C Is For: Change Your State
I have created an acronym for moving through mind body experience - D.A.N.C.E - because moving through pain is an art not an algorithm. Learning to D.A.N.C.E. is about seeing your mind body experience as an opportunity to transform emotion energy and old belief systems, to rewire your brain, and to find conviction. I will unfold the meaning of this metaphor over time as well as the acronym itself, which stems from what I have learned to be the most vital elements of the healing journey. I will share these in the order that I am intuitively guided to do so. C is for ‘Change Your State.’
On the healing path, it is a delicate dance between what you must accept and what you have the power to change. Your mind body experience - not to mention your personality - may feel static or unchangeable, but this is far from the truth. You must create space within you to challenge the old brain patterns and discover new ways of being with your experience. A lot of mind body practitioners speak about “figuring out” what emotion or belief is showing up when physical sensations emerge, and if you are able to do this, more power to you. But I first needed to see that I could change the nature of my experience before I was able to identify what was showing up. While mired in sickness, my nervous system was severely dysregulated, which makes it quite difficult to access feelings. As a protective mechanism, I was often stuck in the thinking mind, which did not produce much good in searching for answers. As a result, I stayed stuck, consumed by the sensations and by my fearful, brain-based associations to them. As I used my thinking mind to attempt to get unstuck and analyze the situation, I only fed more power to the sensations and sunk deeper into feelings of helplessness, frustration, and despair. The thinking mind is not powerful enough on its own to see through the illusion of your physical experience. You need a deeper source of conviction to see yourself as the energetic being who can transmute the energy within you and rewire your brain as a result.
To identify a mind body experience, you first have to know - truly know - that there is an underlying emotional and belief-oriented origin that is being protected. Once you begin to know this with conviction, you can change your association to the experience. Specifically, once you know your physical body is safe, you have the power to challenge the fear-based associations to your pain.
The actual process of creating space may be different for everyone, but I have found that the thinking mind does not serve me in these moments. You first have to change the story associated with the experience. Think of yourself like an observer saying, “No, thank you” to the fear-based thinking that attempts to lead the conversation in the moment. The part of you that can say, “No, thank you” is the deeper part of your awareness that knows you are not your thinking mind. I have found that one of the most effective ways to change the story is by first changing your environment. Changing your physical environment exposes your brain to a safer way of being with the energy showing up and immediately takes power away from the dominant story associated to it.
Some form of physical activity is a great option to change your state, but it has nothing to do with the intensity of your activity and everything to do with the opportunity to bring positive energy to your mind body experience and create space for safety, power, and conviction. For example, simply getting out of bed in the morning is one of the most powerful ways to change your environment and, as a result, your inner state. From there, anything that follows is from a shifted perspective. The morning time is a perfect example because you wake up to a vulnerable state connected to the emotion and belief energy you have been stewing in all night. Changing your outer state removes you from this impressionable place and provides a change of scenery for your brain, inside and out. Think of how a movie portrays a story not just by the dialogue, but by the landscape and the music. Change the environment for your story and watch the story of who you are change. Other examples throughout a given day include, a cold shower, a breathwork exercise, or getting up from your computer where you’ve been entrenched for hours to take a walk. When you take a walk, the scenery has suddenly changed and you are now amidst the powerful energy of the trees and the birds. Your brain is not just perceiving different imagery, but responding to different energy in the environment. With new landscape comes new awareness. You may notice that alongside some fatigue or twinges in your back you now have space to see that your thoughts are racing or your body is shaky with nervous energy. As the observer in these moments, these clues point you in the direction of emotion energy beyond the physical sensations. Once you make the choice to change your environment, you set the intention to learn of and be with the emotion and belief energy itself rather than relating to the physical sensations as anything other than a communication.
When you attempt to think your way out of a mind body experience, the thinking is likely fear-based and stressful or it is limited in its awareness beyond your learned brain pathways. As a fish in a fishbowl, it is hard to see outside the glass. As your landscape expands, so does your awareness, and with expanded awareness it is easier to find conviction in the truth of your experience: you are an energetic being, your body is safe, and you can change your state. From this perspective, you can choose to re-engage with the thinking mind if it serves you. However, I would encourage you to let go of the need to figure out exactly why your mind body experience is showing up and to simply know that it is. Therefore, your only job requirement is to see it for what it is - emotion and belief energy manifested - and to create space to be with this energy in a safer way. Trust that this energy will reveal itself over time if necessary or it will just release as it needs to. Each time you expose your brain to this process, the fear based associations will shrink while your deeper awareness grows with conviction. You will grow more confident that you are not sick or disabled nor do you need some complex, analytical solution. All you need to know is that you have the power within you to change your state and your mind body experience will follow.