Resonant tissues- central to feelings practitioner work

Distinguishing resonant tissues is central to the work of a feelings practitioner. Throughout this article, you will be introduced to this term and learn that when emotions flow freely and appropriately within their resonant tissues, they support health and healing.

Bones that are unwilling to heal?

Picture courtesy of Tilyura, unsplash

The memory of a Possibility Lab in spring 2012, which subsequently was to become groundbreaking for the development of the Feelings Practitioner work, is still very vivid today. Possibility Labs are advanced trainings in the context of Possibility Management.

Like in a laboratory, being a human is looked at through a magnifying glass. Exercises and processes are used that lead directly to greater authenticity, integrity, presence and depth. This works on a personal level and at the same time brings immediate transformation into the community gathered.

Characteristic of this context is, among other things, an open and responsible way of dealing with feelings and emotions.

In this training, a participant named Ulrike* asked for support. She was sitting on a considerable emotional charge. One of the causes was that she had to deal with a dominant physical issue.

She had been struggling for months with a fracture in her foot that just wouldn't heal. She had had a surgery and the doctors had done everything in their power and ingenuity. Nevertheless, the bones would not grow together. According to the experts, she should have been able to walk already. However, this was not the case: she needed crutches, continued to hop around on her healthy leg and was told not to put any weight on her injured foot. Understandably, she was at a loss, anxious and also angry about the situation.

The trainers held space for Ulrike and enabled her to express emotional charges in a personal process. All the other participants supported her in this. Soon it was no longer about the foot, but about a key situation in her childhood. Back then, she had had to suppress her anger in order to survive and cope in the family dynamics. Now she was finally allowed to show and express this emotional anger in a protected space. She was welcome in the community with her anger, as was her fear and sadness.

Step by step, Ulrike mobilized a considerable amount of anger energy and expressed it responsibly and loudly. She brought to light an old decision that had blocked a significant part of herself since childhood. It was time to make a new, more powerful decision that would allow her to be true to herself from now on – to take a stand for herself.

During an integration phase in the process, Samoto whispered to me: "I can see her bones growing together. It looks like this is what her bones have been waiting for - the free flow of anger energy in her system."

I noted this statement with interest. For the time being, there was no further conversation.

Four weeks later, however, the observation suddenly took on greater significance and weight. We were attending another training at the same location. During one of the breaks, we met Ulrike by chance on the premises. She was sitting in the sun, engrossed in conversation with another woman. When we came along the path, she spontaneously jumped up enthusiastically, pointed to her foot and beamed: "Look! No more crutches! I can walk and put full weight on it. The doctors can't explain how this was possible so suddenly!"

At that moment, the decision was made to take the discovery seriously and get to the bottom of the phenomenon.

In the weeks and months that followed, we conducted research on ourselves and with as many clients as possible. We asked questions, compiled experiences, recognized references and observed with fascination how certain impressions repeated themselves.

There was so much conclusive information about the effect of anger energy in the physical body! Soon there were also initial findings on sadness and fear - no less plausible. And as it soon turned out, this was just the beginning of an adventure!

When feeling and body resonate with each other

If the bones had healed after the accident within the “normal” time frame and according to the “normal” medically known facts, Ulrike would have missed an opportunity. The superficially unfortunate situation gave her the chance to finally complete childhood emotions that had hindered her well-being and self-expression as an adult woman.

We attributed a natural intelligence to the interplay of Ulrike's different bodies - the physical, emotional, mental and energetic. We interpreted that the suppressed anger had negatively affected the vitality of the bones, and that the new flow of anger had a positive effect on the regeneration of the bones.

To put it boldly, Ulrike had created a healing accident: Her physical body generously made itself available to pick up an issue in the emotional body that would otherwise have continued to remain hidden.

Was it a coincidence that the flow of anger was beneficial for the bones?

In resonance with anger

Let's visualize qualities that are available to adult humans from conscious responsible anger, the energy of the warrior and warrioress: Clarity, centering, integrity, boundaries, steadfastness, holding space, strength.

