I recently beheld an anemone in a friend’s aquarium. I was fascinated. I saw it move, but did not see a face that would be associated with a brain, a brain that would be associated with consciousness.  I asked my friend if it was flora or fauna, and she said “Yes.” What is that about? Sea Anemones have no eyes, no face, no heart, no brain! Yet they sense what is food and what is poison, what is dangerous and what is safe. They move, they eat, they react to danger, and they reproduce. How is this?

Dr. John Upledger, the creator of CranioSacral Therapy, knew. He taught that each cell, each organ, each muscle, has consciousness. Livers don’t have brains but they know how to produce and filter blood, lungs don’t have a brain, but they know how to exchange gases, intestines don’t have brains but they know how to transform food into fuel. Skin protects, hearts pump, immune systems combat. Our bodies perform prodigious feats without direction from our logical brains — salivating, breathing, growing a baby, fighting infection, healing wounds, digesting food…  Every part of our body has a function…. and parts of our body regularly ignore our logical brain. Brains even ignore themselves! The part of the brain called the amygdala (“lizard brain”) routinely ignores another part of the brain, the frontal cortex (“administrative” brain).

Another one of the body’s feats is to be an emotion-vault and an emotion-mirror. Emotions can manifest physically. Hands sweat when we’re nervous. Stomachs flutter when we’re anxious. Faces redden when we’re embarrassed. Emotional distress can contribute to or cause headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, postural dysfunction, etc. And bodies protect us by caching away memories (especially of traumas) and feelings we can’t process. Anxiety associated with abuse might manifest as a constricted throat. Anger might be held in the liver. Grief might lodge in the heart. Emotions sometimes go “underground;” into the vault that is our body. And as you are aware, we don’t consciously plan these physical manifestations.  They happen without direction from our logical brain. More about emotions and the body here — Is Chronic Pain Linked to Our Emotions?

The body knows. The mind thinks it knows. We are like sea anemones in that our bodies do things without instruction from the (logical) brain. The body/mind has intelligence. That is why, as a CranioSacral practitioner, I tune into the body for vital information. As a deep listener, I sense things of which the client’s logical brain is not aware. I can “hear” that a knee feels neglected, that a shoulder remembers an injury, that a brain feels overloaded with thoughts. I model attunement to the body; I show the client how to tune into themselves. I help the client listen to their bodies and experience their own feelings. I help them feel the feeling; help them open the emotion-vault to free up energy; to tune into their knees, shoulders, amygdala, gut, heart, etc. To listen to their constricted throat (Is their avenue of expression blocked? Is there something they can’t swallow?) Pay attention to their sour stomach (Maybe there’s something in their life that they can’t “digest”). Feel the pain in their heart. Sometimes the conscious mind is not aware of the wisdom held in the body, but we can bring it to awareness by intentionally listening.

Let’s recognize our kinship to Sea Anemones….acknowledge our body’s intelligence. Let’s honor the gut, the throat, the heart. Let’s honor our brain and body as synonymous. Let’s listen to our body/mind. You just might find tension easing, pain lessening, self-esteem rising.

Nancy Paul

Nancy Paul, M.A., LMT, uses her training in counseling psychology and bodywork to help clients experience acceptance and wholeness. She integrates elements of energywork, inner dialogue, and spirituality to help clients access resources beneath their level of consciousness, to use their bodies to explore their psyche, and to embrace all parts of themselves.

Nancy facilitates harmony by listening deeply and encouraging inner dialogue. Clients are gently guided towards psycho-spiritual health through an approach that integrates elements of various gentle approaches such as guided meditation, EMDR, CranioSacral Therapy, inner dialogue, Reiki, and Zero Balancing. She tunes into the body/mind/psyche as one and helps clients find mindful acceptance and peace.

Credentials: M.A., LMT, LPC

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