[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to the Doctor's Wig Show, where I show you how bad states of mind and difficult life issues aren't pathological, but rather signs of personal growth trying to happen.
Alright, let's get into it.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: You.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: Hey, awesome people. How are you today?
What's your state of mind?
Happy. Sad. Blase.
Bored. Anxious. Depressed? Pissed off. Turned on? Revved up. And how do you feel? Physically, energetic and well, lethargic and unwell? Or somewhere in between these two aspects of yourself, your states of mind and body are so deeply interconnected, it's mind blowing, mind body spirit blowing.
And it goes way beyond the usual rather simplistic concept of stress.
Knowing the difference between good and bad stress is important for your physical health, but that only scratches the surface. Physical ailments, whether they originate internally or externally, are directly related to how we process our life experiences.
Now, I'm not telling you that this is what I believe.
I don't believe anything. I either know something or I don't. And the way I know it is by rigorously studying it over time, as any good scientist should do, I do everything I can to disprove my hypotheses.
Bad science happens when the researcher is out to prove something and therefore tends to unconsciously or consciously introduce bias into the process.
I've spent the last few decades researching this topic, so it's near and dear to my heart. I did my doctoral dissertation on it, and since then I've worked with thousands of folks with body ailments. So I'm excited to share what I've learned.
And as always, don't do this exercise while you're driving operating machinery or doing anything that requires your full attention.
And finally, this is a pretty advanced exercise, so it may not be that easy for you if you haven't done any of the simpler ones in previous episodes, but do whatever feels right for you.
Okay, to begin, if you have any concern whatsoever regarding your condition, you should definitely consult a physician. After you've addressed the medical level of things, it's essential to process what's happening.
Now, what are these two different aspects of health, medicine and processing and how do they relate to each other?
It's very common for people to relate to their bodies through the biomedical model. We're taught to view our body symptoms exclusively through the lens of biochemistry. We see ourselves as physical organisms made of flesh and bone. When we experience a symptom, we attribute it to some kind of known or unknown physical process happening. And you should think this way don't overlook medical realities. But there's another level of the body you may not be aware of. Knowledge of which can radically transform not only your health, but your whole life as well. I call this level the process body. It refers to the psychological and spiritual dimensions of health and illness. This isn't a physical body you can see and measure, but rather an experiential body you can feel and visualize.
There's essential information in your physical body that a doctor can use to diagnose and treat you. But there's equally important information in your process body that you can use to discover the meaning and purpose of your physical ailments and use this awareness to transform them. In other words, when you have a body symptom, there are not only biochemical processes at work, there are psychological and sometimes spiritual processes at work as well.
Our bodies contain a natural pharmacy that makes all sorts of drugs tranquilizers, painkillers, antibiotics, anticancer drugs, antihypertensives. And these drugs are made precisely at the right time, in the right dosage and are sent to the right target organs. They have no side effects and they're completely free of cost.
Working with the processed body activates this natural healing response, even though that's not the primary goal. The main goal is to explore your experience of your symptoms in order to uncover their message. But the more you're able to integrate this message into your consciousness, the less your body has to produce symptoms and illness to communicate it to you. A fundamental error people make in assessing ill health is that if its biochemistry is understood, then this somehow discounts the role of the person's psychological and spiritual process in cocreating and potentially curing the disease. This couldn't be further from the truth. Everything you think and feel, both consciously and unconsciously, influences your physical health. Your mind is processed through your brain and nervous system, which control your endocrine system, which in turn controls your immune system. You're the metabolic expression of whatever's happening in your psyche.
The mind body split at the center of Western medicine is a convenient but artificial framework. It enables us to treat the physical body directly, but it remains in the dark as to the real reasons people get sick or get better.
Sure, there are lots of biologically based elements involved, like heredity lifestyle and environmental conditions. But these are second and third order processes. They don't fully explain why some people exposed to a virus get sick and die. Others get better, and still others don't get sick at all. They don't tell us why someone without the gene for a particular disease still gets it, or why someone with the gene doesn't get it. They don't tell us why someone who follows all the correct health guidelines suddenly drops dead of a heart attack. Or why someone who smokes, drinks, eats like crap, doesn't exercise and is stressed out, remains perfectly healthy. They really don't tell us much at all, except what happens at the end of a whole sequence of events that produces disease and requires medical intervention to try to deal with it.
Medicine is super important, but it's based on after the fact interventions. If you want to hack into the origins the first order processes driving your symptoms and illnesses, you have to process them.
Whether you have a minor temporary ailment or a lifelong incurable disease, it's a meaningful and purposeful expression of your deeper process.
Making this conscious not only affects your psychology, it affects your physiology as well.
Okay, you ready to rock? I'll give you an example of what we're going to do, and then we'll do it.
Years ago, I injured my back for a few days. I felt a hot stabbing sensation in the lower left side. I applied heat and ice to try to feel better, but I was having limited success. I had to process it.
