Or when perceptions are not just about pain and tension

This article was first posted on my Substack account where you can subscribe to get my new articles sent directly to you via email.

Pain, tensions, misalignment…All those things are not necessarily the most pleasant perceptions. They are not intrinsically “bad” though, as they are just perceptions, which is quite a neutral thing. But a very dear friend of mine, who’s doing me the honor of reading my texts, recently asked me if I also tend to have more agreeable perceptions.

Yes, I do. And, indeed, I rarely talk about it. So let’s change that, shall we? After having talked about empathy for pain, let’s talk about empathy for anything that feels good.

When pain and tension stop

The first very nice thing that can be felt is when, after experiencing pain, it all suddenly stops. It gives the exact same sensation as resting on top of a mountain after having climbed for hours. Or the same level of energy as you feel when you are not sick anymore, except it is more localized in your body. It can sometimes encompass your whole body and beyond though, which makes it a particularly great sensation to have.

There’s a taste of time being suspended. It’s just like something is floating effortlessly. A bit like when you are in the sea, looking at the sky, cradled by the waves.

The patient talked to you about their lower back pain, you started to feel a sharp area on the right side of your lower spine and it felt tensed around your hip. You applied a technique on the hip and something changed. The hip, before feeling perfectly normal (meaning: you don’t feel it) kind of turns to you to send its regards and give you a big hug. “Cheers mate, I couldn’t find a way out and now I’m free”. It just feels so good.

And as mentioned earlier, if you experience pain as being yours, then you’ll also experience well-being as being yours. This is the reason why I tell my patients that I often feel quite good after a day at work. Tired, but quite peaceful.

Kindness

So this one is pretty interesting. And the thing is that it really belongs to the world of perceptions. It has happened a few times to me that while I was placing my hands under a patient, I got this perception of “real kindness”. I don’t think I could explain it further to you, my dear reader. It’s not that the person was kind to me, it felt like the person was just kind, independently of the context. If you are a Dungeon and Dragons player, think lawful good characters. They are people who you feel good talking to. I would even dare to say they are normal people. Like human beings who haven’t been touched by the dirt of this world. And don’t believe that they don’t know what sorrow is. Most of the time they know it more than others. But if anything, events of life have made them more loveful for their fellow humans. And this can be felt.

You should understand at this point that the opposite can be felt too. But let’s look on the bright side of life today.

Space

I’ve mentioned space in a former article, but I didn’t develop the idea of it. And I believe it’s an almost impossible topic to tackle. But I swear we will. For now, let’s just say that some people will tend to narrow the space in which the sensation appears, while some people will tend to expand this space around the sensation. They still show up with their tensions but they are not identified to them so the sessions feel very light. Those patients don’t project much onto you and you feel it’s easy to just be there with them. Easy sessions.

It also feels extremely nice when a patient surrenders and you experience a major increase in this space. It feels as if the patient believed they were living in a studio, you took a wall down and they are now realizing that they own a 3-bedroom apartment.

Hope

Hope, from Old English hopian “wish, expect, look forward (to something)”. Romans even worshipped a goddess of hope called Spes.

So, this is something that comes back again and again, in every session. Hope is there, somewhere. Spes is suffocating under thousands of layers of doubt and a lack of self-confidence. But, it is there. And when you are amongst all those demotivated cells, it is glorious to hear the goddess whispering to your ears. A felt sense of possibility. You are telling your patient there’s a way, and your patient feels it. And, since it’s the same old song, you feel it too, obviously, because there’s only perception and it doesn’t belong to anybody. But maybe, for this to be possible, one needs to have found Spes and worship her within their own flesh.

That’s all for today. The focus should be on both full parts and empty parts. Bad sensations and good sensations. Everything changes. Maybe good sensations are even more difficult to set free than bad ones. We always want to avoid things we don’t like and we write books about good sensations. But that’s the exact same trap. May you see that all this appears in you. Let the past die. The good memories and the bad ones alike.

Now is your chance.

That’s all for today. Should you like to receive my newest articles via email, you can subscribe here.

Love,
Jules