As I age, I’ve come to believe that my purpose in life is to multiply love into the world. It’s the essence of our existence. At the end of teaching a workout class, I often break it down like this: We don’t exercise, or do any self-care for that matter, because we want to look good or feel good. We do it to release pain, inflammation, stress, and anxiety. This positive energy empowers us to express our unique love. Each of us possesses gifts that are ours alone
As a massage therapist, I express love through touch and care, easing burdens, soothing pain, and inspiring hope. Sometimes, this goes beyond a mere massage. I have encouraged and been a part of three beautiful stories of love that I will share with you over the next three months. I hope you enjoy this first story and use it to help you multiply more love into the world via connection.
What is love? It might just be one of the most used, misused, and misunderstood concepts in the world. It amazes me what we sometimes do in the name of love. Love is a delicate balance of passion and commitment—a dance that can easily fall out of sync but is breathtaking when harmonized. Love inherently creates goodness, functionality, and harmony.
In a recent session, a striking woman in her seventies, with gray hair cascading down her shoulders, opened up about her pain. Her ribs are aching and she has no idea why. No injury. No event, just pain.
“It’s excruciating! I can’t sleep for longer than an hour and it’s so hard to breathe.” I tell her how my ribs have ached in the past and how my acupuncturist helped me understand that my heart was broken. She tears up.
“I’m so lonely.” She confessed tears dripping and dropping out of those smoky blue eyes of hers. She hasn’t found her people yet.
“It’s been three years and I’ve tried.” She gasps and starts to try to pull it back in. “I mean, people are busy and they already have their people. I’m getting too ol-”
I interrupt. “You are worthy of love. Look at you. Your soul is beautiful. Don’t let the disappointing interactions keep you from connection. You just haven’t found your people yet. You are never stuck.”
Because she arrived here during COVID, she didn’t know about all the amazing North Fork opportunities designed to help her find her tribe. Alyson, our front desk angel of mercy, compiled a resource list to help her connect with vibrant seniors in our area. Neuroscientist Curt Thompson has sweetly stated, “Each one of us comes into this world looking for someone looking for us. We long to be known. To be loved. To be pursued.”
As we settled into our session, I shared that others would miss out on her unique gifts if she chose to believe that her days of meaningful connection were over. She sunk into those words, stilling her soul.
Surprise, surprise! As I began to gently warm up her body with friction and oils rubbed into tired muscles; I turned my attention to her rib pain, checking in. The pain had vanished. I didn’t even need to focus there. The body had healed itself because her need was emotional. Our lungs are one of the main grief centers in our body and the ribs are the armor for this sacred space. Her ribs were screaming, proclaiming the deep needs of her soul for life-giving community.
She had released warm tears of vulnerability and her body was able to release the pain that had caused her to seek connection in the first place. I hope you join her in reaching out and connecting with others. Connection is the most potent healing force there is.
