the body as our personal dashboard for whole life health

Our bodies pain & physical ailments point to where we are emotionally fearful of exploring and what is being asked of our attention!

Big statement, I know… and if we choose to face this request for attention - we can change our habits with greater ease, which both shifts our future and alters our lives significantly - not to mention our physical health!

Here’s how I got to believing this with every ounce of myself…

I worked at a cancer clinic called Hummingbird Cancer Centre. I was brought onboard to design and implement the mental and emotional patient care program, from an experientially informed perspective.

I am a big fan of the enneagram to help those facing cancer treatment in knowing their shortcuts to coping with overwhelm, specific to their own personal reality or personality. I use this ancient profiling tool to help those in deep and overwhelming stress to navigate life according to their needs, and not the instagram post Tony Robbins shared yesterday. Not everyone finds peace the same way.

There are nine of these archetypes, within the enneagram system, which interrelate in a very interesting way, one which seems intuitively prophetic ;-)

At Hummingbird we sent prospective patients an extensively broad survey to complete before reviewing the case with the medical board to see if Hummingbird could make a difference in the patients prognosis/health.

The survey asked all the medical questions but also covered mental and emotional patterns and habits. Integrative doctors and practitioners look at the entire person, mental, emotional and physical, because of the rising evidence that each are deeply interconnected.

If we make a change within an emotional belief, just watch the physical and mental change which happens, seemingly with ease!

Once accepted as a patient, these people would be contacted and guided through the program step by step by yours truly as their guide. I coached, guided, nurtured and nudged them as I took them through their respective protocol.

I sat with these people and their loved ones and provided them with information, support and experiential wisdom, having been down that road myself and worked diligently to change my life to be healthier and more fulfilling.

The first thing I would ask our patients to do was to complete an enneagram test. When I received the results I also got a document specifically for the coach called a “Coaching Companion”. A proverbial cheat sheet, which offers incredible insights into how that person has created themselves within this life or spoken more plainly; how they are wired to think, feel and act.

Each of these enneagram archetypes has a “hurt” or an emotional “eina”, where grace and compassion is needed in order for a belief to change. That's actually where our beauty and gifts are birthed so it's a valuable thing to explore and get to know. This is why trauma, shadow or healing work can be so impactful.

It's why our western medicine is getting a really bad rap because our health space has become too clinical and medical, having lost the fact that we are human, and not biological beings exclusively.

What do you get when you face your hardest shadow with lots of grace. You become “smile”ier - that's what happens, in a deep place. If we can accept our sores spots, they alchemise and our life eases fundamentally.

A pattern began to emerge at Hummingbird, in that all the breast cancer patients I reviewed fell neatly into only one enneagram type - enneagram 2. Around 30 women in total who were being treated for breast cancer! Every single one of them is an enneagram 2 archetype, in the enneagram system.

And then other cancers began clustering in different areas of the body. Mine was in my throat and neck area.

I did some homework and came across the work of Louise Hay called “Heal Your Body”. According to Louis each area of the body represents certain emotional blocks or eina’s (the flip side of our gifts).

My enneagram type is a 9 enneagram archetype. We, as enneagram 9, have a real problem with putting ourselves “out there” and will rarely rock the boat because we value harmony and peace so deeply.

You will always find me mediating and standing fierce for the underdog because I am so aware of others' perspectives - and this is where my and all 9 enneagrams really thrive, in offering alternative perspectives in order to reach consensus and harmony.

Where is my block? Louise says it is all about expression, so no surprise that my cancer showed up on my lip and in my throat - the enneagram says the same exact thing.

And if you ask the people who know me best, this could not be more accurate and I have worked for years to challenge myself to change my stories, habits and beliefs.

Enneagram 2 is all about serving others. What body part, on a man or woman, could better represent giving of itself so selflessly, with the most nourishment we will ever receive as humans - its the breast.

Enneagram 2’s eina is seeing themselves as a priority of their generosity before they extend it to others. The quintessential mother archetype, who gives selflessly always, often at the cost of their own needs. Their growth is to believe they are worthy of receiving, so if they grow to nourish themselves first, they begin to realise themselves as a powerful servant leader.

Interesting right? They could use the emotional belief that they are worthy, not for what they do for others but for who they fundamentally are as humans - powerful nurturers with a gift of intuition.

If I do the maths I could hypothesise that if someone worked on their emotional pain with some compassion, they could influence their bodies health in that area?

Funny thing. The evidence is getting stronger and stronger in that very direction.

So if this is all true then…

…your body will tell you where stress is being accumulated and give guidance to the very specific emotional blockages and habits which form from these patterns. If we bring awareness to these blockages, bring compassion and acceptance we will become healthier physically!

If our bodies have an ache, ulcer, headache, joint pain or… it's trying to tell us something.

Where in our body does tension and inflammation grow? - our body might just be telling us something more than, “this area needs medicine, therapy and attention”.

It might be the perfect body health dashboard which, when valued, could be our own personal guide to a healthier life, one which affects and changes our mind, body and emotional beliefs and ultimately our health.

One way of having a smile’ier face and calmer mind, not to mention healthier body ;-)