Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Moving The Body
It’s often the case that my dance teachers say things like “the body loves to move” or “make your body happy – move in the way it wants to move.” And, for me now that resonates as truth. I know from my experience with energy healing and recovery from illness that emotions are held in the energy field, and can affect the physical body. Moving the body as it wants to move can literally facilitate release of stuck emotions and lead to healing.
Of course, when I was really ill with ME / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I would not have been able to do that. I was scarcely able to get out of the door to do my shopping, let alone think about how my body “wanted” to move. That would have seemed almost absurd to me as I was just trying to get through the day in one piece!
So, how did I get to this position where I am doing free form dance (5 rhythms and biodanza) at least twice a week, and discovering all the time new ways in which my body wants to move and release stuck “stuff” from the past?
Well, I suppose really it happened very gradually. Before I became ill with ME / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I was actually very active – but in a completely different way. I used to do a lot of high altitude walking, and a lot of swimming. When I got ill, and found that even tiny amounts of exercise could make me exhausted for disproportionate (1 or 2 weeks!) amounts of times, I was very confused. It felt to me as though exercise and moving the body was good for everyone except people like me diagnosed with this mysterious and completely confusing condition!
There were quite a few “landmarks” for me along the journey to loving moving my body again. One of them was engaging in a structured activity plan. Having the discipline to do this in a supported way (I had a loving mentor for those times when I was scared of overdoing it or when I was just scared – because movement is scary when you think you may relapse!) led to me being able to go for longer walks and go swimming. But at this stage, moving the body in a “free” way to release stuck energy was still a long way away.
It was going to the School of Energy Healing that changed all that for me. As I began to release stuck emotions and energy from events in my past (see other blog posts on inner child healing, past life healing, relationship healing and sound healing to get an idea what I am talking about), my body started to want to move in ways that would release. I didn’t make anything “happen” – it just happened of its own accord.
Nowadays, working with people who have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / ME, I use the same things that helped me to get better with my clients. So, I incorporate energy healing and the Emotional Freedom Technique to release traumas from the past that are stopping us healing in the present; and I work with people to help them strengthen their physical bodies through an activity plan and a nutrition plan.
After a certain amount of time, it feels as though people’s bodies do suddenly want to move – in a healthy way that expresses who they are and releases what needs to be released.
If you’re interested in what you’ve read here, and would like to know more about the way I work with people suffering from this debilitating condition, go to my main website.