Hello Reader!
Butt Tendonitis
That was the unofficial diagnosis of the nagging pain in my butt. Perhaps resuming jogging and pickleball just before sitting for seven days on a zafu wasn’t the best idea. A few days after our retreat, and just before heading out on a rock-climbing adventure, I found myself crippled by that pain in my ass. I stopped all exercise, canceled my strength training, and sought help from Structural Medicine Specialist and Mobility Coach Megan.
Recovery Through Structural Medicine and Deep Tissue Massage
Megan is a miracle worker. She carefully assessed my body—where it moved, where it got stuck, where it was strong, and where it was weak. Eventually, she concluded that I most likely had gluteus medius tendonitis and would work on it to give me some relief. And work on it she did. Megan skillfully went deep for over an hour, pushing me to the edge of what I could handle. Whatever she did, it worked! I’m writing this from my campsite in Mazama after two days of climbing!
So, I am now a Megan fan. (Here’s her website: https://www.align-smm.com) I highly recommend looking into Structural Medicine!
Body Shame and Self-Hate
As miraculous as my recovery from butt pain was, even more memorable was the conversation we had during the treatment. Megan is delightfully soft-spoken and allows pauses between speaking, yet our conversation ran deep. Very quickly, we were talking about body shame. She shared her sincere desire to reclaim a healthy relationship with her body, to let go of negative body image thinking, and also how difficult it can be in our society where “dissing” ourselves is the norm. I talked about a practice in my book, called naked reverence, that shares my own “body shame” story and how I began to loosen its hold on me. As Megan and I talked, we quipped that we would start a new “bring back the ‘pooch’ movement,” honoring a softer female body that can still be strong and fit.
Later, our conversation kept coming to mind. There was another connection to make. What causes us to get stuck in self-hatred thinking? Does it have to be that way? How can we reverse the trend? We suffer so much because of things like body shame.
The teacher of the retreat I just attended, Cheri Huber, is on a mission to help people wake up and end suffering. Her work is brilliant. Over and over again, she stresses that there is nothing wrong with you. We just get stuck in what she calls egocentric/karmic conditioning/self-hate. Our job, she encourages, is to investigate the thoughts that lead to suffering thoroughly.
The Art of Self-Inquiry
Okay, so it’s worth investigating our thoughts more closely. As I discussed last week, one way is to interview ourselves to get a clearer picture of what is happening. Are we stuck in some looping thought? Can we get a clearer picture if we interview ourselves a little, ask clarifying questions, and draw out more details? Remember, if you do interview yourself, the interviewer has no agenda. The interviewer is a facilitator—an affectionate witness.
We can also question our thoughts. Just because I think something is so does not mean it is true. I love the question, Is that so?, for its value in challenging my mind when I find myself in judgment. Who would I be without a particular thought? This questioning of our mind is at the heart of the “inner striptease” I talk about in my book, Naked in the Now.
So, all of these experiences and ideas have been rolling around lately—butt pain, structural medicine, deep tissue massage, body shame, investigating thoughts—all to end suffering.
Throughout it all, another thread wove its way, too.
The Body/Mind Connection
This week, my daughter Jaime has been reading a powerful book, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. The Body Keeps the Score is a crucial resource that bridges the latest neuroscience of trauma research with emerging body-oriented therapies and traditional mind-body practices. I am familiar with it and also with an older book called Waking the Tiger by Peter Levine because of my own experiences with PTSD from childhood sexual abuse. (See my award-winning memoir, More: Journey to Mystical Union Through the Sacred and the Profane, written under the pen name Mariah McKenzie.)
Jaime and I have had interesting conversations about how trauma can get stuck in our bodies and various techniques, like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing), that can help the body release the trauma. It helped me. It’s important to share these resources!
Traumatic experiences, especially those from childhood, not only may get stored in the body as various aches and pains but often also lead to internalized shame and guilt, which can foster self-critical thoughts and a harsh self-assessment of both the body and one’s identity.
Aha! I thought.
A Call for Deeper Self-Care
All these threads connect to a crucial insight: we need to elevate our self-care. This notion isn’t about indulging in temporary comforts but about deeply understanding ourselves—our body, mind, and spirit. It means paying attention to the pains in our bodies and seeking out people who know how to attend to them. It means noticing the aspects of our personality that habitually return to negative thinking, like body shame. It means seeing what thoughts are causing us suffering. It means daring to investigate our own mind/body/spirit connection. It means addressing physical ailments and also realigning our thinking. It’s about shifting from a victim mindset to one of compassionate self-witnessing.
Practice This Week:
Take time to interview yourself about your body, mind, and thoughts. Notice where you may be holding tension or negative self-judgment. Would bodywork help you release tension? Would questioning your thoughts with Is that so? and Who would I be without this thought? lead to clarity and less suffering?
Upcoming Events:
- Write Now Mind Session: New Session in October (email me if interested)
- Embracing Presence: A Workshop on Cultivating Mindfulness and Authenticity at Breitenbush Hot Springs, August 30, 2024, at 7:30 pm
- Inner Striptease and Naked Writing Workshop at Outwild in Lotus, CA (Sept 5-8)
Learn More:
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After leading Nobody’s Fault (5.7) in Mazama |
Don’t forget to leave a review or ask your local bookstore or library to carry Naked in the Now! 🙂
Smiles,
https://marijkemccandless.com
Kirkus Reviews endorses Naked in the Now!
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