On Bone Setting for the Soul

As a child, I had a friend who was involved in an accident that shattered her arm. I remember months and months of healing, surgery, casting, etc for her. I found it very curious to hear the surgeon had to rebreak her arm again in order for it to heal properly. Breaking a broken arm to heal it... my little brain was fitting odd shaped pieces into a new puzzle picture. On the whole, though I understood. Her arm bone didn’t set correctly, therefore there was needed intervention to restore her nerves and blood flow to her arm and hand.

I think of this story often as a metaphor for my own imposed ruthless self discipline when I make bigger changes in my life. Some of those changes require drastic intervention, necessary limitation and protection, and a lot of energy investment and care. I am coming into such a time again.

And you could move into accepting injurious malformation as ‘what is’ as is a perfectly acceptable method of mentally and emotionally presence-ing to cope with injury. Acceptance might help heal some of the emotional trauma, or help you grieve your previously intact self,

but

it won’t straighten your arm.

Really longstanding dysfunctional patterns require you to break bones within that have set improperly so you can emerge healthier. It is the opposite of easy, and the methods required seem wholly unrelated to what is commonly held as “healthy”. This is why humans need other humans who have mapped the terrain of their expertise, and are ruthless in the force they wield; because we simply aren’t up to knowing which of our own bones to break in which places, or how to reset the resultant mess to correct the incongruence. Humans will default to bypass pain as a measure of our instinctual body’s evolution, not because of personal weakness.

It takes an exceptional human to take you into pain intentionally, and to keep their intent and energy consistent, despite your screaming and begging.

It takes a great deal of self-love to say yes to that kind of deep healing and to put yourself in the hands of someone who will dismantle your incongruence in order to re-orient your body to the blueprint of its original intent.

If you such a bone-setter in your life, consider yourself blessed. (I have 2.)

And

The Soul version of bone-setting is what I do.