I’ve had a bad back for years. I treat it with acupuncture and chiropractor visits and use an amazing heating pad. Sometimes, though, I throw my back out and it’s a few days where I’m benched until it’s better. That happened a few weeks ago (originally published in 2013). I was packing for a move and I wish I could say it was lifting a box, but it was getting up from the bed playing with the cat, just twisted wrong and that was it. No time to be sidelined, though, there was too much to do, and I had another training coming up. These trainings are 3-day long-day events in uncomfortable conference room chairs.

At the training, my back was killing me. I wasn’t whining about it on the outside, but I was going through Advil at an unhealthy rate and halfway through the day was needing half a muscle relaxer just to not whimper. On day 2, we did break-out practice groups to increase responsiveness. I believe that the mind controls the body in most everything and that the signals, if not going to the mind, are not going to be received, coded, or perceived, so the mind is the key to all this. Thus, I believe that the mind can make the change in all this, speeding healing, blocking pain, and increasing the time needed to receive and process the message of discomfort and what the body needs.

In my trance state, my partner effectively increased responsiveness in me. This meant, to me, that my body and mind were more than twice as responsive from before this trance state session. My body and mind were optimized, turned up, in line. I took my symbol and used it every time my back twinged. One deep breath, eyes closed, and thanked the messenger for the message that something was amiss and I needed to give extra care and healing to that part of my body. Second deep breath, eyes closed, dissipate the pain (I pictured it pixelated and expanding away). Note: none of this was part of what my partner did in the trance state, but since my body and mind were already optimized for responsiveness, they were responding to one another in an advanced way and I was building on that. This did not remove all pain; there was still an error in my body, a problem to be healed, but I could increase healing and decrease pain.

A couple of days later, my husband and I met up after my training was over and he was rubbing my back and said “I can see this is the muscle you pulled; it’s raised, but your whole back isn’t swollen anymore. Does it still hurt?” “Some,” I answered, “keep looking.” He did and I took a few breaths, visualizing my symbol and dissipating the pain. He said it looked a little flatter and how did I do that? This stuff, it’s good stuff! 

I also got an emotional issue for me unstuck that weekend at the training and am looking forward to using that energy for being awesome in the moment and seeing how it frees me up for health and happiness.

Autumn Hahn is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist practicing at Clear Mind Group in Weston, Florida. Call 954-612-9553 for a consultation. Follow Autumn on Twitter & Facebook.