Want to take a deeper look at psychological creation your injury? No, this article is not about nutrition or even your body as a dancer. Rather, it is an in-depth holistic look at the relationship between the mind, brain and the body (based on the biopsychosocial model) to resolve the underlying psychological creation of your injury!
Firstly let’s take a look at the individual functions of the brain, mind and body.
The brain is the centre of the nervous system and serves as a physical structure assisting the mind and generates behaviours that promote the welfare of the body through the secretion of chemicals including hormones and/or activating muscles.
The mind is a stream of consciousness made up of your thoughts, perceptions of reality memories, imagination and emotions – both conscious and unconscious.
The body is an intelligent system constantly regenerating itself through the process of apoptosis – pre-programmed cell death and mitosis – pre-programmed cell duplication. It responds to the perceptions of the mind – both conscious and subconscious.
The mind bases its reality on its perception of reality. Perception is the process of collecting sensory information. How we perceive the world is formed in early childhood development and environment through our interpretations of sensory information.
The root of any emotional imbalance first begins at perception. When you perceive a situation by not looking at the whole picture (through seeing only positives or only negatives to a situation) you get emotional. At this time the brain then secretes hormones into the body and muscles contract as a response created by the imbalanced perception. When the emotions are expressed or discharged – muscles that were tense release and hormone secretion stops – you begin to balance. When conscious or unconscious underlying imbalanced perceptions are not dissolved then the body maintains the stress which then can create dis-ease or injury.
It is important to seek medical attention for disease and injury and at the same time it is also incredibly important to look at and resolve any underlying emotional & psychological cause. Your injury is a creation by you. In addition to any necessary medical support, you have the power within you to help the healing process through discovering then dissolving any underlying emotional and psychological cause. This is not a replacement for a medical practitioner, rather a complementary process that can help you get to the deeper cause. I have assisted a number of people to connect with the psychological creation of injury and it is a very effective and liberating experience for many. Below are a few exercises and questions that I ask my clients to help begin the healing process.
Part 1- Discovering the underlying cause
- Place your hand on your injury, close your eyes and take 10 deep rhythmical breaths – breathing in for 5 seconds and out for 5 seconds
- Remembering your body is an amazing intelligent system; ask your injury in your mind how it is feeling. Once you get a response then write it down.
- Ask yourself: What are you gaining from it? What do you now get to do or not do that you didn’t get to prior to the injury? How is it serving me? What am I learning?
You can get to the underlying issue on your own, however it is most effective when a professional facilitates you through as they have the skills to get you to dig deep to find the answer.
When working with dancers I have found some common subconscious creations are;
- To get out of doing something
- Burnout due to feelings of not being ‘good enough’
- Repressed anger towards a perceived authority e.g. parent, teacher, boss
- Not feeling supported
- Not seeing a way out of a situation
When the mind is centered the body heals. The body feels and reacts to what is taking place in the mind all the time!
For more information on Kate Histon and her services visit www.katehiston.com and www.byrondancedynamics.com.au
© Copyright Kate Histon 2009.
