A Case Study on Self-Healing

Torticollis - an abnormal positioning of the head, caused by an involuntary and sustained contraction of the neck muscles.

3/31/19

Today I developed torticollis. I couldn't hold my head up, turn my head, move my right arm, or walk without throwing my neck muscles into excruciating spasms. My head was stuck in a downwards and to the left position, and the pain was unrelenting.

Torticollis is usually a congenital condition, but when it occurs in adults it can either be acute (lasting about 24 hours) or it can become chronic and progress into severely debilitating contractures with spasticity. The exact cause of torticollis has not been clearly identified – it has been associated with trauma, genetics, infection, tumors, and brain abnormalities, but in most cases, it's just labeled idiopathic.

I did my best to do some energy work on myself, but taking deep breaths, which is a key part of my energy practice, triggered spasms. I also tried self-hypnosis, but I was in so much pain it was pretty challenging to get into a deeply relaxed state. With that said, my healing attempts yielded some results - afterwards, I was able to move my arm and walk (and by walk I mean slowly shuffle) without spasms.

Next, being a massage therapist, I tried a number of different techniques to release the contracted muscles - trigger point work, muscle energy stretching to reset the proprioceptive muscle spindles, and neuromuscular reeducation techniques – no such luck. I’d get some temporary relief, but within 5 minutes, it almost felt like the muscles were even more pissed off than before…my SCM, scalenes, upper traps, and deep neck muscles felt like steel cables that were hot to the touch and covered with a puffy layer of edema.

I decided to take a break from trying to heal myself, I stayed in bed, did some occasional hydrotherapy, and hoped that this torticollis was of the 24 hour variety.

4/1/19

NOPE. No improvement. I was out of food at my dorm and I needed to drive to the grocery store – which I decided to do early in the morning before there was a lot of traffic…because, you know, being able to turn your head is requisite for safe driving practices. Anyway, it didn’t go so well. I discovered my proprioception was totally off – ran over a curb, knocked something off the shelf at the grocery store - but the worst part for me was I couldn’t lift my head to make eye contact or smile at people as I walked by. So, I returned home in a depressive slump – realizing that if this became permanent, it was actually going to be quite debilitating. Not to mention aesthetically I looked like Quasimodo from the Hunchback of Norte Dame…

So, I googled the treatment options for torticollis – brain surgery, botox shots to paralyze the contracted muscles, physical therapy to improve function (not cure…just cope), and pain meds.

NOPE. Not my style. Ok, time to get serious about self-healing…

While having things go awry in my body undoubtedly sucks, I am also someone who is fascinated by the healing process. Part of me gets excited when I develop some weird bodily issue because I know I’m about to learn something cool and it’s an opportunity to test out my healing theories…my unconventional theories that aren’t taught in schools.

I am a researcher, my body is my science experiment, and I test my healing hypotheses on myself to gather anecdotal evidence.

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My theories are based on the premise of a few unique beliefs:

1) Illnesses and dysfunctions are actually a form of communication – a loving message from the higher consciousness informing us that there is an opportunity to learn, grow, and heal the deeper levels of our humanity so that we can ultimately move into better alignment with our true nature. I firmly believe we are designed for health.

2) I am not a victim in this life. Victims are powerless. The second we take responsibility for the less than ideal circumstances in our lives is THE MOMENT that we reclaim our power and can now make a revolutionary choice.

3) The root cause of all disease and dysfunction is some form of lack of love - which is great news because there isn’t actually a lack of love in the universe – only a perceived lack of love. So, by changing perceptions and removing barriers, we can restore love to our personal human ecosystem and healing is the natural result.

4) Humans have a profound ability to self-heal. It is a component of our human machinery. We have an inherent system of intelligence that knows exactly how to cure us...we just have to learn how to tap into it and remove the obstacles so it can do its thing.

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The Process

Here is a description of my self-healing experiment with regards to this torticollis situation:

Step one: ID the root cause – where is the lack of love?

So the night before the torticollis showed up, I was experiencing emotions that I really hadn’t felt since the time of my upbringing – a rather traumatic period of my life full of fear, life and death situations, and debilitating worry - all emotions born from a separation mindset, not a mindset of love and unity.

Step two: What is the loving message?

This question can get a little complex because sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint what layer of your humanity is sending the message (and there’s usually a lot of overlap). Being aware of the source is helpful because it gives you a clue regarding what the message is and how to address it. The message can be a result of a physical reflex from reactivated trauma stored in the body, an energetic mechanism, a manifestation from the subconscious mind, or a gift from the spirit.

While all the levels of your humanity have your best interest at heart, these messages don’t usually serve you in the moment – and this is where conventional school of thought takes a wrong turn (and I say wrong turn because conventional medicine is often palliative, not curative – and even if it seems curative, is it possible that the next physical issue that pops up is a different manifestation of the same message?) The conventional course of action is to eliminate or suppress the message, without seeking to understand it.

