How Does the Body Heal?
Spoiler: With Support
After at least twenty years of pursuing an answer to the question, ‘How does the body heal,” I have answer. The trouble is, it’s counterintuitive to the push/hack/cut/intervene paradigm that reigns in mainstream medicine, solidly stuck in left-brain thinking. Here it is: Instead of forcing the body, support it instead. That shouldn’t be a revolutionary strategy, but it’s been ignored, probably for being a profit non-starter. Now that the pandemic has proved the dangers of ignoring this common-sense approach, let’s look at some simple ways to augment the body’s own healing capacity.
Relax - Your body actually has a healing mode. It’s what emerges when the parasympathetic nervous system is activated, such as when you’re sleeping, meditating, walking in the woods, or hanging out with friends and family. One easy way to create vibrant health is simply to spend more time in parasympathic mode, as with such methods. Additionally, bodyworkers know how activate the parasympathetic nervous system for specific applications, such as healing your twisted ankle or removing a chronic disease burden. This is what I cover in my Resonant Attention classes and it’s not difficult, though it can be mind-bending. It’s what’s behind placebo, spontaneous remission, and all modes of healing.
Healthy relationships and intact community support systems can boost the time you spend in parasympathic mode. Nourish - Fresh food and clean water offer support in more ways than the obvious. Besides being daily fuel, a diet that isn’t laced with chemicals (like glyphosate) or inflammation-producing irritants (like gluten or dairy) lessens your body’s to-do list. Without a big burden to metabolize, your body will automatically have extra time healing. This kind of support can add up!
Take a break - Fasting gives your body extra time to heal—it’s that simple. All the energy that goes into breaking down and digesting food can be used for other projects, like attending to that heart-break or repairing that old knee injury. Even a modified intermittent fasting schedule — such as skipping dinner two or three times a week — can create lots of support for healing.
Tend trauma - Trauma gets lodged in your cells and nervous system when it’s too much to handle in the moment. The idea is that you’ll deal with it later, when you’re in a safer space, have more time, or are older and wiser. Though daily life doesn’t often conspire to give us this kind of support, especially if you’re in a lower socio-economic bracket and/or have high stress levels, it’s still important to prioritize this type of renegotation. This can be as accessible as putting your own hands on your body and staying present while the tissues process or as elaborate (and profound) as something like Systemic Family Constellations. Earmarking resources to lower your trauma burden can be crucial to support your health.
These ‘allow technologies’ may not be big money makers; but they are health creators.
Love,
Stella
This is super helpful! Thank you!