What does it mean to be dissociated from our body? It is quite strange to imagine, that since we are our body, that we could actually feel a sense of disconnection and in many cases, rejection. This split has been created for a reason. What has happened is that we have formed a ‘detachment’ in our minds and hearts, which allows us to treat our body with disrespect, unkindness and for some, distain. These feelings can manifest in many ways, creating behaviours that lead to self-harming, acting out sexually, over-eating, not eating, and allowing ourselves to be used and abused by other people.
To pave the way and allow these behaviours free reign takes considerable energy, simply because we are in direct opposition to our innate, true nature. The negative stance of lying to ourselves takes enormous energy and saps our vitality. We have in fact, created a disconnection from our hearts, which only knows of our true worth. If we were connected to our hearts, then mistreating our body would feel completely alien. So, why is self love not our default setting? What could’ve possibly gone wrong in our lives to make us decide to ‘exit’ and dissociate from our body?
Early childhood trauma, particularly sexual abuse can cause an immediate dissociation. It is simply a way of coping, when the trauma is too excruciatingly painful, that the victim has no choice but to separate emotionally and mentally with immediate effect. This survival mechanism creates an alter ego, a ‘new’ personality that is a fragmented version of our true selves. It is toxic beyond words, and literally creates an internal reality that runs rampant for years, until addressed later in life.
In the meantime, that toxicity allows us to continually abuse ourselves over a sustained period of time, creating an entire reality from our original core wounding. We may choose abusive partners, become addicted to drugs or alcohol, get involved in prostitution, promiscuity, overeat and for many, try and make our bodies overtly sexually appealing. We can turn ourselves into objects of desire, a direct response to being sexualized as children when our innocence was stolen and there was nothing we could do. Our sexuality was defined externally against our will, we survived the ordeal, but with severe, on-going repercussions. Sadly, in many respects, our body becomes our enemy, rather than an expression of our whole being and unless we become consciously aware of our dissociation, we can live in this state indefinitely.
Hypnotherapy for Self Esteem and Inner Child work can work directly with our subconscious, to heal the past and create a new connection to our body. Doing the inner work allows us to slowly build a new relationship with ourselves, in effect we are ‘remembering’ who we are, returning to the authentic self behind the alter ego. Our subconscious needs to trust that it is safe to be rooted in our body, to trust that ‘home’ is not to be feared and that there is no need to keep on pretending that we are doing fine. We have to drive ourselves really hard to stay one step ahead of such despair and pain.
Our subconscious mind does not know about linear time, so is responding to reality as if those past traumatic events happened yesterday, and it will continue to respond in this way until it learns that it no longer has to protect us from the original threat. Safety is top priority for our subconscious mind and it will not relinquish its hold until we sell it a very enticing alternative. Hypnotherapy for Self Esteem can help us create a new value system, high self-esteem and renewed respect for our body. Eventually we will discover how it really feels to be fully present to all that we are, mind, heart, body and soul, we are no longer fragmented. Once we turn our attention to healing, we will begin to discover a whole new reality, one that is a true reflection of our new internal positive state. This is a world where hope and expectation take centre stage and hopelessness and despair are now consigned to the past.