I began by visualizing the pain. I saw the hot stabbing sensation as a red hot fireplace poker stabbing me. Whoa.
I amplified the image by looking closer and expanding it. When I did this, I got a shock. I saw a Devil holding the poker. He looked like a total troublemaker, wanting to mess with me.
Next, I play acted the Devil with the poker and pretended I was sticking it into Adam's back, burning him. I said AHA. Take that, motherfucker.
I had no idea what I was doing or what this devil figure wanted, so I just let my imagination unfold. As the Devil, I felt mischievous and antsy. I wanted to stir things up.
As Adam. I said ouch. Why are you hurting me like this?
As the Devil, I kept poking Adam, all the while wondering, why am I doing this to Adam? I continued the dialogue for a while, and eventually I got the answer.
As the devil, I saw Adam acting too normal and conventional for who he really is. He was working too much, taking himself too seriously, and not being his true wild and crazy self. The Devil's communication was wake up, mo foe. Let's play.
He wanted me to loosen up and have more fun.
Oftentimes, our scary inner figures are only negative because they want our attention and they need to upset us to get it. Even the Devil has a process.
I immediately stopped working at 10:00 at night. Hello?
I called a friend and invited him for a beer.
And you know what? Even before we met up, my back felt totally better. I had no more symptoms at all. Some people would call this a coincidence, but it wasn't. In fact, over the next month, every time I got too serious or worked too much, my back pain returned. And as soon as I did something fun, it felt better. It looked like magic, but it wasn't. I was activating the healing response of my process body.
In another episode, I'll tell you about the overwhelming amount of peer reviewed studies showing the biochemical connection between states of mind, the brain and nervous system, the endocrine system, and the immune system.
Now, getting rid of my symptom hadn't been my primary goal, but healing was a nice side effect of processing it. Even if my back hadn't gotten better, I would have kept working at integrating this playful devil's message into my life.
All right, let's get started.
Choose a symptom. Something you can feel.
If you're taking medication for a condition that your doctor told you you have, but you can't feel, this isn't the right exercise for you. That situation requires a different kind of processing I'll cover in a future episode.
Choose something you actually feel physically.
If you have multiple symptoms, take a moment to identify the worst one. If they all feel similar, just choose one you want to work on.
Now, we usually perceive our aches and pains only on the most general level. We say things like it hurts, it's painful, it's uncomfortable, it's exhausting, tiring, frustrating. These are very general statements that don't really tell us very much.
I want you to get way more detailed because it's in the details that you're going to find the meaning and purpose of your symptoms.
In order to do this, you have to describe it using sensory language instead of general descriptions like it hurts or It's painful, or It's frustrating and limiting. Get really specific by taking your time to fully sense what you're experiencing.
Sit, lie down, or stand, and zero in on your symptom with your awareness like it's a meditation.
Spend some time feeling it. Feel it more than you usually would.
I know this may be uncomfortable, but it will help you in the long run because it will bring your process to the surface and make you aware of what's going on.
Slowly and carefully put your attention onto the sensations.
What do they feel like?
Is it a pressure?
If so, what direction does the pressure go in? Upward, downward, inward, or outward?
Does it have a temperature?
A texture?
Describe the feeling as precisely as you can.
Study your symptom like you're a scientist.
Take your time to perceive things you wouldn't otherwise notice.
Go down to the subtlest level of feeling perception. Go ahead and do this.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: SA.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: Describe the sensations using sensory terms.
Some examples of sensory descriptions are hot, cold, dry, wet, rough, smooth, poking, stabbing, cutting, shredding, pulling, pushing, pressuring, choking, suffocating, ripping, numbing, clouding, plugging, grabbing, pinching, tearing, burning, tingling itching, and so on.
Sounds like someone's having a bad day.
Go right into the sensations with your awareness and describe it in such a way that someone else could imagine feeling it's.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Sam.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: Make a picture in your mind of these physical sensations.
For example, I saw a fireplace poker with a red hot end sticking into my back.
One of my clients recently pictured his pounding headache as a boxer. Another client visualized her stomach cramps as a mythical giant squeezing a human being in his hands.
What do you see?
Make sure your picture matches your feeling.
If my image had been of a cold, clear, blue winter sky, it wouldn't have matched my experience of a hot, stabbing sensation. The picture and feeling have to express the same information.
Go ahead and try this.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: Close, Sam.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: Now amplify the picture. Look closer at the details. Exaggerate the colors, shapes, and textures expand the image and also zoom in or out so you can see more of what's happening.
When I zoomed out, I saw a devil holding the poker. Crazy.
In addition, bring movement into your picture by letting it unfold, like a movie, ram, SAUS, or words that go along with your feeling and picture. There don't have to be any, but check it out if there are some. Listen closely and if you're able to vocalize them.
