How Contemplative Prayer Revealed Inner Co-Dependency

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Living with tension in my chest has been a normal way of life for me for a long while. 
 
Feelings of heaviness, anxiety, pressure, and strain are familiar.  Usually it is a manageable low-grade variety, but sometimes not. 
 
I have dealt with stress in my body for as long as I can remember—from intense stomach issues, headaches, and back pain that began in my early teens through late thirties to chronic hives and tension in my chest that is more prevalent now than the earlier symptoms of the previous decades. 
 
What I did not know then that I am beginning to know now is how hard my body has worked in order for me to move through life in productive and even life-giving ways.  It has tried to control all the chaos, experienced and perceived, around and within, by holding it in different parts—the head, the stomach, the back, and now the heart. 
 
And what does this have to do with Spiritual Direction you might wonder?
 
Well, the spiritual journey is one of giving up control!  And that makes a body panic. 
 
Authentic spirituality will always lead to surrender and the body is most often the last to let go. 
 
Embracing a life of contemplation years ago with its practices of silence, solitude, and stillness has been transformative AND it has led me to this place of being on the brink of a deeper letter go. 
 
But first, in teaching me how to be present and not avoid reality, contemplation increased my tension and revealed an inner co-dependency. 
 
Weary of the increased tension, I began seeing a somatic therapist (someone who can help me better listen to the wisdom of my body, not just talk about my troubles).  She also offers IFS.  Internal Family Systems Therapy is a way of working with our internal parts or "family" so that there’s inner harmony rather than polarization and disharmony.  I have found it so helpful over the years that I regularly incorporate it into Spiritual Direction with others. 
 
So during a session when I turned my attention to my heart, the heart responded with letting me know it was working really hard in “keeping it all together” on behalf of the rest of my body.  How?—by consolidating all of the stress and strain into one area, holding it all in the chest…no wonder it felt heavy!  
 
As a Reiki Therapist (in addition to being a Spiritual Director), I know that the heart chakra normally filters what is being experienced but my heart was holding it all.  Why?  It did not want the other parts to feel the pain so it was “taking one for the team.”  And the other parts were just fine with this co-dependent relationship.  Even if a part was still hurting, it was willingly doing so.  This is too common among mothers.
 
Not long ago, I sat across from a mother and wife who has been doing the same thing for her family members.  From an outsider’s viewpoint, it can be said that her fun-loving, spirit-lifting self, is the heart of the family.  Being sensitive to her family members’ challenges and difficulties, she does her best through a variety of measures to help them not feel pain (or at least not as much), lest in her words, they “be destroyed.” 
 
Such a role can drain the light from one’s eyes, while also making it hard to see the co-dependency.  Sometimes the only ones who can see clearly are the ones looking from the outside, noticing the absence of the eyes' light.  They see the chaos and exhaustion and yet they have the least agency.  For no matter how long or often another may see it, true "seeing" must come from within.  
 
In the session with my therapist, during a moment of silence, I remembered the painful interaction with my friend a few days before, and my heart said, “What you see in her is me.” 
 
Wow!  I was surprised and then grateful for this insight.
 
After expressing appreciation for the heroic ways the heart has expressed love for me, the therapist gently reminded this part that it’s easier to pick up a large weight with two hands rather than just one.  She went on to say that in allowing other parts to feel the pain and chaos, the burden could be shared. 
 
My heart was skeptical but open.  It saw and even named the co-dependency itself which meant it was ready for a change. 
 
But it still feared that in letting go, I would be destroyed—once again I would experience the searing nerve pain that led to emergency back surgery, the painful IBS that made for uncomfortable moments of dashing toward a restroom, the cancelled plans due to the need to be in a dark room for headache relief, or worse.  It wanted to keep me from more of those experiences (and had been doing a pretty good job of doing so!). 
 
Yet I had sought help for the tension knowing that true freedom for one does not exist until there is freedom for all, whether in the outer world or inner world.
 
So it began to relax and open in this safe space.  And I began to feel the tension spread to my stomach, neck, shoulders, and head…oh no.  Gently, I reminded my inner self that I was older now and had insights I did not have earlier in life.  We were going to share the burden.  And pain did not need to be the enemy.
 
Guess what happened?  Instead of being destroyed by the pain, the pain offered wisdom.  In being dependent upon the wisdom of the heart, the other parts were sheltered.  While this was okay for the short-term, it was unhealthy as a long-term strategy.  Yes, different parts of me were not experiencing as much pain, but they were also not aware of the depth of their own strength and agency. 
 
“Kasey, when you feel your neck and shoulders get tense, it’s time to take a step back.  You’re carrying too much on your shoulders,” the pain in those areas told me. 
 
Sometimes we need to step into what we fear may destroy us (or those we love, which is what we fear would destroy us).  A spiritual director or therapist is often a wise (and usually a necessary) companion.

Sometimes when we take that step, the tension increases.  Looking back, the increased tension, even hitting  "rock bottom”,  is most often what leads to being given new eyes to see. 
 
Those new eyes to see help us navigate a new way to be.
    
 
Next week: “How teaching on contemplative prayer actually encouraged inner co-dependency” 

---