​As a culture, we are proficient and instinctual at disconnecting from our physical bodies. We live in a society that is heavily based on a “Western medicine” approach for attending to physical symptoms. When we have a headache, we are immediately encouraged to take an aspirin to relieve the pain. We have a muscle pain or body ache, and immediately are told that we must “treat it” with medicine or exercises designed to alleviate the pain, or even in some cases that we need to have surgery. ​

​There is strong reinforcement both from the medical field, as well as from the general culture, to function “at a high level” at all times, and not to let anything get in the way of our success and ability to “do our job” and “do it well”. Remember the old aspirin commercial: “I haven’t got time for the pain”?

One of the first lines of treatment for depression or anxiety is very often psychotropic medications. In most cases, by the time I begin working with an individual, they have already been on medication for some time, and still are experiencing the symptoms of depression or anxiety, loneliness or malaise, which is why they are now seeking an alternative therapy to address their issues. There is nothing wrong with medication as a form of intervention to treat symptoms. However, the limitation of taking a pill as the primary solution to feeling better is that we are essentially postponing having to deal with the underlying emotional issues; we are “numbing” out so to speak, to the emotional pain that also exists alongside our physical condition.

​You see, when we were born, we were designed to function as an integrated system, body/mind /spirit, all operating in conjunction with each other, and in this paradigm, everything we experience on one level is also experienced on the other levels simultaneously. I am not suggesting that we need to sit in pain until it goes away on its own, that would not be responsible to ourselves. What I am suggesting is that there is always an emotional or energetic component to every physical condition. If we are willing to listen and attend to its message, we are tapping into a deep and profound source of wisdom from our bodies which we can use to heal ourselves.

We will be doing our first “LIVE” event today at 2pm cst. For those of you interested in joining us this afternoon, please join the group first and then you can sign in for the live event tomorrow. In case you miss the live event tomorrow, it won’t be up forever, but you can you can still replay it later so feel free to join the group after the fact and you can access our resources too. This live event is EXCLUSIVE for members only of the Visual Journaling group, link is in image below- so come on over and check us out!

A Word To The Wise with Kate Schroeder, M.Ed, LPC, NCC Remembering Your Body ​(Originally published June 2014 for “The Healthy Planet”)