Why Trees?

As a lover of hiking in forests, trees have always held a special place in my life. I am in awe of their majesty, beauty, and time-tested resilience. While living in Dayton, Ohio one year, I found, along my daily hike in Grant Park, two trees flanking the trail. Walking between them every day, I began to see them metaphorically as the two seemingly irreconcilable realities that were present in my life at that time. I would stop during my hike as I passed them and stretch to try to touch both trees with my fingertips and silently pray that I could somehow be the bridge between the two irreconcilable realities. 

Several years later, I stumbled across the book, The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. In that fascinating book, I found that trees form communities, that they are connected in various ways (e.g., roots, leaves), that they communicate with each other, and even take care of each other. I was astounded. I thought back to my two trees in Grant Park. I realized that my touching the trees did not make the connection; the connection was already there, even when I could not see it. I did not need to be a bridge. This helped me to trust that connection also existed between the two seemingly irreconcilable realities in my life. Just as those two trees did not need me to connect them with my fingertips, I could trust that the irreconcilable realities in my life were also somehow connected in ways that I could neither see nor imagine. What was needed was not a bridge of connection but perhaps simply the presence of another being to open the pathways of communication and healing.

Trust in connection is a profound lesson that I learned from my two trees. It has become a core value in my life, one which I bring to my work as a shiatsu practitioner and craniosacral therapist. I trust that the body and mind are already connected in people. The body truly has an innate desire for health and healing. Unfortunately, in our fast-paced, cerebrally-focused world, we often forget that. Many of us have also endured situations that have caused us trauma which can get stuck in our bodies. In many ways, our society pushes us to live in ways that hinder our body’s healing tendency. Tensions build, areas in our bodies get stuck, and we feel disconnected in body and mind.

My work at Body Mind Integrity is not to make the connections between our body and mind like a bridge, but rather to make space for the connections that already exist to flow more freely so that the body-mind can do what it is innately set up to do: be healthy. 

I invite you to step away from the pressures of the external world and experience what can happen when there is body mind integrity. Shiatsu and craniosacral work are both unique forms of body work that open the pathways of connection in our body-mind so that healing can take place.