How intuition and feeling are your superpowers
I wrote this during my time at the Myofascial Release treatment centre in Pennsylvania, reflecting on how in our modern world we so readily turn to technology to give us the answers instead of using our human senses.
The realm of feelings, both in terms of sensory input and expression of emotions, generally isn’t viewed as reliable compared to the data we receive from machines. However, in my work, using and trusting the information I’m receiving from my senses is a crucial part of the job.
This is a short article on a big subject, which I hope will pique your interest to read further. Books by Gregg Braden and Dr. Gabor Mate are a great place to start.
Remembering how to use our senses
I started my Sensory Herbal Medicine apprenticeship with Kaz Lawton and Fiona Heckels in 2011. As the name suggests, a key part of the training was learning – or perhaps more accurately, remembering — how to use our senses to discover the medicinal properties of plants.
Before sharing with us their vast knowledge about herbs, Kaz and Fiona encouraged us to engage in “conversations” with plants using observation, smell, touch and taste. This is what humans have done for millennia and have only recently forgotten. Today we give superiority to intellect, and linear, rational, hierarchical ways of learning and knowing. This of course can be enormously helpful but limits us from accessing so much more.
I’ll never forget our first assignment on a fresh March morning, sitting with Nettle Root — a plant I knew nothing about. We were instructed to go out on our own, dig up some roots and note our findings. When we regrouped my mind was blown by how similar our insights were, which were also then confirmed by Fiona and Kaz, and the medical understanding of Nettle root properties.
What kind of sorcery was this? But of course, this was not magic. We were gathering information and tapping into the wisdom of our feeling intelligence. This can feel like magic because it seems mysterious, can lead to incredible outcomes, and is a way of knowing that we’re not practised at.
Intuition: Our sixth sense
It’s this feeling-intelligence that guides our work as John Barnes-trained Myofascial Release therapists. People often ask “how did you know how to put your hands there?” As with my Sensory Herbal training, I’m using my senses — I’m observing how the body is responding moment-to-moment, I’m listening to what my client is telling me, I’m feeling what’s going on under the skin, and also being guided by what we call our our sixth sense — intuition.
The definition of intuition is the ability to understand or know something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning. Unfortunately most of us grew up believing that intuition is “woo woo” but it’s only mysterious because science hasn’t figured out how it works yet. And perhaps with quantum physics and advanced research into the properties of water, we’re actually much closer to understanding the mechanics of this under-developed sense. Intuition is something we all possess and, like any of our faculties, gets stronger the more we use and trust it.
The John F Barnes approach to Myofascial Release understands that the nature of fascia is not linear, and therefore applying a linear therapeautic appraoach can only offer limited results. As therapists, we remain curious and open to the outcome. How do we know the difference between intuition and our imagination? It comes with practice. But because MFR is a gentle therapy that doesn’t force, we can do this safely; I wouldn’t necessarily want my surgeon to be working in the same way!
Let it go
The education system, at least when I was at school, focuses on developing us intellectually and physically but largely ignores our emotional being.
As such we live in a society where expressing emotions can be challenging. In British culture especially, we’re told to keep calm and carry on, and in the not so distant past women could even be branded hysterical simply for voicing anger.
However, suppression of emotions can be detrimental to our health, which Dr Gabor Mate explores in his book When the Body Says No. His research and countless case studies show the links between emotional repression and some of the biggest diseases affecting humanity today.
Feelings are a crucial and integral part of our human experience. They are messengers that alert us to information that can guide our thoughts and actions. Although holding emotions back in the moment can be necessary for survival, repressing them long-term can lead to dysfunction.
Facilitating the expression of “stuck” emotions is one of the many benefits of Myofascial Release. We don’t have to know the story attached to the feelings. Memories may resurface but most important is that we allow emotions to move through and let them go, so we can move forward — lighter and freer.
My experience as client receiving Myofascial Realse, is the more I’m able to let go of emotional tension, the greater the sensitivty and capacity to receive information via the sense we call intution.