The body cries the tears

“The body cries the tears the eyes refuse to shed.”

-Dr. Don Thompson D.C., CFMP, DACBN

My Functional Medicine Doctor in Nashville said this in January of 2019, and I only become more convinced of it as time passes.

In my last post I discussed how the body communicates with us via physical symptoms, but today I’m focusing on how our bodies store stress and trauma in our muscles, tissues, and other dense areas.

Ask any body worker (Massage Therapist, Acupuncturist, Chiropractor, etc) and they will tell you that 9/10 times stress and pain are what bring people in.

Many will also tell you they pick up on other people’s emotions while working on them, and have to do grounding and clearing techniques in between each client.

How does the physical manifestation of emotion show up in the body?

• Fascial adhesions

• Scar tissue

• Stress knots or bubbles

• “Adrenaline pockets” (as described by a good friend’s Acupuncturist as she was healing from trauma)

• “Ropey” or contracted muscles

• Kinks in colon and digestive tract resulting in poor peristalsis (Colon Hydrotherapists see this frequently)

• Excessive body fat or fluid retention

• Energetic imbalances in individual organs (identified by Kinesiology and NAET)

• Cysts and tumors (I’m not suggesting this this is the only cause, just a possible manifestation)

Over time this results in “body armor,” as if the body created a barrier between the person and the threat. This can contribute to poor posture, chronic pain, premature aging, and overall misalignment and rigidity.

This is fascinating to me, but also pretty concerning. Why is our body doing this, and why does it seem reluctant to release what it’s carrying?

I discussed this with a friend recently and she introduced me to an idea by Lori Ladd: basically that our bodies absorb what we’re not present for.

Wow.

So basically if we aren’t willing or able to process the event (or the emotions associated with it) in that moment, they get stored. Our bodies act as a shield to protect us from anything that exceeds our capacity to cope.

Once we grasp the full implications of this, it becomes much easier to cultivate compassion for our body’s struggles, and gratitude that they have gotten us this far.

They are doing the best they can with what we’ve given them to work with- which often isn’t very much 😞

“Thank you body for being exponentially more resilient than I’ve given you credit for. I truly couldn’t do it without you!”

Blog post coming soon on how to release trapped energy and emotions. ..stay tuned.

Photo: Charleston, SC (Isle of Palms) April 2020