Rolfing Healing Crisis – transitioning into wellness – Post 9

Support

Now that you understand the concept of the healing crisis, you can know what is occurring and can be familiar with the symptoms. Lets discuss what you can do to support yourself through the process.

Creating the new frame for your reactions, and how this can generate a healing crisis in itself, can be significant. When I take a few minutes to outline what a healing crisis actually is, the client then starts to relax and often gets excited about getting well. It is like some part of them knew that a good thing was happening, but there was no one supporting that belief in their world.

My first suggestion is always to allow – to surrender to the process. This does not mean suffering – it means attempting to accept that your body/mind is healing itself. We live in a society that doesn’t encourage us to slow down. Allowing our body and its health to be the priority can be the most difficult aspect of a healing crisis.

Frequently, my clients come to realize their biggest reason for developing the symptoms that brought themselves to me was how they were tense from always being on the go. Their healing crisis can be their bodies’ attempt to rest their internal gyro.

For us Type-A’s, slowing down or resting is sacrilege. I have struggled with “walking my talk” of slowing down. My head can come up with all the reasons why I need to do something as I continue to deny my body’s voice. For those who are athletes this can mean not training. I know athletes have many reasons why they must train – I have heard them all. I have also seen hundreds of clients come back and tell me that slowing down their workouts or suspending them for a period of time was the best thing they did. I had a few men come back to me after a month of not lifting to tell me they weren’t weaker – they were stronger. With a confused look on their face, they asked how that was possible. It is possible because Rolfing made their structure stronger, their muscles had more circulation and they were more relaxed.

You may prevent a healing crisis if you immediately slow down, rest and support your body. This may mean canceling a few activities, going to bed early, not having those three beers and generally vegging-out.