I continually tell my three year old that our body has an amazing ability to heal itself, this is usually followed up by my lecture on the importance of eating fresh fruit and vegetables to fuel our body’s ability to heal and her eyes subsequently glazing over as she dreams of lollipops and ice-cream.
A healthy body does depend on good nutrition and a robust immune system to keep us well but as research progresses we are coming to understand the significance of the role of the nervous system to support recovery and good health.
In fact when we harness the amazing ability of the nervous system the healing potential is profound.
I can say this because I have personally seen it with my own eyes and continue to be captivated by how powerful this healing potential can be.
Last night on Channel Nines “This Time Next Year” Emma Henderson shares her incredible story of having a fall in which she injures her thoracic spine and suffers a severe head injury, she almost died. After 9 days in a coma she woke to find that her legs wouldn’t move and was then told that she wouldn’t walk again. She refused to accept her fate and worked tirelessly using “neurotherapy, physiotherapy and acupuncture” to reclaim her mobility. In the video clip she refers to the neurotherapy as “Tremor Therapy” and as I watched I was nodding my head, she was accessing and healing her nervous system through all 3 therapies. Click the link above, the video is around 9 minutes long and grab a tissue because her transformation is truly moving.
So why is the nervous system so crucial to healing?
Well our nervous system is bustling highway of sensation. Our nervous system is constantly scanning the environment for both danger and safety. When danger is noted it takes priority, we take in the sensations from our environment in the form of sights, sounds, smells and feelings and then our defense mechanisms kicks in to mitigate threat. We go into fight if that’s not a workable option we switch into flight and if all else fails we go into freeze or shut down. When we are safe we go into digestion and restoration, this is when our healing capacity kicks in, it’s why we get sick when we go on holiday. These are purely physiological processes based upon what our nervous system reads from it’s environment, the physiological overrides the psychological and does whatever it needs to to ensure our survival.
The tricky thing about the nervous system is that when we have a traumatic experience it automates some of the some of the sensations as a warning sign. For example if you fell into a rose bush as 2-3 year old when helping your mum trim the roses you might always cringe at the smell of roses but not understand why. In fact as part of the shut down process (and this doesn’t always mean shut down as in a coma but a numbing of some of the intensity of sensations) the area of the brain responsible for language shuts down making it difficult to recall trauma.
This can be a good thing at times but it also means it can be challenging to pinpoint the root causes of our concerns thereby making it almost impossible to weed them out.
So the big question is how do we get our bodies to shift from a defensive pattern to a restoration pattern?
Using neurogenic tremors.
It sounds simple and it is in fact quite an easy technique to learn but it is the continual practice that truly yields the unfathomable results.
I work with chronic pain. Chronic physical pain and chronic psycho-emotional pain and before I even knew about neurogenic tremors I knew that I needed to be able to calm someones physiology down before I could work on their pain be it psycho-emotional or physical. Now I utilize TRE (Tremor Releasing Exercises) so that I can teach people how to access their own nervous systems and discharge the excess energy and sensation that is causing them discomfort and despair.
I have personally seen decades old pain disappear in days, phobias gone, anxiety reduced, happiness increase and resilience restored. People often come to see me when they have tried everything else and nothing has worked. I will never tire of seeing the amazement and wonder on people’s faces when people tell me about their progress. Now TRE is not a one hit wonder, it’s best employed as an ongoing self care practice and amplified when utilized alongside other complimentary therapies.
So why aren’t our bodies doing it automatically if tremoring is a natural physiological process?
Because in our Western culture we see tremoring as being out of control, weak and vulnerable. If we see someone shaking we put our hand on them to try to contain their shaking or a blanket around them. Or if we notice internally that we are shaking we take a deep breath, get a grip, have a coffee or a glass of wine and keep on keeping on.
Now all these things can be comforting and at times can be very useful but in that containment we are in fact trapping the arising sensations and forcing them to go underground into the nervous system. It might be imperative at the time to stop the shaking and get into solution mode if dealing with a crisis either at home or at work but if the energy remains stored in the nervous system, day after day, crisis after crisis we ultimately end up with a chronic condition.
I see this automatic response to shutting down the tremors when I am teaching people. They literally grab at their quivering legs and look at me with surprise. As they begin to build familiarity and regain their trust in their body they allow the tremoring to flow unhindered and start to reacquaint themselves with peace, movement and freedom. Those with the strongest minds tend to be those that are most alarmed when the tremors are awakened because they are used to being very much in control but it is this strength of mind that is often our greatest undoing.
I don’t see weak people in my work I see the strong people that hang in and hang on. They are the doers, the tough ones, the super smart ones, they suck it up and push on through because they can and so they do … until they break. This strength of character is not their undoing it is our cultural illiteracy when it comes to all things regarding the nervous system.
When I watched the clip of Emma what struck me more than her ability to walk was the expression on her face. She looks fresh, vibrant, alive, clear.
The power of the tremoring process is that it not only cleans up the trauma that encourages us to seek help, it clears out decades of tension, stress, heartache and trauma so that we can be our full potential.
So next time when you notice your physiology activate under stress, tension or even excitement see what it’s like to let your body flow through it’s little shudders, trembles and tremors. It might take a few seconds or a few minutes to settle and when it does notice how that feels. For me the pot of gold isn’t at the end of a rainbow it’s at the end of a tremoring session, it’s where I find harmony, happiness and freedom. This is my wish for you too.
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Whether you are wanting to find greater ease in life, let go of the past or find your way through a difficult time I am here to support you. Call me for a free 15 minute consultation to discuss the ways in which I can help. Finding greater ease than ever before is often simpler than we think. So give me a call on 0419 101 665 or send me at email emiline@thenurturefoundation.com