October 18, 2024
“Times are difficult globally; awakening is no longer a luxury or an ideal. It’s becoming critical. We don’t need to add more depression, more discouragement, or more anger to what’s already here. It’s becoming essential that we learn how to relate sanely with difficult times. The earth seems to be beseeching us to connect with joy and discover our innermost essence. This is the best way that we can benefit others.” – Pema Chodron From her book When Things Fall Apart
My feed on social media brought this post up today. I finished re-reading When Things Fall Apart two days ago. Mother Earth (or at the very least the global climate) seems to be doing some beseeching indeed. To beseech is to ask (someone) urgently and fervently to do something; to implore; to entreat. This is not a post about global climate change. I won’t mention politics here, now. But how do we “connect with joy and discover our innermost essence” when faced with grief and devastation. While I don’t think there is any benefit in looking the other way, or bypassing some of the major issues in the world, I do agree that adding unnecessary negative thoughts, drama, or hate isn’t what we need right now.
My holistic PT practice emphasizes some potential remedies for this. Discovering our inner essence is possible through cultivating presence. We can increase our ability to meet difficult times from a place of resilience. Over, and over and over again. In other words, just like getting a stronger core, getting to our most potent inner strength and embodiment takes patience, practice and repetition.
If you are still reading this far you might be wondering how this differs from a meditation or other spiritual practice. Or why would I choose holistic PT and not just talk therapy? I love and support all those things. And they work great in tandem with my offerings. Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (BCST), and Holistic Pelvic Care ™ are both body-based (or bottom up) approaches to rehabilitation or healing. The sessions I offer can invite your body to be the initiator for an unwinding process. This might start by noticing a cranky shoulder, or persistent tightness in the neck. When the conditions are created to reveal the underlying layers to these restrictions we can heal more completely. Some even find that effects lasts longer or symptoms don’t return.
Traditional physical therapy as I was trained is a means to an end. We are movement experts with a goal of getting you back to your optimal function – whether that is simply moving around an assisted living facility, or running a marathon at PR status without injuries. Holistic physical therapy goes back to Pema Chodron’s statement of connecting with joy and discovering our innermost essence in order to heal, while also benefiting others. The side effects may include moving better, from a stronger core, with less injuries and fuller sense of personal power. And who doesn’t want to live sanely through difficult times? For now, I’m hanging in there – I hope you are too.
