In Chapter Eight of her book Welcoming the Unwelcome, Pema Choödrön writes:
“The more willing you are to step out of your comfort zone, the more comfortable you feel in your life. Situations that used to arouse fear and nausea become easier to relax in. On the other hand, if you stay in the comfort zone all the time, it shrinks.”
I do everything I can to create a safe place for my clients when they come for a healing. I make sure the temperature of the room is perfect for each individual (there is a huge range of preferences). I choose their favorite music and set the volume at a soothing level. Each session is at least two hours apart, so no one leaves feeling rushed, or ungrounded.
Despite all my good intentions, I often witness my clients feeling unsafe to relax and let go on the healing table. I have realized that to truly create a space for my clients to feel safe, they often have to feel unsafe.
After long periods of stress their emotions, mind, and physical bodies have tightened up to protect, support, and defend them. Letting their guard down and relaxing their muscles can feel foreign, and even scary. Many people receiving an energetic treatment are sometimes surprised in the first session to find out how much trauma they were holding.
Yet, just this conscious awareness of our internal state is so healing, however difficult it is to first acknowledge. Even if people “fail” to relax in their session, that subtle inner awareness begins to change their experience of life for the better.
Sometimes people are back to their center in one session and sometimes it takes months, even years for others to finally experience what it is like to feel relaxed and safe in their bodies and in the world.
“And the Day Came When the Risk to Remain Tight In a Bud Was More Painful Than the Risk It Took to Blossom.” – Anais Nin.
Jeri Lawson has a full-time healing practice in Oakland, California. She is available for Healing Touch, Reiki, and Clarity Breathwork Monday through Friday.
510-601-9632
jerilawson@mac.com