If Your Body Could Talk ...

Most people go to a doctor when they feel something coming on, but a new school of thought is that they should listen to their bodies which have all the answers. Michele Lee tries to find out what's ailing her as she explores BodyTalk – a new revolutionary healthcare system that has come to Bali. 

I felt a mixture of anticipation and curiosity as I entered the serene environment of Desa Seni Village Resort in Canggu, Bali, for my Body Talk experience. Frankly, I did not know what to expect.

I have always had a keen interest in alternative healthcare and have mostly opted for Chinese medicine and acupuncture rather than gamble on the efficacy of antibiotics, which my body never seemed to respond very well to anyway.

As I sat in a room filled with covered massage tables and 12 women and men who I hardly knew, I wondered whether BodyTalk could really be a stand-alone system. 

“Healing is always happening in our body,” explained Karen Atkins, the senior instructor of the five day BodyTalk workshop. “In order to be efficient the innate wisdom has to be able to handle, synchronize and coordinate all the different resources in the body and mind. In BodyTalk we’re going to be helping the disharmonious parts of the body become more harmonious, so that the flow can be smoother.”

This sounded good to me, but I still wondered whether it was really possible to harmonize one’s body parts. I wasn’t so sure that my innate wisdom would be up to the task. Despite my niggling doubts, I slowly felt an understanding creeping into my consciousness as Karen further explained how BodyTalk is about awareness. This was something that most healing modalities didn’t address, yet I had always felt was crucial to one’s healing.

We have to be aware of our bodies in order for the healing process to work properly. I discovered in BodyTalk that we aren’t really looking for problems, but instead, we are looking for the priority…the most important thing that we can do to get the body in balance.

By the end of day one, my head was swimming with all the newly acquired knowledge about our brains and how they control our bodies. I learned how to balance my cortices (which are the left and right hemispheres of the cortex layers of the brain) by placing my hand on each section of the brain and then tapping out my head and sternum while exaggerating my breathing.

This is a fundamental procedure done in BodyTalk which can be used for fast aid in an emergency to stop the pain of an injury or slow down the bleeding. It’s also great for anyone who has insomnia or headaches, because it relaxes the brain.  It was just what I needed since I’ve been an insomniac for many years!

Karen asked us to tap out our cortices before we went to bed that night, which would help us remember everything that we had learned that day. I wanted to test it out to see if it would also help me sleep. That night I slept deeply and awoke feeling refreshed and enthusiastic about the four days ahead of me.

As the days passed, I began to comprehend just how revolutionary the BodyTalk system really is, as it encompasses Western medicine, osteopathic and chiropractic philosophies, elements of applied kinesiology, modern physics and mathematics, as well as Chinese medicine which includes acupressure and the balancing of our meridians (12 energy lines which run throughout our bodies).

By the second day we were practicing BodyTalk regularly on each other. The sessions always started by asking: “Are permissions a priority?” If they weren’t, then we would proceed with the primary concept in BodyTalk, which is to “divide and conquer”.

The body is divided into four sections in the BodyTalk system. Section one focuses on body parts, organs, energies and endocrines. Section two focuses on environmental factors; anything outside of us that may be causing an imbalance in our bodies. Section three wasn’t addressed in modules 1 & 2, because it pertains to the more advanced modules. Section four encompasses the physiological functions of the body, i.e., how the body works, our body’s chemistry, circulation, lymph, etc.

The practitioner then proceeds by asking what is a priority. This is how she establishes the “imbalances” that need to be addressed in the client. Then the practitioner must determine what parts need to be linked in order to reestablish good communication and enhance one’s innate’s healing ability. Finally, once the link has been established, the practitioner then taps the head (brain) and sternum (energetic heart complex) to facilitate the linkage and to store the memory of the change.

“The body has an innate ability to heal itself on all levels. The key factor in maintaining our health is to reestablish communication between all the systems and body parts,” said Karen.

On day three, Karen had us do a practice session in which we specifically had to work on our “active memory” which is in section four of the protocol chart. The practitioner took my hand in his and asked my body a series of questions. He received neuromuscular feedback to determine yes and no responses. My hand remained rigid when the answer was no and was more relaxed and moved forward when the answer was yes. I felt that these movements were not forced, but seemed to happen of their own volition. He began to probe further into my active memory.

“Is the memory related to a belief system?”

“No.”

“Is it related to an event?”

“No.”

“A fear or phobia?”

“Yes.”

I was surprised by how clearly the practitioner’s questions were answered by my body, but I still didn’t know where he was heading with this, as I was completely unaware of any phobia that I had. It turned out to be a phobia that was linked to a particular person whom I would never had imagined that I feared in any way. The practitioner asked a few more questions to pin down exactly what the phobia was and then proceeded to tap it out while I held my hand on my heart and concentrated on the person.

I started to feel a shift within me as hidden emotions began surfacing. Gentle tears ran down my face as I began to recognize that this phobia had been rooted so deeply in my subconscious that I never knew it was there, yet now I knew that it had always existed. It took some time for the shift to happen, but it was unquestionably noticeable as I stood up. It felt as though an enormous burden had been lifted and that I could move forward and experience greater joy in my life.

As we finished our last day of the BodyTalk training I felt that something fundamental had changed within me. I wasn’t the only one who had this experience as several of the other students also healed significant health problems through the balancing of their bodies and minds. I walked out the door knowing that this new health paradigm had everything that we need to heal ourselves and others.

For more information about the BodyTalk System, please visit: www.thebodytalkcenter.com or email Barbara Hames at: barbarabodytalk@gmail.com or Michele Lee at: michelina630@dps.centrin.net.id.

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