Bones form the solid and yet in a certain sense elastic inner framework of the physical body. They provide stability and shape. To a certain extent, they can withstand pressure and tension. They are needed so that we can stand and walk upright.

Bones have a defined shape and clear boundaries. At the joints, they enter into a clear relationship with each other and create the basis for mobility. There is no “as well as” there. The femur is the femur. It is not the pelvis and it is not the tibia or fibula. It can therefore enter into clear relationships and form the hip joint or knee joint with the other bones.

Bones create spaces, for example in the rib cage or skull, where vital organs worth protecting are located. The substance of teeth, fingernails and toenails is related to that of bones. They also provide strength. With our teeth, we can grip, bite and crush food with healthy aggression.

In Ulrike's case, the anger seemed to stimulate the osteoplasts at the interfaces of the broken bones to realign, allowing contact and relationship to resume and healing to occur.

The energy of anger and the quality of bone matched. Both seemed to resonate with each other in a beneficial healthy vibration – in resonance.

We continued to follow this trail as a team by experimenting and researching with ourselves and others. Anger energy appeared over and over again to be beneficial in realigning and healing bones, freeing joints, transferring weight and providing support in the gravity field.

The bones, teeth and nails, according to empirical findings, represent the resonant tissue for anger. When anger flows in these body tissues, it promotes their properties. In the event of injury and damage to the tissues, the conscious use of anger energy helps and accelerates regeneration.

In addition, the anger energy in these structures also has a prophylactic effect.

When clients were asked which body tissues they associated with sadness and fear, the answers were so similar that it could not be a coincidence either.

In resonance with sadness

In adults, conscious responsible sadness creates the following qualities, among others:

Connectedness, relationship, intimacy, love, flow, letting go, surrender and integration.

All soft and flowing structures present themselves as the resonant tissue of sadness. These include muscles, ligaments, tendons, connective tissue, fascia and membranes, vessels and fluids, internal organs, glands, skin and mucous membranes.

At first glance, the abundance of these structures appears almost confusingly large and inconsistent. Closer inspection reveals the resonance: it is about connection and relationship, flow and integration.

Muscles, ligaments and tendons connect bones across joints, organs are connected by soft connective tissue - as the name suggests.

Various tissues carry out the metabolism, which stands and falls with the relationship to the world. Substances - food and air - are absorbed from the environment, passed on and distributed. Some of these are integrated and converted into the body's own matter, while others are excreted. All this happens in a constant flow. If the flow is disturbed, sadness can help to restore it. In the form of tears, it makes the fluids visible and reminds us that we need this flow. Sadness helps us to let go.

This also applies to symptoms, imbalance, excessive tension and other elements of what we call illness. With the help of sadness, comprehensive healing takes place and surrender to the ongoing flow of life.

In resonance with fear

Conscious responsible fear also provides adults with important qualities: Alertness, reactivity, focus, openness to the new and unknown, creativity.

The resonant tissue of fear in the physical body is the nervous system with the brain, spinal cord, nerves and sensory cells. It is excitable, alert and reactive.

We receive an immeasurable wealth of information via our sensory organs through the nervous system at every moment of our lives. This information is transported at lightning speed through the system to central structures, which process, differentiate, combine and react to it or not.

Commands are in turn transmitted very quickly to executing locations and structures. Fear is the tonic of vitality, alertness and reactivity. The permanent intake of information - a fraction of it consciously, most of it unconsciously - serves our survival.

If there is no existing suitable solution or link, one is created. It is a futile attempt not to be afraid or to avoid fear, because a basic level of fear is naturally always there. If the fear is in flow, the nervous system vibrates in a harmonious way. If the fear level increases due to a current trigger, the system becomes more alert and ready to react. If we try not to have this fear, we deprive the system of some of its vitality.

It is not the fear that blocks, but its avoidance. And the system then increases the level of fear for the sake of liveliness. In this way, avoidance causes reinforcement while, conversely, acceptance of the flow of fear brings vitality and agility to the system.

In resonance with joy

What is the resonant tissue for joy? Aren't the most important body structures already covered by the other three feelings? What is left over? The answer is: nothing.

