The Body as a Reflection of the Mind

~ How trauma can be stored in the body ~ 

They say everything in our body is connected … from the top of our head to points on the soles of our feet … every pressure point is linked to an organ in the body along meridian lines. Treating a sensitive point under our foot, can release pain somewhere else in the body. Even teeth are linked to vital organs in the body. What I’d like to touch on in this article is the trauma that we store in our bodies, and our body’s way of showing us where that stuck energy has or is accumulating.

Afflictions in the body are a way of letting us know that something is not well in our psyche. By burying the hurt, resentment, anger or bitterness and often denying those feelings, the feelings are held in our bodies and may show up as cancer or arthritis or heart conditions or some other physical condition. We can lie to ourselves about our feelings and emotions by suppressing them, but our body never lies.

The channels of our body can be likened to rivers:

When we hold clear beautiful thoughts, the channels of our body are clear, and we are healthy.

Resentment and criticism churn up mud, settle along bends, and form mud banks.
Arthritis is formed due to inharmonious emotions which change the composition of chemicals, settling as silt deposits in our joints.

With anger, the river becomes a torrent, which if left to overflow long enough, will culminate at a weak point and create a flood. In the same way, if we nurse hurts and grievances, growths will form. Erosion of the banks will form ulcers, or weakening of the banks will allow viruses and infections to develop.

Fear creates tension which constricts or blocks the flow in the body, allowing disease or illness to flourish.

In a smooth flowing river, there is no mud, silt, weeds, or torrents. Loving, generous, kind, joyous, and prosperous thoughts generate a rich full blood supply which flows to every part of the body. No illness or virus can take root or flourish in this environment.

When I studied Metamorphosis healing, I was taught that the body is divided into several sections indicating relevant energy … for instance, the right side of the body indicates male energy in our lives (fathers, brothers, husbands, male friends), and also relates to work and career, and to our masculine aspect; the left side indicates feminine energy in our lives (mothers, sisters, female friends) and our feminine aspect. And did you know that from the right knee downwards into the foot, we carry 7 generations of family history?

Arms represent how we embrace life.

Knees are to do with ego.

Joints are concerned with flexibility and change.

Spines support us. If we don’t feel supported in an area in our lives, it can represent as back problems.

Shoulders indicate the way we carry ourselves through life. Are we bent under the burden of the problems we carry, or do we walk tall?

A neck ache can indicate that we are being stiff necked or rigid about something.
Alternatively, someone is a pain in the neck to us.

If we receive a shock, we faint. If we feel belittled, we get a headache. If we are upset, we feel sick.

The skin is a strong reflection of our emotions. When we feel irritated it will itch. Ask yourself, who is irritating me?

Ears: If we have earache there may be something that we don’t want to hear. People with nagging partners sometimes withdraw into deafness.

Deeply held fears may be buried more deeply within our bodies, i.e. in our livers or kidneys or gall bladder or bladders, and we would need to look deeper within (refer to *Erin’s story below).

If we want to argue or speak up for ourselves and cannot or dare not, our throat tightens. The more often we hold our throat in tension, the more likely we are to give ourselves laryngitis, tonsilitis or some other throat ailment (refer to *Lilly’s story below).

When we constantly suffer from extreme hurt or rejection, we tense our hearts, and can give ourselves angina or heart problems.

Besides bringing the energy through from previous generations, we add our own experiences from this lifetime, and depending on how we deal with dramas and traumas, we can store these negative energies in our body for ages. It may take one negative incident too many to open up an old psychological wound and then we sit with an unexplained physical ache or pain that simply won’t go away (refer to *Angela’s story below).

Our mind is the instrument that steers the negative energy either away from us, or stores it within us. When we hold on to something that we can’t let go of, that’s when the cells in our body react.

Let me share a few stories of people who have held on to hurt and how it affected their lives over time. Names* have been changed to protect their identity.

*Angela’s parents were going through a rough patch in their marriage. In desperation, *Angela’s mom decided that she’d try and save the marriage by falling pregnant. She didn’t realise the trauma she placed on her young infant’s life.

