When the body speaks

Words JANET McGEEVER

I had the most beautiful heart-warming experience one day in the middle of a workshop with the mind-body teacher Brandon Bays. Brandon asked me to give a ‘Journey process’ privately, outside the conference room, for a 70-year-old man from the audience. He was presenting with high distress about being in the room. Being almost deaf, he relied heavily on his lovely wife, who, in that moment, was not able to be his ‘ears’.

I led him out of the room and found a quiet, private space. As a qualified Journey™ practitioner, I began to give him a simple Journey process, sitting close enough for him to hear. ‘The Journey’ is an introspective, closedeye, guided experience that helps you uncover memories that have been locked away in the unconscious. This enables them to not only be revealed, but healed on a profound level, allowing the buried emotions to be gently released, coming to a completion and forgiveness of the situation or people involved.

In this process, the man had a spontaneous memory of being caught down a mine shaft with other miners. Underground for many hours, he was naturally distraught and thought he would never see his wife and children again.

He’d also worked in the Air Force when they didn’t use earmuffs for ground staff. Both incidents caused their own trauma: the emotional trauma of thinking he’d never see his loved ones, the imminent ending of his life and the physical trauma from aircraft sound.

Soft tears fell from his eyes as he got to say the words he could never say to his wife and children. So grateful, he was able to come to an acceptance of that experience. It was a beautiful, touching, simple process. Nothing unusual, but with such strong memories. He felt the feelings fully and was able to let go of so much through the process.

Once complete, we moved to outside the room in which Brandon was teaching. As I handed him a drink of water, his eyes widened and he started shaking. Lifting his quivering fingers, pointing in the direction of the room, he stumbled on his words, “What’s that?” I was perplexed. “Who is that speaking?” he asked.

I said, “It’s Brandon”, forgetting that he had been almost deaf! At the top of his voice, he repeated, “I can hear her! I can hear her! I can hear her!!” Honestly, he almost leapt to the ceiling. And you could have knocked me over with a feather. As we entered the room, he could hardly contain himself to tell Brandon!

This is the power and potential of the body to heal. A miracle? Maybe. But it made total sense to me.

Janet McGeever is a psychotherapist and author, who helps you thrive emotionally, and couples connect more deeply in their intimate relationships. www.janetmcgeever.com