Spirit and Medicine Series Part 2: The Body’s Tide
At the heart of the body is love.
At the heart of love is mystery.
At the heart of mystery is purpose.
At the heart of purpose is the unity of all things.
This proverb, told to me by a patient, is from the Basque people, my ancestors.
I view my ability to help others as my life’s greatest gift. To work with the body is a true blessing, because to listen to it, yields mystery. Contacting the mystery gives me purpose. And when I become aligned with my purpose, my soul shines. As my soul connects with the oneness that is all around me, my consciousness shifts, to stillness, to something greater.
The last eight months of the All Ages Osteopathy blog and newsletter have taught me that writing is my soul’s way of expressing the profound connection between spirituality and healthcare. Therefore, I’m excited to share with you my Spirit and Medicine series.
Let’s continue with the body’s tide.
Like the ocean,
the fluid in our body is one contiguous entity that follows its own rhythm – a tide. The body’s tide flows in and out at its own rate. It’s a different rate than the heart rate and the breathing rate. Ideally the body’s tide is influenced by oneness with the universe such as seasons of nature, but many people’s nervous systems try to overrun this natural tide in order to keep up with the modern day world.
When working with the body’s tide during an Osteopathic treatment,
I hope there comes a time when the body’s tide stops moving and becomes perfectly still. Imagine a lake in the early morning – quiet and serene. In Osteopathy, this is called the Still Point. The Still Point is magic. Sometimes its quick, a little blip in time, and other times its long and deeply profound. The reason I describe the stillness of the body’s tide with powerful adjectives like ‘magic’ and ‘profound’ is because there is potent energy present in the stillness. Its potential energy. Creation energy. Here’s another way to visualize it – the stillness is a door. On the other side of the door is true healing potential. Through this door, one can fully experience that everyone and everything is one.
Ultimately, everything in the universe (including humans, animals, nature, etc.) is energy connected to peace. Separateness is a construct of our reality based on the five senses. If you can sense past this, even for a moment, to the stillness, a completely difference sense of reality will emerge. Some people call this experience God, Some call it the Source. I call it the Tide.
Can you palpate the unifying energy between all things?
I invite you to embrace the stillness and try to meet it with nurturing rest, and presence. Even though its right there inside of you, it can be hard to find so through Osteopathy, I can help you practice this stillness.
Once you’ve felt it for yourself, your body will remember, and it will become easier to find again on your own.