Recently, I have been experiencing quite a few “out of season” sore throats or chronic neck/shoulder stiffness which lead me to seek a chiropractor. As I sat in front of this medical professional, in an oversized comfortable chair, I was eager to get re-adjusted so that I could “feel better.” Like my routine visits in the past to other chiropractor, he asked me to describe what discomfort I was feeling, how long I had been feeling this, and to what extent do I wish to heal the pain? I was with him until the last question. This had never been an item on my menu before, so I said, (paying more attention now to who was sitting in front of me) “I would like to be healed from this discomfort…FOREVER!” As if I were rubbing a Genie in a bottle.
He smiled and took a look at me, as if with new eyes and asked me.. ”What happened in your past, where you were not able to “speak your truth?” Flabbergasted and exposed, my mouth flew open! It was as if my mind went immediately into a time warp in which every face and conversation I had been wounded by was lingering before me. I said “Wow,” and began to share with him my most recent and most memorable past experiences. I may have even said out loud, “I thought I handled those things?” The more I began to speak my truth, it was as if 100 lbs (my attachment to these thoughts in weight) had been lifted off of me. He began to explain that when we are not able to express our truth (both the good and bad) we hold it in. When it is linked to resentment or things you wish you had the courage to say (i.e. to standup for yourself) at a particular time, it will suppress itself until the body can no longer maintain it and it manifest itself as… PAIN in the physical body. “Interesting,” I thought. So my negative thoughts associated with these experiences were SO heavy that they lingered with me, because they had no way of letting themselves out (in a constructive way) until one morning I “suddenly” woke up in pain. After our hour-long discussion, he told me that we didn’t have time left for a readjustment, but to come back on Monday and monitor what may “come up” for me emotionally and if the pain continues…
So, here is where you come in. I realized, “how many times in our lives have we been stifled?” Unable to “speak our truth” in a business brainstorming meeting, in a relationship, with friends, our family, a classroom setting and anywhere else where a situation calls for us to be visible. Where we were told to “use your indoor voice” or “to be seen and not heard.” Have we become a society where pain is running rampid due to the “silencing” of ones truth? Are people stressed in their work environment because a safe space has not been created, where an individual feels that his/her opinion won’t be ridiculed or better yet “heard.” Are we choosing to be invisible (aka “I’m just shy”) like the scenario from the Broadway hit “Chicago,” where Roxie’s husband sings, “Call me cellophane, cause no one knows my name…”
Communication is so important to our health. There are situations where it may not be appropriate given certain circumstances (i.e. the library, during a taping of Oprah, etc.) but we must get creative in utilizing the outlets that are there for us…
Journal, sing (like no one is listening in the car), paint, sketch, dance, tell a close & trusted source, laugh out loud, say what we wish we could have said (in the privacy of our home, when alone). I am not saying that “speaking you truth” should be used as a negative form of expression (i.e. gossip, criticizing, or negative projections). I am declaring that you make your voice, your organizations voice, your brands voice…HEARD! When you speak your truth, you not only free yourself but you give courage to others to speak theirs too! Are you with me in this movement?
