My foray into the healing arts began with an interest in how the unseen aspects of life influence and affect the seen. Throughout my personal healing journey and experience as a body and energy work practitioner, I have witnessed patterns in how thoughts, feelings, beliefs, past traumas, and habit patterns manifest in the body as chronic or acute pain, structural imbalance, and dis-ease. Just as there are physical systems of the body - nervous, digestive etc. - there are energetic systems that inform and influence the physical body’s functioning, appearance and overall state of being. Your energetic anatomy includes the body’s subtle electromagnetic fields (auras or biofields), meridians, chakras, kundalini, and nadis. In this blog, I will be focusing on the functioning of the subtle electromagnetic field(s), or ‘biofield’ and how electromagnetic imbalances translate into physical symptoms that manifest on the left and/or right sides of the body. Your body is talking to you all the time; understanding your subtle anatomy and how it works is a good place to start to decipher your body's deeper messages and get to root causes of pain patterns that may be present. Let’s start by defining a few basics that are fundamental to understanding how electromagnetism functions in regards to your body: energy, frequency and vibration.
As Nikola Tesla so famously quoted, “If you want to find the secrets of the Universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration”. Electromagnetism is a result of these components to how your body and the Universe function. Energy is all there is. It can neither be created nor destroyed, although it transmutes, transfers, and transforms. Every particle has energy and/or is comprised of energy. Vibration is the constant motion of every particle. Frequency is the speed or rate at which a particle/energy vibrates. The frequency of vibration determines how subtle or tangible something is, “energy that vibrates at a velocity [frequency] exceeding light is subtle matter. Chi is the subtle energy that creates all physical matter” (Dale 161). Electromagnetism is basically the spectrum of visible and invisible light; light is both a particle and a wave. When charged particles - i.e electrons - flow in a current, they create a magnetic field.
You and I live in a world of electromagnetic, unseen forces that affect our lives and health for better or worse. From cell phones to microwaves to medical devices and power lines, our bodies are inundated with external EMFs (electromagnetic frequencies). There are measurable electromagnetic fields such as sound and visible light and there are subtle fields which are perceived by their effects, as is the case with the human ‘biofield’. The human body itself is an electromagnetic organism, “your body is literally a battery. You are full of salt water, which conducts electricity. All of your cell membranes carry a charge. Every organ and system in your body has its own electromagnetic field” (McCusick XXIII). The primary conductors of this electric charge are the connective tissues and fascia, “the most conductive light-matrix is the connective tissue, the largest organ in the body {…} The collagen molecules are also interesting in that they are semiconductors, able to convey electricity and information. The connective tissues can therefore process information just like the semiconductor chips in your computer.” (Dale 50). Our bodies are totally comprised of fascia, covering us head to toe and surrounding each aspect of our bodies down to the cellular level. Fascia processes information broadcast mainly from the brain and heart, although each organ and body system has its own electromagnetic field. This is because the brain and heart are the body’s biggest electromagnetic centers and producers, with the heart being number one. The heart emits thousands of times more electromagnetism than the brain. Emotional states generate heart rate variabilities which create the frequencies the heart emits. These frequencies shape and inform the biofield which in turn influences the physical body over time. This is the bridge between how thoughts and emotions show up as structural/postural issues, chronic/acute pain, inflammation or dis-ease in the physical body. Emotions and thoughts create frequencies that filter into the tangible from the subtle. The body is responding to your heart and mind.
As previously mentioned, the body is ‘literally a battery’, and just like a battery, it has polarity. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) calls this polarity ‘yin’ + ‘yang’. It can also be referred to as positive + negative, masculine + feminine, and electric + magnetic. For the sake of consistency, I will refer to this polarity as electric and magnetic. In TCM, this polarity manifests as qualities in the body’s systems and structure. On a structural level, the left and right sides of the body correlate to the flow of electromagnetic energies in and out of the body/biofield. Put simply, electric qualities are expressed on the right side of the body. This is where energy, thoughts and intentions are sent out into your external surroundings. Magnetic qualities are expressed on the left side; this is where energy is received from your external environment/biofield.
