My wonderful craniosacral therapy teacher of the past few years, Ryan Hallford, wrote a blog post entitled Soft Mantras for Hard Lesions. Although specific to biodynamic craniosacral work, in my opinion it applies to so much more – all types of healing work with others and all healing work on self.

Substitute “stuck places” for lesions and consider his statement that this post is about our mindset when encountering them, and you can understand how applicable this is to all realms of life.

Toward the end of the post, he lists three mantras (internal prayers) that a person intending to heal (self or other) might find helpful to ask.

I’ve read this blog post three times now and decided to write down the questions to carry with me at all times. This is a practice I use when I want to integrate something new into my being. The writing of it helps me commit it to memory as my pen moves across the paper letter by letter, word by word, and carrying the written paper with me signals my commitment to integrate it. 

Having had some shamanic training in the past, I see parallels with Ryan’s blog post, although I am somewhat sure he would not label his work as being shamanic. His references in this post are Buddhist, Christian, and scientific.

Here are some excerpts (click the link in the first paragraph to read the entire post):

One aspect of our work, as facilitators of health, is to first recognize the past events that become stuck in the fluid and blueprint fields, and then create a situation in which they can reach a resolution. I truly believe that all lesions want to resolve. It is built into their makeup. Within the tension of any lesion we encounter is an effort to reach completion, resolution, and peace. The symptomology surrounding them is, ironically, evidence of the desire of the organism and spirit to attain equilibrium.

In my two decades of clinical experience, I have come to understand that the most effective response to the big lesions that present themselves in the treatment room is a mental and spiritual posture of humility. In humility we are delivered from rigid states of knowing and judgment. In humility we are reduced to a simple awareness of what is. I

We need to get out of the way in the therapeutic dyad. If our focus is on the patterns laid down by the lesion, we actually act to reinforce those patterns! We should recognize that we might be limiting movement in the client because of our field of focus. This mantra helps to free us from our perceptual habits by recognizing that we might be unknowingly reinforcing unhealthy stillness via our perspective.

I have found it useful to consider what my sensory experience would be like if the lesion I am facing faded away, leaving me with a clean flow of pure awareness and spacious biological function. We must hold a counterpoint to the compensation and suffering we encounter in our clients and ourselves. We must constantly explore what freedom means. This mantra aims to deny the lesion its power and keep our spirits healthy by recognizing the ongoing capacity for freedom that constitutes the basis of our being – with a focus on sensory experience.

Ryan will be teaching Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy I (the foundation course for the biodynamic series and for certification) in Austin September 10-13. Click here for more information.