A New Paradigm of Healing: Integrating Embodied Imaginative Practices into your Existing Therapies for Greater Healing
As far as the understanding of the mind-body connection goes, we’ve come a long way from the thoughts of Descartes and many early scientific pioneers that held the mind at the supreme height of awareness and control. Yet, we still find ourselves in a cerebral world—our bodies often overlooked and contorted into seats and positions of protection: shoulders rounded forward, head jutting outwards, arms rarely extending higher than the shoulders. As we understand the very real problems behind how we are influenced to overlook the mind-body connection in today’s world, we can exist with curiosity around how we can transform it.
Much of mainstream mindfulness remains focused on observing thoughts, leaving the body’s signals—pain, tension, exhaustion, and sensation—overlooked. But in a world conditioned to ignore the body and push through long work hours, many stigmatizing conversations around emotional and physical pain as inconvenient or weak, it is important to recognize when the body is taxed and needing deeper restorative practices. Those feeling distracted and disconnected from their bodies need a way to exist in the nexus of mind and body. To slow down and feel how healing does not emerge from the mind or body alone, but through an intentional relationship between the two.
As research surrounding the mind-body connection, consciousness, and contemplative practices continues to grow, more people are returning to embodied forms of healing such as massage, acupuncture, physical therapy, and therapy in general. Embodied meaning practices that support them in not only exploring their minds and bodies separately but familiarizing themselves with their internal landscape and connecting mind and body. In reconnecting the mind with the body as an essential part of awareness and healing, we open the possibility for deeper transformation, mental and physical recovery after traumatic experience, expanded consciousness, and more integrated ways of living.
We’re therefore entering into a new paradigm of healing— A basis of consciousness that some scientific methodologies say has existed since the dawn of time. Not separating the mind and body, butinstead integrating practices to more effectively connect the two and create deeper healing.
Imagination as a Nexus between the Thinking Mind & Bodily Experiencing
As a well-versed Hypnotherapist and Bodyworker, I’ve witnessed how the possibilities of healing expand ten-fold when the imagination becomes embodied. As the psychological world evolves, we are beginning to see more text on the subject of imagination and how it is so vital in this first-person scientific process we all naturally partake in when we metaphorically “put ourselves in others’ shoes”.
Literature like The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul, builds upon the understanding that one learns more effectively through the body than simply in the mind. She states, “…Humans solve problems most effectively by imagining themselves into a given scenario, a project that is made easier if the human in question has had a previous physical encounter on which to base her mental projections.” And so the imagination becomes a bridge to solve problems more effectively, and the body becomes a way to make that process even easier.
You can Return to Supportive States to heal the Body and Mind
My Hypnotherapy instructor always said, “Once something is felt it is never forgotten.” We are also able to use the body to support the imagination by putting itself in a new experience. This (not so) new paradigm of healing reminds us that when we get a massage, we are not just “treating ourselves”, we are supporting our body in remembering how to relax, how to lower cortisol, how to invite the mind to move from logical thinking states to meditative imagination, deeply tied to bodily experiencing.
This is incredibly supportive in a number of ways, beyond just physical. When we relax into the body, exit the conscious mind and enter states of flow or subconscious experiencing we can solve problems more effectively. A part of those problems can be general stress or can entail more specific issues or situations.
Combining Imaginative Healing through Intention in States of Body Connection
There are many ways we can integrate these techniques on top of other therapies to more effectively apply problem-solving, and connect to deeper states:
Whether it be massage, acupuncture, exercise or other therapies, imagine intentions, goals or aspirations before partaking in a therapeutic process. When you do this you bring a focused-awareness (a state of self-hypnosis and deeper state of consciousness) into your therapeutic processes, thus adding greater direction and attention into the body. Make sure to make intentions arepositive as Subconscious mind and the somatic body do not recognize negatives.
In states of deep relaxation imagine yourself already encompassing the qualities you need to overcome particular issues or problems. How you would communicate and move from this embodied (mind/body connected) state of success.
As you are in your therapy, and something clicks in your mind—maybe you notice your body more relaxed, or maybe you feel a release in your muscles or a movement feels supportive for you—imagine ways of positioning your body that connect to the positive, healing qualities you are experiencing. For example, perhaps you can imagine giving yourself a big hug, or placing your hands on your body in a healing way. Once you are complete with your treatment, continue imagining or doing that position or action in states of relaxation or whenever your body needs a reminder of those positive qualities. Great times to do this are before going to bed at night, during a meditation, a workout or a difficult situation. This is known as metacognitive regulation. It is a skill of quickly self-regulating through subconscious association with the body; when practiced over time will give you greater resources you can utilize outside of the treatment space.
As you integrate deeper states of awareness and presence in your therapeutic process, you may begin to find it supporting you much more—in important, small ways leading to greater shifts in nervous system responses over time. Embodied imagination has been ingrained in the activities of human beings since the time of early homo sapiens. Yet as we have evolved into this logical, wakeful world (not designed to support an expansive imagination because of constant distractions and societal pressures), we've begun to forget this vital resource that makes us the resilient, ingenious beings that we are. As we begin to remember this resource as a tool interdependent with the physical state, we transform states of consciousness—amplifying the effectiveness of our recuperation, responsiveness and healing in ourselves and our communities.