,” I say, my fingers deep in the muscles of her hip as I hold her ankle aloft with my other hand. I make sure she feels completely safe and supported as she discovers the line between her chronic tension and the relief that waits for her to claim it, and uses her breath to help herself move across that line.

As her inner emotional change is happening, her hip goes through a remarkable physical transformation. The muscle and connective tissue, which were severely hypertonic when we began – that is to say, very tight, hard to the touch, constricted and contracted – suddenly become soft and pliable, within seconds. As I hold her leg and hip in a position of release, and hold a field of energy that affirms wholeness and relief, her layers of memory, emotion, muscle and fascia all shift, in the same moment, as one. She says, “That feels amazing.”

I am in awe. No matter how many times I witness a life-changing event such as this, it never gets old. It is not always a tearful process. In fact, sometimes the energy in a moment of transformation and letting go becomes downright divine and uplifting to a degree that defies any attempt of language to define it. 

There is an intelligence within these bodies of ours that unites every layer of our being, from our collective ancestral memories to our fondest personal hopes and dreams, and when we do bodywork with healing intention, we touch every single one of those layers, and invite them to integrate: we allow the quiet wisdom of the soul to penetrate the mind, and invite the stuck emotions to be liberated from the body. We embrace our infinite, unencumbered true nature.

The person who came in for a session today is transformed. Not only is her physical form in a lot less pain and tension than it was, but she has gone deep within her psyche, and moved through something troubling that she has been holding inside for years. She unified her body, mind, emotions and spirit, utilizing her breath as a conduit for her energy. She is more whole as a result of this experience, less restricted both emotionally and physically; she has found a measure of freedom. She also now has this experience as a memory, both in her cells and in her mind, that she can call upon at another time, when she needs to let go once again. 

It is a sacred journey, the path to wholeness, to being healed. To heal literally means “to make whole.” There is no one right way to go about it, no pill to take that makes it all happen. It’s a lived experience and the only way forward is within.

That inner journey that takes us from a place of divided self, where we hold our difficult emotional experiences and memories at a distance from our hearts, to the place where there is room for the pain to arise, be acknowledged, and then released, is unique to each one of us, and entirely holy.

When a person enters a space of willingness to receive the messages waiting for her in her physical body, she is opening herself to the full experience of her pain, both on the physical and non-physical levels. It is a tenuous place, a risky place, for it is below the level of our conscious thought. Where emotions dwell, we have not the comfort of reason and logic. We must feel our way through. The body is a vessel of emotion. It takes courage, determination, and support to face our pain, and fully inhabit our body.

When we make the commitment to delve within, it’s a blessing to have others nearby, whether they be therapists, friends, family, a cherished animal companion, or an outdoor place that is special to us. Miraculous moments of transformation, while essential and liberating, are often followed by very real changes in our day-to-day lives that require time, contemplation and sustained effort to carry through. It’s important to make sure we get the support we need to let those changes take root in our lives and move us ever closer to our fullest embodiment of our potential. 

Related Treasures to Enjoy:

Book: Pert, Candace. Molecules of Emotion. Scribner, 1997

Movie: What the Bleep Do We Know!? 2004

Music: Forest, East. Music to Die To. 2016

Mantra: Om Namah Shivaya (I bow to the God within)