Talking to the Frozen Cells
The purpose of this exercise is to give you a tool for working with your mind-body system when your spine and overall body is in a state of frozen fear. This frozen fear state emerges if you've had past trauma, especially some type of trauma that threatened your survival. It emerges when your body wisdom is retracing that experience as part of your healing process.
Once the trauma is fully surfaced to an acute level (that is, moved from the subconscious chronic state to the conscious acute state), the charge behind the trauma dissipates, the mind-body-spirit system releases the body armor holding that trauma in place and then reorganizes itself to a higher level of functioning.
Note that your mind-body-spirit system perceives life experiences differently depending on your stage of development. When you were an infant or toddler, life experiences that might have had very little impact on you as an adult were most likely very traumatizing. The mind-body-spirit system records imprints according to perception, not necessarily the nature or intensity of the occurrence.
Homeopathic remedies that surface this type of trauma include but are not limited to:
- Gelsemium Sempervirens - fright, shock following violent outbursts, paralysis in the lower body, multiple sclerosis, incontinence, chronic fatigue syndrome, flu syndrome.
- Hypericum Perfoliatum - shock and disassociation following injury to the head or nervous system, disc compression, insomnia, shock from extreme verbal, emotional or physical abuse.
- Medorrhinum - shock from extreme verbal, emotional and/or physical abuse, shock following abandonment trauma, rape/molestation trauma, jealousy, co-dependence, addiction profiles, herpes, genito-urinary disorders.
- Aurum Metallicum - shock from extreme verbal, emotional and/or physical abuse; self-hatred, perfectionism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, blood sugar issues, heart disesase, various cancer profiles.
- Nux Vomica - shock from extreme verbal, emotional or physical abuse; lower back pain, muscle spasms, addiction profiles, heart disease, anxiety, paralysis, multiple sclerosis profile.
The overall gist of the exercise is not to move yourself out of the frozen fear state. That sends a message to your mind-body-spirit system that you are not accepting it where it's at and that you'd like it to change. When you're in a trauma state, the part of your psyche that is feeling the intense fear will interpret your intention as a further attack - and will be less likely to budge.
So the key is instead to give your cells (and the part of your psyche that is terrified) your unconditional love and acceptance. By just being present with this part of yourself and consistently affirming your love and acceptance of it, it helps it move out of the psychosis that the trauma is occurring in the present tense and gradually it releases the frozen fear.
The exercise goes like this...
Imagine you are very small, the size of your cells, and you are walking around inside your spinal cord. You look around and you see hundreds of cells frozen in fear. They are like big balloons but they are also like people and they have the emotion of frozen fear.
You walk up to one of your cells and you put your hand on the cell and you say, "I see how afraid you are. I just want you to know that I'm with you and I'm seeing how afraid you are."
The cell you are talking to will most likely remain frozen.
Then lean up against the cell. Put both of your hands on it and say, "I'm going to just hang out here with you. You don't need to change. You can just remain fearful. I'll be here with you as you feel the fear."
In the past when I have shared this exercise with clients, many of them have said, "OK - so then does the cell relax and I move out of the frozen fear state?"
This is a big catch twenty two - because if you have the agenda to change where you're at then you'll remain stuck. Passing on a well-known Buddhist adage - what you resist will persist.
So, you have to be really sincere about accepting this part of your psyche and feeling love and acceptance towards this one cell that is feeling the frozen fear.
Sit down on the ground next to the cell, lean up against it and say, "I'm here with you. I'm not going anywhere. I see how terrified you are. I'm just letting you know I'm here with you. You don't have to change. I'm here. I'm here with you."
For clients that are faith based, you can bring in your connection to a Higher Power. Ask for your Higher Power (God, Spirit, etc. whatever concept works best for you) to support you in this process and be present with you as you are showing up to this frozen cell.
And, be patient. Hang out with the cell. Take your time. Eventually the cell you're visualizing will start to breathe out very slightly. It is beginning to defrost.
Stick with it. Reaffirm that you're not going anywhere. That you are accepting it and not expecting it to change. Reaffirm that you can see what the cell is going through - that you can see the fear.
Eventually you'll see a further softening of the imaginary cell. At this point you can move your body so you are sitting next to the original cell and the cell next to it. Put one hand on the first cell and your other hand on the second cell. Be present with both for a while. Take your time. Hang out.
Eventually you'll see a softening of both cells and then you can include a third cell. Talk to all three cells for a while. Keep affirming that you can see their fear and you're not going anywhere.
My experience with this exercise is that once the third cell begins to receive your love and acceptance a cascade effect occurs and all of the cells start to defrost. Eventually you'll see movement in all of the cells and then you'll feel your spine and body begin to relax.
At this point you'll be out of your state of fight or flight and starting to move into exhaustion. Once the mind-body-spirit system releases a state of hyper-vigilance, it typically moves into what I call a "crash" state.
A crash state is where you move from sympathetic dominance (remaining alert and ready) to parasympathetic dominance (rest and recovery). In parasympathetic dominance, your nervous system feels tremendously fatigued and you'll be inclined to want to sleep a lot. This is a normal part of recovery. Give yourself permission to rest and eventually the exhaustion will also pass.