Now that you have a good sense of the feelings, images, and sounds, get up and act out your experience in movement.
Use your whole body to express the energy and attitude that your picture, feeling and sound portray.
Let your imagination unfold and follow where your body and mind want to go. There's no right or wrong way to do this. Just trust the process. Let your instincts and creativity guide you.
Go ahead and turn the podcast off and do this and turn it on again when you're ready.
Now create a character or inanimate object out of your experience like I did. Remember my hot fire poker had a devil wielding it.
Visualize a person, animal or spirit that embodies the qualities you're experiencing.
For example, if you're making some type of powerful movements, you might see a fighter or a dancer.
If you're experiencing a sense of flowing, you might see a river. Or imagine yourself as the wind.
If you're being hard as a rock, you might see a muscle man or a giant boulder.
Go ahead and do this.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: Sam.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: You now play act the figure.
First visualize it. Look at every detail.
Then feel into it. Feel just like it would feel.
Then make the sounds it would make if there are any. And finally, move like it would move.
Become it and study your experience until you get a sense of this as a new way of being.
Inhabit it with your whole self and use your imagination to bring it to life.
Go ahead and turn the podcast off and take your time exploring this, and then turn it on again when you're ready.
Now create a roleplay dialogue between this new personality or energy and your everyday self, just like I did when I talked to the devil.
Ask it what it wants from you. How does it want you to change?
Then respond from the perspective of the figure.
Have a discussion.
Go back and forth between these two parts of yourself.
Take your time and see where it goes.
Turn off the podcast and get into this dialogue and turn it on again when you're ready.
It all right. Here are some questions to help you tie this all together.
What message is your body symptom communicating to you?
What new way of being?
Try dialoguing with the scared or resistant part of yourself.
Great work.
You've just learned how to work on a body symptom.
You did this by feeling deeply into your symptom, describing it using sensory language making a picture of the feeling, adding sound and movement to it, creating a character and play acting. It doing a roleplay dialogue between the figure and your everyday self, and then applying what you learned to your symptom and to your life.
If you feel like it, you can listen to some bonus material where I share some of my clients experiences doing this exercise. That's up next.
[00:30:30] Speaker B: You.
[00:30:31] Speaker A: Here are some of my clients experiences working on their body symptoms.
A very kind, gentle 53 year old man suffered from frequent headaches.
His doctor had ruled out any specific underlying medical condition.
My client described his symptoms as tearing, ripping, and shredding his head apart.
He visualized a fighter ripping his own shirt off and getting ready to fight someone.
My client asked the fighter what it wanted from him, and the fighter said, you're too weak and passive. You let everyone push you around. You accept abuse, stand up for yourself.
This was a revelation.
He agreed that he lets the world push him around, but he thought that that was just part of what happens if you're a kind and gentle person. He had never considered he could be tougher and stronger. This was the beginning to him changing his way of relating to himself and to others.
Over time, I helped him to stand up for himself, and not only did his headaches go away, but he felt better in his life.
A 20 year old man with asthma described his symptom as a heavy weight on his chest.
He visualized the weight as a giant boulder.
He playacted the boulder and experienced it as a Zen state, still immovable and solid.
He tried to dialogue with the boulder, but it didn't speak.
It just sat there, being a solid, powerful presence.
I asked him where in his life he needed this Zen state of mind. He immediately answered that he's often played by an inner critic, and this powerful state of mind is immune to the critic. He started meditating on this state daily, and he started to feel freer from his critic. In addition, the more he was able to embody and own this powerful state of mind, the more his asthma reduced.
A depressed 33 year old woman suffered from type two diabetes, which happens when the pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin. Or insulin can't be used effectively. It can be caused by a number of physical factors, including poor diet, lack of exercise, being overweight, and it can also be caused purely by one's process.
Before she got diagnosed and began taking medication, her strongest symptom was feeling thirsty all the time. This is a common symptom caused by the fact that when sugar builds up in your blood, your kidneys work overtime to get rid of it. When your kidneys can't keep up, the excess glucose is excreted into your urine, dragging along fluids from your tissues, which makes you dehydrated. So you end up urinating a lot too.
She visualized her thirst as a bone dry desert.
She amplified the image by play acting it and got in touch with a spiritual state that she described as feeling God's presence.
I play acted her normal, everyday, depressed self and asked the desert God part what it wanted from her as the desert god part. She replied, you're depressed because you don't live a spiritual life. You're too conventional. You're too normal. You're trying to live the materialistic American dream, but it's empty, hollow, meaningless for you, and you know it. You need a connection to God.
After this session, my client joined a spiritual group, began meditating, and reassessed her life priorities.
The more she connected with a deeper meaning in her life, the more her depression lifted.
She was also able to get down to the lowest dose of diabetes medication.
See you next time. Stay aware.
You can follow me on social media at Dr. Zwig and you can sign up on the mailing
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