I’ve mentioned in my blogs that I’ve been having some low back/hip pain this summer. During August it was worse (probably due to stress, sitting studying a lot, and generally running myself ragged) and it still bothers me during long days sitting at school. I could go on about how I hurt my back, its connection to other structural issues (knees, feet, etc) and how all of that connects with years of working on internal healing, but that would make for an extremely long blog!

This week at school there was a “visiting elder” speaking on a few topics, including cranial manipulation (which covers several specific techniques). The general idea of this is that misalignment of bones in the skull, face, and neck can cause problems in the rest of the spine and structures of the body and that you need to begin at the top of the body and work downwards to create balance. There are many, many different manipulations and adjustments used, depending on the issue of the patient.

During this talk my back was particularly uncomfortable, so I volunteered to take part in a demo of some of the techniques. First, the doctor demonstrated misalignments in my body to the audience and pointed out that I am a “crooked mess” (not in a mean-spirited way), which really got to me because that is exactly how I’ve been feeling lately! After working on me for only a couple of minutes, my back felt great and I had no more pain! He said I should expect to have some soreness and pain for the next few days (which I did) as things settled out, but that my back should improve to some degree (which it did).

On Wednesday I went back to see him again during his office hours at school to discuss some of my structural issues and for another treatment, again for only a few minutes. I feel now like he has definitely helped to shift some things in my back, hips, legs, etc and that my ease of movement is much improved! I have yet to see where all of this will end up, but I am now looking further into these techniques as well as pursuing some therapies with my intern at the clinic.

What surprised me about this whole experience was how emotional it made me! I am feeling a lot of frustration about some of the physical limitations I am experiencing right now and I found particularly that after the two treatments he gave me, I was on the verge of tears – not from pain (although they left me sore), but from emotions that somehow were surfacing and tension that was being drawn out of my spine. I am so grateful to have met this doctor/teacher to point me in a new direction and I nearly broke down completely when I thanked him for all his help and he hugged me!

With the help of my intern (who assigned me to do a health timeline for myself to identify patterns and trends in my health history), I’m starting to understand how my external symptoms have evolved from internal healing I’ve done and also how some major emotional and psychological events in my life have contributed to my health. Seeing these patterns is inspiring because although I am having challenges right now, my deepest, internal health issues are steadily improving!

I’ll finish this blog with the Laws of Cure (attributed to Constantine Hering), which state that on the path to healing symptoms will change:

From above downwards.

From within outwards.

From a more important organ to a less important one.

In the reverse order of their coming.