Day 64 of 365 - What the Body Holds - Part Two
In 2003, Canadian physician, Dr. Gabor Maté published a book entitled When The Body Says No, The Cost of Hidden Stress. In it, he eloquently shares several case studies of individuals who developed serious illness of one kind or another. He takes the time to explore the psychological and emotional factors, the life stressors, which may well have had a strong influence on the development of the disease. It is a fascinating and revealing exploration, especially if you have never considered this perspective of illness.
The last chapter of the book is titled The Seven A's of Healing. Maté asserts that attending to these helps to build emotional competence, the ability to deal in an appropriate and satisfactory way with one's own feelings and desires. Many common chronic illnesses have correlations with unmet emotional needs and the resulting physiological stress which contributes to illness is well described in his case studies as well as his references from other professionals.
I want to briefly describe those seven A's here to elaborate on how we can pursue meeting those needs.
1. Acceptance; referring to having compassionate curiosity about the self, the same non-judgmental acceptance we would offer others.
2. Awareness; of emotional reality, our internal emotional perceptions, the signs of stress in our body. These are a more accurate gauge of our real experience.
3. Anger; referring to permitting oneself to experience it physiologically and contemplating what triggered it, without hostile acting out. Anger is a response to a perception of loss or threat. Both repression of anger and expression of rage are common correlations of illness. They both represent fear and anxiety and trigger physiological stress.
4. Autonomy; the development of an internal center of control, having an independent sense of self, establishing or reclaiming boundaries.
5. Attachment; having genuine emotional support; being willing to be emotionally vulnerable and seeking connections.
6. Assertion; of the sense of who we are, a valuation of our self that does not need to be justified.
7. Affirmation; expressing and honoring our urges to create and be present in the world; and, seeking a spiritual connection to all that is, to something greater than ourselves.
So, thinking back to the previous post about blockages in our energy field which may be perceived by practitioners or cleared through interventions, today's post is an indicator of what the sources of those blockages or distortions may be. And, I think I would like to do one more post tomorrow to explore tying these themes together.
The last chapter of the book is titled The Seven A's of Healing. Maté asserts that attending to these helps to build emotional competence, the ability to deal in an appropriate and satisfactory way with one's own feelings and desires. Many common chronic illnesses have correlations with unmet emotional needs and the resulting physiological stress which contributes to illness is well described in his case studies as well as his references from other professionals.
I want to briefly describe those seven A's here to elaborate on how we can pursue meeting those needs.
1. Acceptance; referring to having compassionate curiosity about the self, the same non-judgmental acceptance we would offer others.
2. Awareness; of emotional reality, our internal emotional perceptions, the signs of stress in our body. These are a more accurate gauge of our real experience.
3. Anger; referring to permitting oneself to experience it physiologically and contemplating what triggered it, without hostile acting out. Anger is a response to a perception of loss or threat. Both repression of anger and expression of rage are common correlations of illness. They both represent fear and anxiety and trigger physiological stress.
4. Autonomy; the development of an internal center of control, having an independent sense of self, establishing or reclaiming boundaries.
5. Attachment; having genuine emotional support; being willing to be emotionally vulnerable and seeking connections.
6. Assertion; of the sense of who we are, a valuation of our self that does not need to be justified.
7. Affirmation; expressing and honoring our urges to create and be present in the world; and, seeking a spiritual connection to all that is, to something greater than ourselves.
So, thinking back to the previous post about blockages in our energy field which may be perceived by practitioners or cleared through interventions, today's post is an indicator of what the sources of those blockages or distortions may be. And, I think I would like to do one more post tomorrow to explore tying these themes together.
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