Understanding the Healing Crisis. Module 3

Transcription

1 Understanding the Healing Crisis Module 3

2 Negative physical or emotional memories can be stored within the body. Negative physical or emotional memories can be stored within the body. This may come as a surprise to you as you may have thought that emotions are stored in the head. Thoughts and feelings not only stimulate and control our glandular, hormonal and nerve systems, they also influence every cell in our bodies, solidifying in our bodies and minds in ways that either brings forth congestion and inflammation (disease) or good health. Your body keeps a physical memory of all of your experiences and this is a scientifically proven fact. The late Dr. Candace Pert during the 1970 s took on the daunting task of finding the opiate receptor for her doctoral dissertation at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, her research would eventually lead to her becoming internationally recognized and her nominated for a Lasker Award for outstanding medical research.

3 Pert s discovery of the opiate receptor started a revolution that would later create deep shifts within nearly every field of modern medicine. It would ultimately unite immunology, endocrinology, neurophysiology, psychology and biology into a cohesive theory about how our thoughts and emotions are capable of creating well-being or disease within our bodies. Pert s work would explain and validate what Eastern healing traditions, shamans, energy healers and most alternative practitioners have understood for centuries. Dr. Pert s research provides scientific evidence that a biochemical basis for awareness and consciousness exists, that the mind and body are indeed one and that our emotions and feelings are the bridge that links the two. Pert explained, "The chemicals that are running our body and our brain are the same chemicals that are involved in emotion. And that says to me that we d better pay more attention to emotions with respect to health."

4 What exactly is a molecule of emotion? The first component is the one Pert discovered back in the 1970 s the complex molecule known as the opiate receptor. This discovery would explain the mechanism by which such opiates as heroin or morphine create their powerful effect on the body, the mind and the emotions. Receptors sit on the surface of cells and number in the hundreds of thousands on the average cell; specialized cells such as neurons might have millions of receptors surrounding them. These receptors act as tiny scanners and sensors which wait patiently until the exact fitting chemical key termed as ligands comes along and the most common of these is known as a neuro peptide, accounting for nearly 95% of known ligands.

5 What exactly is a molecule of emotion? The peptide delivers its chemical message to the receptor, which then transmits this message deep within the cell, triggering a chain of biochemical reactions which can create huge changes within the cell of either a positive or negative nature. Pert calls the peptides the second component of the molecules of emotion. She offers an analogy: If the cell is the engine that drives all life, then the receptors are the buttons on the control panel of that engine, and a specific peptide is the finger that pushes that button and gets things started. Pert then asked the logical question: If we all have the opiate receptor present on the cells within our bodies, then must it not follow that our bodies have the ability to make our own endogenous version of morphine? Why else would these receptors already be present on our cells? Within three years she was proved correct when the natural opiate substance manufactured within the body was discovered and eventually became known as an endorphin, a shortened version of endogenous morphine. The implications in this discovery are profound and suggest that we may in fact have a natural pharmacopeia potential already present within us.

6 What exactly is a molecule of emotion? Pert explained that the mind and body are interconnected We are all aware of the bias built into the Western idea that the mind is totally in the head, a function of the brain. But your body is not there just to carry around your head. I believe the research findings.indicate that we need to start thinking about how the mind manifests itself in various parts of the body and, beyond that, how we can bring that process into consciousness the neuro peptides and their receptors are the substrates of the emotions, and they are in constant communication with the immune system, the mechanism through which health and disease are created. Science and modern medicine have long been convinced that thoughts and emotions originate in the brain. In an interesting twist, Pert and Ruff disagree and suggest that thoughts and emotions bubble up from the body to the brain, where we can process and verbalize them according to our expectations, beliefs and other filters some get through and others don t.

7 What exactly is a molecule of emotion? Pert explained, during an interview that the frontal cortex of the brain creates stories and assigns meaning around those thoughts and emotions that do get through. Pert maintained that our immune systems are capable of learning and responding and neuroscience has now proven that immune cells can be conditioned to respond to stimuli, much like Pavlov s dogs were conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell. On this subject Pert said We know that the immune system, like the central nervous system, has memory and the capacity to learn. Thus, it could be said that intelligence is located not only in the brain but in cells that are distributed throughout the body, and that the traditional separation of mental processes, including emotions, from the body is no longer valid. It is important to note that we should be aiming for emotional and physical wholeness and that the body doesn t forget. As humans we have lots of memories stored in our brain this means that we are able to recall names, faces, smells, locations, but over time, these memories may fade, distort or change as time passes and even as we grow older. However, even when the memory begins to fade from your brain, it lives on in your body in the form of physical sensations and behaviour patterns.