This loving message is meant to temporarily protect you while alerting you to the presence of a deeper issue that you perhaps otherwise wouldn’t know was there. Simply stated, it's an inivitation to course correct. Physical problems are not supposed to destroy us, they are supposed to trigger growth, healing, and adaptation – they are meant to be overcome. This is the most loving thing our higher consciousness could do for us, because when we heal correctly from disease and dysfunction, we are then more equipped to thrive and actualize our potential in this lifetime.

So in my case, I was talking with a guy that I cared a lot about (I wear my heart on my sleeve) and his communication style, while totally benign, was triggering the emotions from my past that I mentioned earlier. Emotions are the language of the body, traumas can be stored in the body, the subconscious mind keeps a record of everything that’s ever happened to you – and it gives special precedence to traumatic/life-threatening situations that triggered strong emotions. So, I’d theorize that my emotions communicated to my subconscious mind that I was in that threatening environment of my younger years, so the subconscious mind threw a big red flag to tell me, “HEY. Did you forget what happened last time?? This is not ok. You’re not safe. Something is very wrong here. I’m going to manifest some physical dysfunction as a cry for help. You need to get out now.” And just for the record, my subconscious mind made me sick when I was younger, too – doctors couldn’t help me, and it took me 4 years to understand the message and heal.

Step three: Course correct

This is the fun part...well, only if you think "miracles" are fun. I sure do.

I needed to change my perceptions about the guy I was communicating with from perceptions of cynicism and disappointment to perceptions of understanding and compassion.

Easy-peasy.

It is my personal observation that understanding and compassion comes more naturally to human beings than bitterness – i.e. it takes more effort and energy to maintain a state of bitterness than to just let go and return to love. I am in good company when saying this, as many of the world’s greatest peace advocates spoke of this observation as well.

Next, I needed to forgive (unforgiveness is probably the single greatest barrier to love). There’s a belief that I hold that makes the forgiveness process much easier – I believe we are all connected – entangled, if you will. With each passing year this is becoming less of a belief and more of a scientific fact based on the work of quantum physicists and the results of global consciousness and intention experiments (see the work of Roger Nelson and Lynn McTaggart). So what does that mean? Well, it means that what I do (or don’t do) for someone else I’m actually doing (or not doing) for myself – as we are not separate. It’s my awareness that separation is an illusion and unity is what’s real. Perhaps this is why in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

So, the way I see it is do yourself a favor - and forgive.

** I will have a future post dedicated solely to the topic of forgiveness because there’s literally heaps of research demonstrating how forgiveness profoundly improves the function of our bodies and our minds – so much so that famous biohackers like Dave Asprey have taken serious interest in it, AND I’ll share the methods that I’ve found helpful regarding the actual forgiveness process itself.**

Next, I got into a deeply meditative/self-hypnosis state, and I told my subconscious mind, “Thank you for trying to protect me, but this situation is not like my past, everyone is okay, I’m safe, and it is alright for you to let your guard down. Unlike in my childhood when I was completely dependent on others, I’m an adult now and if my circumstances don’t serve me, I can change them.” The mind learns by repetition, so I meditated on this dialogue for about twenty minutes. When I got up, my alignment and range of motion was ~ 75% better, I had absolutely no pain, and I did not experience any more spasms.

Post healing session = FINALLY some range of motion

4/2/19

Although I was in no pain, my alignment was still a little jacked up – my cervical vertebrae were twisted, my rib cage was twisted, one shoulder was higher than the other, my head was still tilted, my scapula weren’t symmetrical, and as such - I didn’t have full range of motion with neck rotation and lateral flexion. So, I spent a half hour doing intense energy work - sending love and intention for optimal alignment throughout my entire axial skeleton. While I’m not a perfectionist in many areas of my life, when it comes to my body alignment, I can get pretty obsessive. After the energy work, my standards of perfection were met. For more info on my energy healing methods, check out my blog post “Quantum Healing”.

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Closing Thoughts

Ok, so is it possible that the torticollis would have resolved on its own. YUP. Absolutely. But the thing that suggests the efficacy of this method is the timing of the resolution. I’ve used this process for a number of problems – headaches, anal fissures (sorry...TMI?), back spasms, dislocated vertebrae, eye infections, etc. - and the improvements are immediate if not instantly curative. It honestly blows my mind every time.

Is this method going to work for all physical issues? No – pretty unlikely. It’s not going to cure purely genetic disorders, acute traumas, etc. but I can’t think of a single human problem that wouldn’t benefit from doing this type of internal work, so for that reason, I think it is warranted to explore this methodology further.

If you think it sounds pretty far out there, I agree…but it has to, right? My goal is not suppression and symptom management, my goal is understanding the message of the symptoms and total healing. I’m very dissatisfied with the existing approaches to healthcare. The results aren’t good enough for my future patients, so I feel compelled to test new waters.

While my methods are pretty nebulous at this point and everyone’s body is going to manifest messages differently, I hope someday to make this process teachable and feasible for everyone. My intention with this post is to simply plant a seed in your consciousness regarding a different take on healing.

And lastly, if you’re interested in a self-hypnosis tutorial comment or shoot me a message. :)

Peace, blessings, love, and light.

Mica