When there is an imbalance of energetic polarity in your life, such as an overabundance of energy being sent out and not enough restored, your body will often express these imbalances as physical symptoms that manifest according to the underlying patterns of thought, feeling and behavior. With this in mind, let’s go over some of these underlying patterns and emotions that can cause physical discomfort and dis-ease to present on a particular side of the body. It is quite common that people will come into a bodywork appointment with all of their physical complaints manifesting on one side of the body; there are subtle nuances as to why this is occurring that are unique to each individual. The following traits and patterns I have seen and experienced in myself and in sessions are generalizations, a place to begin to make connections between your physical and non physical - your mind, body, soul - that may relate to your own experiences.
The right side, or electric side of the body, expresses energy output. Some of the mental and emotional habit patterns that relate to imbalance on this side can be:
Over-thinking and worrying (especially about the future),
Over-work, or over-giving of yourself through caretaking
Being a constant busy-body without enough down time
Having trouble speaking up about needs
Have long repressed or unprocessed anger, bitterness or resentments
Rigidity around self expression + creativity
Uncertainty or confusion with moving forward and taking action towards your goals and future.
The right side of your body is also linked to your paternal lineage; patterns and conditionings from your ancestral lines can manifest in the energy field which then trickles into the physical layer. Patterns of pain that show up on the right side can indicate an over focus on external output with an imbalance in receptivity.
The left side, or magnetic side, expresses through information and energy received that is processed from your biofield/environment. If you:
Are an empath or highly sensitive person and take on the discordant emotions of others as your own responsibility.
Feel hyper vigilance in your daily life
Regularly feel like you need to defend yourself against heavy or negative energy or people/circumstances in your life and feel bogged down.
Have unprocessed or repressed grief, sorrow, disappointment, frustration, shame or guilt.
Are someone who feels held back or unheard and like you’re not living your truth.
Feel undernourished and under nurtured
Need more outlets for creativity, or need to take greater action towards your goals and dreams & release stagnancy.
If you resonate with these, the left side of your body may be where you experience greater pain, discomfort, imbalance and misalignment. The left side is also linked to your maternal lineage.
Now, a brief aside - physical issues need physical care. Bringing up the non-physical is not a means to avoid the physical, but to bring greater awareness to underlying patterns and emotions that when also given attention and care will offer balance to your whole system and usually touch a root cause of the physical complaint. Without the added stress of stored traumas, pent up emotions or negative self talk and negative mental patterns, the physical body can better heal itself and find longer lasting coherence. New patterns can be more easily adopted that will help heal the physical discomfort present.
There are many ways to work with these underlying subtle patterns to help your body, mind and soul rebalance. Even simply being honest with yourself and acknowledging recurrent behaviors, emotions and thought patterns can help issues unravel. Of course, bodywork is an excellent way to tune into all the sensations in your body, especially CranioSacral therapy,
Reiki and myofascial release. Fully feeling your body during a session or in a moment of silence and meditation allows any pain or intense sensation to be alchemized through your heart (neutralizing the ‘charge’ in the process). You may have experienced an emotional release during a body/energy work session before. Tears and emotions arising during a bodywork session are an indication that you are transmuting and releasing deeply held emotions or traumas. Yoga and movement are also excellent tools as well as breath w
ork and using your voice to speak to your body and offer love and support to the parts of you within that are arising to be seen, heard and loved.
Deeper down the rabbit hole, not only do the left and right sides of your body offer insights as to how energy is being exchanged between you, your body and your external circumstances, but the back and front bodies, as well as specific areas and organs/systems. They each c
orrelate with specific patterns and emotions; your hips, knees, shoulders, and liver etc. all have stories to tell. You may find that you resonate with a mixture of left and right side patterns of physical discomfort and emotional/mental processes. If you are unsure what a physical symptom or issue is trying to tell you, try asking it!
In future posts, I’ll dive deeper into the body’s energetic anatomy, discussing the chakras and how they relate to where pain patterns are presenting as well as some more tools and tips to help you unlock these stored patterns. As you start to make connections between your environment, emotional/mental disposition and your physical body, so much more information co
mes to light that can help you bring balance to all parts of your life. Whatever comes up for you, remember it is all simply information; your body is giving you feedback so you can help it heal itself and so you can face and process stagnancy or limitation in your energy. The body is always seeking balance. Try to be neutral and curious when your body speaks through sensation. The deeper you listen, the greater your ability to hear the whispers before the yells. You and your body are in this together.