8 What exactly is a molecule of emotion? The events of our lives leave physiological imprints in our bodies, especially when we experience trauma or situations of extreme stress that cause the body to fight, flight, or freeze in order to cope.in order to truly understand why a healing crisis happens you must first accept and acknowledge that emotions are real they exist in time and space and are located throughout our minds and bodies. If we accept the concept that peptides and their receptors are the actual biochemicals of emotion, then their presence in the body s nervous system and nerve cells shows us that the body can be thought of as the unconscious or subconscious mind. How suppressing anger or other emotions can contribute to the development of disease. Since expressing emotions contributes to a free flowing network of peptides and cellular communication in the body it is easy to understand how the retention of negative emotions or indeed repression of emotions creates blockages and insufficient flow of peptide signals to maintain function at the cellular level. By understanding how emotions come to be stored in the body you will be able to understand how these emotions can be released during therapy sessions and can result in a healing crisis.

9 Releasing Trauma In an ideal world we would be able to release the trauma as soon after it was triggered and so we would never hang on to negative emotions within our bodies But sadly we don't live in a perfect world, so most people tend to go about their daily lives carrying with them the physical imprints of past experience. Most people don t know how to release these imprints because they don't even realize they exist! There are tell tale signs that these negative emotions exist for example, have you ever felt your body tense up when you have to ask for help or to borrow money? Or have you even flushed when asked to speak in front of a crowd. The sensations you are undergoing are sign of your body remembering It's remembering a past experience when you asked for help and you received a negative response.

10 Releasing Trauma Maybe someone made you feel ashamed because you should have managed your situation better. Perhaps you were called to the front of your class as a child and asked a question you didn't know the answer to, so you felt embarrassed and humiliated, maybe a classmate laughed. You can try to forget, block, or rationalize the memories that are stored in our brains, but how do you work through the emotions connected to these memories or past trauma being stored in your body?

11 Releasing Trauma Animals shake when they experience trauma or anxiety, have you ever witnessed two dogs that have been in a fight? Once the fight has ended both dogs will shake to calm their nervous systems and quell the fight, flight or freeze response; allowing them to disperse their trauma without the creation of a cellular memory in the body. Sadly, humans tend not to disperse trauma in this fashion, instead we tend bury our stress, anxiety and trauma deep within our cellular memory and use food, alcohol and other addictive behaviours' to soothe ourselves in an attempt to quieten the emotional discomfort, but of course nothing will soothe the discomfort in the long-term until the trauma is released from the body.

12 Releasing Trauma Animals shake when they experience trauma or anxiety, have you ever witnessed two dogs that have been in a fight? Once the fight has ended both dogs will shake to calm their nervous systems and quell the fight, flight or freeze response; allowing them to disperse their trauma without the creation of a cellular memory in the body. Sadly, humans tend not to disperse trauma in this fashion, instead we tend bury our stress, anxiety and trauma deep within our cellular memory and use food, alcohol and other addictive behaviours' to soothe ourselves in an attempt to quieten the emotional discomfort, but of course nothing will soothe the discomfort in the long-term until the trauma is released from the body.

13 Releasing Trauma In his book Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, Peter Levine explains that the natural response to stress is the fight-or-flight mechanism, where the body pumps adrenalin into the blood and performs other functions in order to strengthen us and focus our energies to either fight or flee the dangerous situation. When fight or flight is not possible, the body surrenders, and freezes, as explains Levine. In the 'surrender-mode' certain functions of the body stop us from moving and reduce pain, as well as putting our minds into altered states. Levine speculates that these functions serve to reduce suffering if we get eaten by a wild animal but also sometimes tricks the hunting animal into believing that we are dead. The frozen state is temporary, however, and if we manage to avoid being eaten, we can then escape. When coming out of this freeze-reaction, Levine explains, the animal usually shakes off this excess 'trapped' energy, which was created during fight-or-flight. If this shake reaction is not allowed to take place, trauma can occur. Humans have unfortunately tended to suppress these shakes, as their mechanism has not been understood and has been branded as abnormal.

14 Releasing Trauma Normal responses to threat, according to Peter Levine are: 1. Hyper-arousal 2. Constriction 3. Helplessness 4. Dissociation "Unlike the automobile in which the break and accelerator are designed to operate at different times, with a traumatic reaction both brake and accelerator operate together. Since the nervous system only recognizes that the threat has passed when the mobilized energy has been discharged, it will keep mobilizing energy indefinitely until the discharge happens." [Levine, Waking the Tiger] This is why it is essential that emotions from past trauma are released from the body otherwise the body is in a constant state of alert believing it is under threat.

15 Next Module The Science of Emotions