Because joy is in resonance with all body tissues, with all cells.

The qualities it brings are: Abundance, generosity, togetherness, community and a pureness of being, the taste of existence itself.

When anger, sadness and fear vibrate freely with the tissues of the body, joy arises on a physical level. It brings everything together - uniquely and yet completely in resonance with the other emotional forces - through vibration, radiance, expansion and relaxation in the midst of pulsating activity.

The discovery of the resonant tissues opened up a whole new field of possibilities to promote health and healing.

In addition, the resonant relationships have since given those who consciously research and experiment with their emotional powers a new approach to their physical body. This is because the emotional powers and their qualities can be – and need to be – truly embodied.

When the physical body is enlivened and relaxed through resonance with the emotional forces, this creates the best possible conditions for the energetic body to connect with the physical body. The flow in the emotional body is therefore the bridge between the energetic and the physical.

Dissonance - shifted emotions and their consequences

Since resonance exists, dissonance can also exist.

Excitingly, dissonance arises in relation to the resonant fabric when people go into survival mode because of their emotions.

In relation to survival strategies, especially in relation to feelings and emotions, people have as many individual habits as there are common ways.

A highly effective one is to move emotions into tissues that do not resonate with the emotional energy in question. Because as long as there is resonance, the path to consciousness is open. As soon as the resonance disappears, the emotion dips below the threshold of perception. Shifting emotions into non-resonant tissue therefore promotes numbness. This is particularly true of mixed emotions. Mixing leads to emotional mucus or emotional clumping, which also impedes free flow in the physical body.

It may be that an emotional power is in its resonant tissue, but not pure, rather mixed with another emotional energy. Or the shifted emotion displaces the resonant feeling from its physical home, forcing it to move into another tissue, to the detriment of all tissue types involved.

We Feelings Practitioners do not claim that the displaced, or mixed and displaced emotions are the sole cause of physical symptoms. What is certain, however, is that they prepare the ground or the environment for such symptoms.

Emotions going astray

Here are a few examples to illustrate how this can manifest itself:

Anger is shifted into soft tissues instead of resonating in the bones where it provides stability and clear direction.

If anger is permanently hidden in the stomach, it becomes over-acidic and, in the worst case, an ulcer forms. It is quite possible that the anger in the stomach is mixed with the sadness that has its home there. In other words, in this case we are dealing with a depressed or permanently frustrated person in whose stomach a tissue change is forming.

If someone hides anger in their muscles, they tense up excessively, harden and hurt. This very often occurs in people who are in the habit of overcoming their sadness with action, in other words, who are constantly pulling themselves together. This brings anger into the muscles and makes the sadness unrecognisable. If it is the jaw muscles, the person probably grinds their teeth at night. These wear out - although they themselves would resonate with the anger and need it for their hardness! The common symptom of teeth grinding clearly shows us what effect it has when anger is turned inwards by pushing it away.

Anger in the nervous system blows the fuses after a while. Anger and fear are the two emotional energies with the highest frequency and the most massive power. Their mixture results in hysteria. It is easy to visualise what nerves and sensory cells do when they become hysterical and how this affects mental health in particular.

The mixture of anger and fear, parked in the muscles, causes them to harden and tense up. The softness and flow that sadness usually brings with it is missing there. Sometimes sadness is also encapsulated in muscles or fascia, waiting to finally be released - which can actually happen for a few moments during a good massage, when the physical pain gives way to tears. However, the sadness may soften the nervous system in the meantime, making the person feel absent and inanimate in a way. In the muscles, on the other hand, there is a permanent over-tonus, which manifests itself in the upper body, for example, in chronically raised or fixed shoulders.

If anger displaces fear from the nervous system, it loses its vitality. Rigidity and inflexibility set in. The fine, highly excitable structures harden. This constellation is a breeding ground for diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.

Fear stored in the bones weakens their structure. It has an almost corrosive effect on the bone substance. The same applies to sadness in the bones, which softens the bones. The effect is even stronger when fear and sadness are pushed into the bones in mixed form, while anger is pushed into soft tissue and/or the nervous system instead of the bones.

