Put your heart in your hands

Recently a friend, Debbie, who is visiting from abroad, offered to give me a craniosacral therapy treatment. Whenever she comes to Tobago, she offers me a session, as a gift.

Something does not need to be “wrong” with us for us to have a craniosacral therapy treatment. Our physical, mental, emotional and energetic bodies always need balancing and healing.

The first time she offered that special treatment was in late 2018. Earlier that year, I woke up one morning with my left knee in inexplicable and excruciating pain. As someone who is not accustomed to being incapacitated, it was a challenge over the next ten or more months to have that ongoing pain. Nothing I or anyone else did “fixed” it. I was hobbling around like a cripple, usually wearing some kind of knee brace as “support.”

In a way, I began to get used to it and found ways to cope with it. but I wondered if I would ever be able to walk properly again. Later in the year, after I had taught a Kundalini yoga session in Tobago (which Debbie, visiting at the time, had attended), she asked me to lie on the floor on a mat and offered an hour-long craniosacral therapy treatment. Her therapeutic touch was so light that it felt like nothing was being done.

In Debbie’s words: “I hold space for your body to access its inherent healing ability and in that space, stillness can arise, your nervous system settles and that’s where healing can take place. You sort of step out of yourself and maybe enter a void of nothingness…hard to explain.”

When the session was over and I stood up, to my surprise, there was absolutely no pain in my left knee. Could this be? Yes.

I practically ran back to my car – so enthused was I by this remarkable development. To this day, five years later, that pain has never returned. (knock wood). When I see photos of myself in 2018, wearing the knee brace, it all seems so far away.

A few days ago, I went to have a craniosacral therapy session at the cabana where Debbie and her husband were staying during their Tobago vacation.

She started at my feet, with a light touch. Within what must have been minutes, I drifted far away, out of consciousness. Upon my return to the present moment, I had no idea where I was. It took me a while to remember that I was in Crown Point on a bed, receiving treatment. The deep core of my body felt extremely still, just as a large rock on the seabed can be still even if the entire ocean is tossing wildly around it.

Apart from the distant sound of waves, some chickens clucking outside the cabana and the odd voice of someone passing by, there was complete silence and stillness inside and out.

At a point, Debbie lightly touched the centre of my right palm with her finger and left it there. Shortly after, the edges of my mouth began to turn upwards into a smile, even though there was no conscious thought or feeling to trigger that upward mouth movement.

The sensation intensified and, as my mouth formed an even more distinct smile, along with the feeling to laugh, I was aware of a warm sensation pulsing through my body. My heart felt lifted – akin to when we see someone we love, experience something we really enjoy doing or receive an amazing surprise gift. It is the kind of feeling that transforms because it is so magical – an ‘in love” feeling that is independent of anyone.

Afterwards, when I mentioned that experience, Debbie explained that the point on the inner right palm is a connection point that stimulates the heart. It made sense – my heart was “touched” and moved to the extent that the feeling of happiness was generated. So simple, and yet so potent.

When we shake hands, people think of it as a cold, polite, formal greeting...when in reality, we can see it as touching hearts together at the centre of our palms.

When next shaking or holding someone’s hand, envision a pure light moving from the centre of your palm, through theirs, and travelling up their arm to ignite and illuminate their heart.

Sounds simple, but it could transform the world.