Our bodies are our home. When we are chronically ill, or have some persistent problem with our bodies, like weight or hating how we look, we feel like we cannot truly be at home in the world.
Our bodies take guidance from our hearts and our minds. Our physical experience therefore will be an expression of our unconscious beliefs about what is safe, and about what ensures belonging to life and to the world.
Oddly enough, “health” may not be coded in our minds as “safe.” I know that sounds extraordinary, but it’s true. Here’s a common unconscious pattern: If we grew up in a family where only someone who was sick got attention, then we might develop a pattern of being sick as a way to ensure attention and love. There’s an unconscious belief that if we are healthy, no one will ever love us, or that we will be eternally alone. Wow.
“Being unhealthy” can also be coded in our hearts as a way to belong securely to our families. If we had parents who were chronically ill, we can imagine how hard it might be for a child to fully enjoy health and vitality. It might feel disloyal to join the ranks of the “healthy.” These are just two of the ways unconscious beliefs can stabilize difficult experiences of our bodies.
What’s the way out of these unconscious patterns? First, we need to uncover the specific unconscious beliefs that we have, and second, we need to replace them with beliefs that are actually more true, and more respectful of ourselves and our families.
However, there is no way to just “shove” in new beliefs. Unconscious beliefs are revised through elegant change work that acknowledges the essential wisdom at the heart of our suffering, and creates an effortless context for updating our experience to something that is a truer expression of who we are.
If you are suffering in any way with your body, what is the wisdom at the heart of that, and what is the truer expression of who you are?
For some answers to those questions, join me for my workshop, How to Get Your Brain & Ancestors to Support What You Want with Your Body & Health, July 13th, 4-7p in Berkeley. Click here for more information or to register.
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