Metaphorically speaking, we could say that these are ‘desperate bones’. These are the best conditions for the development of osteoporosis.

Some people suppress their anger with fake or exaggerated joy or mix both emotions and shift them. A symptom that occurs in this constellation and is probably familiar to many is laughter that is under great pressure, bursts out and is often disproportionate or inappropriate. The mixture, a form of schadenfreude, can block the diaphragm, which affects breathing, heart and digestion. Anger does not feature in these people's self-image. If they are asked about their anger, they often say ‘I'm not angry!!!’ - with a loud voice, a strong gesture, a glare in the eyes and at least three exclamation marks to make it clear how undesirable further questions are.

Case study: hoarseness

Bettina* loves her job and enjoys doing it. She is a secondary school teacher, especially in the middle school, where she has to deal with adolescents going through puberty. For a long time, she suffered from recurring hoarseness, which kept her on sick leave. What she couldn't admit to herself at the time was how afraid she actually was of the teenagers with their sometimes provocative comments and the resulting group dynamics. Her strategy was to overcome her fear with anger, to assert herself vocally in class and to pre-empt dangerous situations with her own speed. She managed this quite well until chronic hoarseness slowed her down. She had packed a mixture of joy, anger and fear into the muscles of her throat and especially into her vocal cords.

As she learnt to identify, express and navigate her emotions separately into her resonant tissues with the help of Feelings Practitioner sessions, her health became more stable. She continued to train as a result. Today, her teaching is much more authentic, which goes down well with the young people. She is able to really reach young people with less energy and inspire them for her subject. Anger is now her ally in holding space for herself and for the class. The more freely flowing fear in her nervous system makes her alert and present for creative solutions in the moment. She doesn't have to try to control the situation as before. The new calmness increases her joy, which in turn has a positive effect on the pupils. We could say that the hoarseness helped her to become the teacher she had always wanted to be.

Case study: osteoporosis

Marianne* was around 70 when she was diagnosed with polyneuropathy including weakness in her legs and unsteadiness when walking. She was looking for alternative support. She mentioned casually that she had been prescribed medication for osteoporosis, but was not taking it because of the side effects described. Both in individual Feelings Practitioner sessions and in group training sessions, she dealt in depth with her previously unconscious anger. She learnt and still practises today to channel the anger out of the nervous system into the bones and to allow the fear to flow freely in the nervous system instead. When she does this, she can stand more stably and move more safely and fluidly. After a routine measurement of her bone density, the doctor treating her congratulated her as the values had improved significantly. He also wanted to know what additional measures she had taken. In his previous experience, the prescribed medication had never caused such an increase in bone density in anyone. She didn't dare tell him the truth. Since then, however, she has devoted herself to her warrior strength with even greater enthusiasm.

Written by Dagmar Thürnagel

Getting to experience Feelings Practitioner work

In our experience, conscious, responsible anger work has a wonderful effect not only on osteoporosis. What's more, confronting and training with anger is usually at the beginning of emotional work and is of fundamental importance for activating self-healing powers. Everyone needs the power of anger so that the space is also safe for sadness, fear and genuine joy. As already described: Anger centers, sets boundaries, makes decisions and clearly says yes or no. To unmix mixed emotions and navigate them separately, the ‘sword of clarity’ of the warrior or warrioress is needed. It takes clear intentions to overcome ingrained habits and consistently tread new paths.

Therefore, if you feel that the perspectives this work opens up are attractive to you - then keep an eye out for Peaceful Warrior Trainings, experiential spaces for anger or Rage Clubs in your area.

The Feelings Practitioner Online Clinic is usually offered twice a week.

In the first week of each month, the space holders illustrate the context of this work in more detail. If you are interested you are welcome, even without any previous experience! You can easily register and receive the link via our website.

Experienced Feelings Practitioners are available for individual Feelings Practitioner sessions.

Find them – as well as information on our in person group trainings – on our website.

*All names have been changed to protect clients' privacy.