The Push Response: New Pragmatics in Self-Healing
In the realm of researched trauma responses we have discovered: fight-flight-freeze-and fawn.
I would like to propose another, which is the push response.
photo cred: Grok
In my work with clients, particularly survivors of rape and incest trauma, the most common desire is the wish to have been able to push their abuser away/off of them. We often mimic this in the therapy encounter using pillows or other props in order to complete the thwarted nervous system response.
In the current psychotherapy landscape, we have Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, poly-vagal theory, and sensory-motor psychotherapy — to name a few — modalities to integrate the mental understandings of trauma with the somatic.
For example, Dr. Peter Levine, the creator of Somatic Experiencing observed how animals shake after traumatic experiences and connected this with his own desire to shake after a near-death car accident. He later hypothesized that thwarted trauma responses lead to a shut down of the central nervous system. Somatic Experiencing is based off of the theory that the body’s inability to fully complete its trauma response then leads to a host of ailments due to this energetic back up. Like a kink in the hose, the traumatic energy becomes stuck, and thus needs to be safely guided outwards through the process he created.
Case Study: Myself
As mentioned in my previous post, when I return to the United States after travel, I am struck by terrible nighttime allergies that lead to puffy, swollen eyes, a runny nose and burning lips. After having explored all avenues including mold remediation, ozone, continual washing of all bedding and clothing, and air purification, I muscle tested over and over only to find that it was me and not my environment causing the problem.
A Pattern Emerges:
About three times a day, I pause to clear my energy. This processing takes anywhere between 5 minutes to several hours depending on the day. What I began to notice was that during particularly intense energy releases, where I would seem to need to push out the energy, that in the evening, my nighttime histamine dumps would be less active.
Using the bio-spect, I started to give myself daily morning treatments to aid with the recovery of my allergies. What this seemed to do was speed up the process of these pushing somatic releases with gradual improvement of my nighttime allergies.
Gradually, over the course of 10 days, with daily pushing between 3-9 seconds between 5-10x/day (the more the better), I was able to sleep peacefully through the night.
While not completely healed (I still have some sneezing fits throughout the day), my body has made great progress in a short period of time in being able to metabolize my body’s histamine dumps and whatever environmental triggers are adding to it.
Personal Observations and Hypotheses:
Women who have given birth are shown to live longer than childless women, with women giving birth after age 40 living up to twenty years longer than the expected average. One theory is that this is due to the toxins the mother passes onto the child ie) childbirth is a major detoxification process for the mother. Another hypothesis I have is: Could it also be the intensity of pushing that assists with longevity because this energetically forces the mother to push out other stuck energies?
Pain is a necessary signaling input for the body to heal itself.
When the process of pushing is unavailable, this leads to trapped sick energy, which forms any number of illnesses including gut issues, allergies, autoimmune issues, cancer, joint pain, and impaired hormone production.
Pragmatics:
What I like about the Tao is its emphasis on the power of our sexual energy. Popular somatic influencer Ryan Evans recommends pulling a towel and silent screaming or pushing the wall with your legs to release trapped rage and anger. This is not enough because it only engages the large muscle groups such as the biceps and quads. For deeper healing, I believe you need to engage the fascia and sexual organs to create intense tension and cathartic release in an almost orgasmic fashion using the whole pelvis (sexual organs) and head cavity (pituitary/pineal/hypothalamus).
Pushing Down and Out:
Makes sure your bowels are completely empty.
Starting seated, imagine you are bearing down like you would to give birth or have a bowel movement. Focus more on contracting your abdominal muscles and bringing (not forcing) the energy down through the pelvis. Don’t push too hard through the anus. Focus more on the sexual glands.
Feel the sick energy (for me histamine energy feels like it has a stinging quality), move down and out through the vagina/testicles, perineum, anus and down through the feet.
Really squeeze and hold (to the point of shaking) as hard as you can between 3-9 seconds.
Quite literally, you are mimicking the action of giving birth, but in short bursts, for as long as you can stand it.
Repeat as often as you can throughout the day.
You will start to notice your body naturally guiding you on when it wants to push.
Pushing Up and Out:
Because my issues were in my sinuses, I really imagined pushing the stinging histamine sensations up and out through my eyes, nose and mouth pushing as hard as I could to the point of shaking.
Any organ you are having difficult with, really imagine gathering the sick energy and pushing it up and outwards throughout the entire head cavity and through the crown.
You may mimic silent screaming or giving birth. Regardless, you need to create so much tension (to the point of shaking) that when you relax, it almost feels orgasmic.
Rest and repeat as often as your body guides you.
My Push Theory: intense pushing enhances the creation and production of endorphins, oxytocin and vasopressin, which assists the body’s natural self-healing process.
This is why I think people love lifting weights. Heavy lifting creates a large amount of endorphins through intense contraction and release, especially when grunting as this engages the sexual organs. This method is similar but requires more intention and self-awareness of the whole body, not just the muscles.
While masturbation and sexual intercourse can create a lot of healing tension and cathartic release, many people, especially nowadays, are not having enough or intense enough sex to create these hormones. So, what we can do is try and recreate these sensations on our own.
Hypothesized healing mechanisms:
Time under tension creates powerful hormonal releases which kick start the body’s self-healing mechanisms.
Precautions and Warnings:
Make sure you are in a safe position, such as seated or laying down, in case of dizziness.
Do not push too hard with the anus as this could cause a hernia. Instead, think of engaging the transverse abdominus to hug the spine.
Start with an intensity of 3/10, 5/10, then 8/10 to test how your body responds to intense pushing.
Are you ready to give it a push?
Any other precautions I need to take into account?
Please leave your comments below.