Even before her first breath, *Angela absorbed the stress of her mother's desperation, a legacy passed down not through story, but in the heightened cortisol that flooded her prenatal world. Her parent’s fractured marriage became the unsteady rhythm of her own nervous system. As a little girl, *Angela would involuntary flinch at the faintest sound of her parents' hushed, late-night arguments.

She grew up believing that to be loved was to be a constant negotiation, an unspoken, lifelong duty to soothe a wound that was never truly hers. This inheritance lived in her, a cellular echo of a bargain she was born to keep, making her feel unconsciously responsible for the fragile peace of her family.

As *Angela grew older, she repeatedly developed cysts in her ovaries and underwent a couple of operations to remove them. She is now facing another operation to remove a large growth on one of her ovaries.

*Angela wasn’t aware of the inter-generational energy she’s been carrying until she consulted a healer for another matter. She’s now undertaken to break the energy ties on a spiritual level with her mother in order to cut the invisible thread that connects her mother’s trauma to herself.

*Erin was still young and transitioning from diapers to the potty, when her mom lost her temper during potty training. She beat *Erin until she, the mom, passed out from anger. While *Erin was young enough not to remember the incident herself, the story was repeated many times over the years by her father who proudly told people how his wife lost it with their daughter until she passed out across him on the bed.
Unable to move, he had to wait until his wife slid to the floor before becoming disentangled from the bed linen. When *Erin was older, she asked what happened to her after the beating, she was scolded for being brazen enough to want to know more.

The sad part is that when *Erin was about 8 years old, she was diagnosed with nephritis, a kidney disease. She spent 3 months in hospital recovering. Over the years, *Erin developed kidney infections whenever she dealt with her parents in difficult circumstances. Her mother was especially controlling, criticizing everything *Erin put her hand to. In the end, when an opportunity arose, *Erin moved away from her family home and started fresh in a new town. There were many times when *Erin’s mother was kind and nurturing, and *Erin relaxed and started trusting her, but then history would repeat itself and the manipulation and criticism would begin again.

It wasn’t until many years later when *Erin met with a holistic healer in her new town that she was made aware of how the body stores trauma and how illness manifests itself relevant to the mental anguish experienced. Kidneys and the lower back are particularly significant when dealing with feelings of criticism, disappointment, failure, shame and being unsupported. While dealing with the physical affliction, *Erin went on to learn how to deal with the mental letting go as well.

*Lilly reported to a woman in a tough environment where little attention was given to personal issues, and where men had little tolerance for women unless they were wearing safety boots. *Lilly tried to adapt to the dominant male environment, switching off her emotions and gave the job her best shot as employment was scarce. *Lilly worked in this company for many years, swallowing her frustration until one day she felt as if she was wearing a collar around her neck. The tightness around her throat became so constrictive, she would pull at her neck as though trying to loosen a collar. When the symptoms worsened, *Lilly consulted a doctor who sent her for various tests, the final test being an isotope scan and an appointment with an ENT specialist. The specialist found nodules on *Lilly’s thyroid, however, they weren’t large enough to warrant surgery.

During a hospital visit for one of the scans, *Lilly’s manager was away. *Lilly was returning to the office when a call came through from her manager demanding that she type up notes sent through to her via cellphone. *Lilly acknowledged, trying to explain she was on her way back to the office and would send the typed info as soon as possible. The manager cut the call short as she wasn’t interested. The metaphysical collar around *Lilly’s neck tightened so badly, she coughed for hours afterwards until she threw up. It was only when *Lilly could no longer bear the abrupt nature of the environment and the unsurmountable dread of having to return to that office daily, that she sought alternative employment.

In her new job, *Lilly no longer felt strangled and no longer had the urge to grasp her neck to release a metaphysical collar. In the new environment, she was able to laugh and express herself and have conversations freely.

The connection between our minds and bodies is undeniable. Our thoughts, emotions, and stress levels, coupled with beliefs and lifestyle choices, actively influence our physical health and appearance. Chronic stress, for instance, can lead to muscle tension, while low self-esteem might affect body image. Conversely, positive mental states and self-care practices can enhance overall physical well-being.

The ancient principle, "As within, so without" suggests that our internal world (thoughts, feelings, beliefs) is mirrored in our external experiences. This implies we shape our reality through our inner state and can alter our external lives by changing our thoughts and emotions.