My glorious Mexican sabbatical is coming to an end and I’m trying to savor every minute of my last days. During my long walk along the beach today I decided not to listen to inspirational podcasts, and instead, just let my mind wander. Two thoughts raced through my mind as I passed a massage tent where I got beckoned to purchase a massage. I always nicely decline as my mind flashes back to my first and last massage on a beach in Mexico.
It was approximately 8 or 9 years ago when I had my fateful beach massage that, to this day, sends shivers down my spine. Not that there is anything wrong with getting massages on the beach. I’m sure for just about everyone in the world they are wonderful. But not for me. Not that day.
So let me explain. Back then I was in a constant state of agony – suffering from severe pain in my neck, shoulders, and upper back due to a pinched nerve. It hurt to do . . . well, everything, including standing still. Knowing how much pain I was in and trying to still enjoy my vacation, my husband and friends insisted that I get a massage to feel better. Well, I laid there on that table, face down, and cried the entire time. It was torture to be touched and nobody could understand this. At the end of the session, I remember telling my husband that I felt like my body was in shock and no amount of margaritas could help it. Clearly, this was an experience that I never forgot because I remember it like it was yesterday.
This memory made my mind flash back to a few weeks ago when I had a meeting with my energy medicine classmates from the year 1 Foundations program. It was a reunion of sorts, where we got to tell about some experiences we had working on people and ask our teacher questions. One of my classmates was describing a client that she has that is in a severe case of Triple Warmer overactivity (ie, totally stressed) that she can’t be touched. It is simply just too painful to receive the very gentle energy treatments that require the body to be touched. Hearing this immediately made me think of myself and it just amazed me that I had no idea what was really causing all my pain. I never heard of Triple Warmer back then and I didn’t know that all of my pain was directly on this one meridian! Back then, I tried everything I could think of to help myself out of this situation including acupuncture and PT. Nothing helped and I finally succumbed to go under the knife and get surgery on my neck. Fusing some vertebrae seemed to fix the pain, at least temporarily.
Fast forward a couple more years and can you guess what happened? All the symptoms started all over again. Because . . . the surgery acted like a bandaid and temporarily covered up the problem. But eventually the bandaid fell off and the problem reared its ugly head once again.
So as I’m walking along the beach today I marveled at just how far I’ve come. Rather than heading back to the neurosurgeon for another temporary fix, I decided that the only person that can truly fix the root cause of the issue was me. That’s when I turned to meditation and Energy Medicine. It’s been three years of a serious and dedicated meditation practice and two years performing daily Energy Medicine exercises and I truly can’t even remember the last time I had the slightest pain in my neck. (Not including my husband, of course!) In fact, for the most part, I am completely pain-free.
This is sparking even more things that I want to share, but since this post is already too long, I’ll save it for another day. Please stay tuned for part 2 coming soon . . .
