How curiosity can save your life!
If you’ve ever been to a traveling carnival, you likely have seen its version of a haunted funhouse. This is the kind where there are super dark passageways with all sorts of scary sounds and things jumping out at you. When these haunted funhouses came to our small town, it was a sort of test or rite of passage to have the courage to walk through one unscathed.
Even though I knew I would be scared at some point, I was curious to try it anyway. After all, there was likely someone I hoped to impress with my bravery. With each step into the darkness of the funhouse, my senses would heighten, and my breath would be shallow and fast. I became very connected to my body as I felt my way through the passages, ready to jump if anything was a threat.
Curiosity is one way that we consciously push ourselves outside of our comfort zone. Even if the potential cost was being scared, uncomfortable, and looking foolish; the benefit of doing it anyway and making it through alive was worth it. It was worth the exhilarating feeling I had when I stepped out into the world again alive. I was trusting my body to help me make it through a stressful situation and it stepped up to the challenge. The feeling of accomplishment was a huge boost to my confidence, and it laid another brick of proof that I was more capable than I thought.
When we are willing to step into what feels difficult, this is when we experience the most growth in our life. Part of our subconscious commitment to step into stressful things is related to what our body is willing to do for us in those times.
When I stepped through the funhouse door, my body was telling my subconscious mind, “Hey, I got you. I'm ready no matter what happens!” If I had felt dizzy, weak, or nauseous, I would have likely left the carnival. I may not have realized that my body was telling me something at the time, but it certainly had an effect on my choices. Trusting the communication from your body is key to moving through any issue that may be present in your life.
Your body has its own intelligence. You may have heard someone say that they know it’s going to rain because one of their joints is stiff. Or perhaps you’ve even experienced having a feeling someone is watching you, only to discover someone across the room is staring at you. These are some examples of your body telling you something that you may not be consciously aware. This ability goes way beyond what you may realize. Your body even manages and stores emotional trauma if you aren’t able to process this energy out of your body safely.
One of the stories told in Anne Redelfs’ book, “Illness Can Be the Cure!”, is about a middle-aged woman who was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, and a panic disorder. She discovered, after working with a developmental psychotherapist, that she had blocked out being a victim of ritualistic and catastrophically sadistic abuse as a very young child.
The trauma of this abuse was blocked from her conscious mind in order to allow her to function as a person. The energy of the trauma was stored in her body and became the very thing that produced the dis-ease she was experiencing. It was her wounded soul that collaborated with her body and subconscious mind in order to heal.
In order to bring about the necessary healing for this woman, her body was communicating to her in multiple ways. In working with her therapist, she was able to finally understand what her body was telling her. When she was able to bring healing to the event, all of her physical symptoms subsided completely.
The book goes on to give examples of some ailments and their emotional connection. For example, a child’s earache might manifest from hearing something painful. Perhaps they heard mom and dad screaming at each other and the fear the child felt manifested into pain in the ears? Another example is someone having blurred vision. This may be related to the person refusing to see the truth of the abusive behavior someone has toward them.
Ms. Redelfs was quoted in a recent workshop saying, “Our souls employ pains and dysfunctions in our physical bodies to draw attention to the hidden pains and dysfunctions within our psychological bodies. When emotions surface, we believe something is wrong with us. We must turn toward those symptoms to heal ourselves. In these moments of dis-ease, we are actually reconnecting to things we couldn’t process when we were young.”
It’s important to understand that there is much more to our bodies than what we are taught in high school biology class. We are not just a fleshy machine with assembled parts that are separate from our spiritual experience as a human. Our body co-creates with our spirit to have our human experience. These two aspects of us are equal partners. They will do whatever they can to heal any physical or emotional wounds that we may have. It is up to us to be curious enough to hear what they have to say and be willing to take the necessary action toward healing.
Dwight Raatz, Life Coach, Konsilisto
Citations:
(1) Anne Redelfs, MD (2017). Illness Can Be the Cure!