Inhabiting the body - An update about Guru

In Meet Guru, I explained how I would be working with a traumatized 10-year old boy diagnosed with cerebral palsy at a leprosy community in Ahmedabad, India.

Over the course of the past three weeks, I have been visiting him at his home providing Jin Shin Jyutsu (an ancient form of traditional medicine native to Japan), as well as simple caring company—often in the presence of several wonderful children of the community who laugh and play while I work.

The changes in Guru’s state, already, have been substantial and I have much optimism for him as we continue to go deeper into his medicinal journey over the coming months.

Given the poverty level of Guru’s family and his inability to leave the house or do anything for himself, it seems to me as if there is no option other than some form of low maintenance, high-impact form of natural medicine for his well being—so it is such a personal blessing to be a member and witness to his journey.

Some background information

Developmentally, Guru is still the age of infant despite being 10 years old and is completely dependent on his parents to care for his survival needs. Along with his physical and mental handicap, he is also significantly traumatized due to the difficulty of his birth and the resultant limitations of his body.

This trauma mainly causes him to have difficulty breathing (he breathes rapidly and makes a loud, asthmatic wheeze-like sound on just about every breath) but much more to the point, it causes him to distrust this world, including his body—which is, I suspect, what’s behind his arrested development and inability to go outdoors without having an epileptic-like fit.

Absent intervention, Guru is likely to stay this way indefinitely.

To me, the trauma is the most concerning and debilitating of his entire condition, as well as the biggest opportunity for positive change. If his trauma can be harmonized, education and some semblance of self-reliance and independence are sure to follow.

Through a very capable translator, I told Guru’s mom before beginning treatment that things might look worse with him before they get better. This is a critical point to be made with any client and one of the hallmarks of a true medicinal journey.

When you start the process of fundamental internal cleansing, released toxicity comes to the surface before exiting the body. This can be physical matter in some cases, emotional discharge, and in the case of trauma, it can be the trauma itself.

This might mean Guru could have fits during treatment, physically shake, make loud noises, etc. So I wanted to be clear that such things would be healthy signs and not cause for concern or some sign that what I’m doing is harmful.

And so we began.

So far, so good :)

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been seeing Guru steadily 5x per week. As I live part time at the leper community, I’m able to see him twice per day on some days. This is a fairly intensive schedule, especially for somebody his age and in the state he’s in.

Because of how skinny Guru looked, we quickly organized some Cerelac for him (liquid food substance for infants, containing protein and other nutrients) that he is able to eat but his family has not been able to afford (Rs. 175 or $4/box).

This has made a big difference. Not only has it had a grounding effect on Guru, as food does—important for his process of accepting this world as his home—but it has also fortified him to handle all the treatments he is receiving and he is thankfully gaining much needed weight too. I can’t emphasize enough how important taking food like this has been, as before he was being sustained on only water, milk, and juice (can you imagine?). See video below to watch Guru take the Cerelac for the first time after 3 days of not eating anything.

The very first time I met Guru, he was hyperventilating badly—the poor quality of his breath could not be ignored. So for the first few sessions, my focus was entirely on his breathing (see flow list below for JSJ people) and I’m happy to say that he has not hyperventilated like that again and the overall condition of his breathing has improved, including an approximate 30% reduction in the loud sound he makes on each breath. His mom has also acknowledged these changes.

It’s worth saying that Jin Shin Jyutsu, like any true medicine, works on the level of the cause. As you harmonize cause, effects (symptoms) by in large go away and stay away. There have been some moments where the wheezing sound has gone away entirely. Very often he coughs hard, with his full body, during treatment as if he is releasing deep seated chest congestion.

I’m usually joined by other children in the community while I work—they have been playing a valuable role as well. Normally the children chat with Guru’s mom, play with each other, or play Angry Birds on my iPhone. They are constantly laughing, giggling, and so on. This helps lighten the mood and every so often you will see Guru unleash a huge smile and even laugh when the kids are particularly going at it and acting silly.

One gifted and remarkable child assisted me during an actual treatment, which was a good introduction to the hands on education I will deliver towards the end of my stay at the community. And when I say, Challo prarthna! (Let’s go, prayer!), the kids quickly get silent, set cross legged in meditation for a couple of minutes, and help to chant “Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti” for Guru.

Besides some of the physical relief that Guru has received with his breath, I’m much more interested in how he is looking like he is better inhabiting his body, as this is the back bone to his entire therapeutic process. A certain fullness is enveloping him and he seems more present in the here and now and less like a helpless victim trapped in his mind. This change, no doubt, has also been facilitated by his regular eating of the Cerelac food I mentioned earlier.

What happens when there is a significant, unresolved trauma (this is true for all of us) is that you literally live life outside of your body, in the perceived comfort of your mind. However, constant anxiety is the result, as well as an efforting and stressful will to provide for your self. The body is the source of feelings and when there is too much pain there, the consciousness identifies with the neutral mind, where there are no feelings, only thoughts.

Moving forward

A very important part of Guru’s journey will be going outdoors on a regular basis and taking in new sensory input beyond what he is already familiar with—his home. Again, Guru lays on the floor all day in the same room, only moving to be fed or be given a bath. He goes through these motions and sees the same things, day in and day out.

So, it will be key for him to take in new scenery and new loving faces that surround him. All of this will assist with his learning to trust this world and be present in it as a responsible human being.

We are looking into organizing a custom stroller with straps to secure him upright. It’s something we hope to have in the next couple weeks to start introducing him to the world outside. So far, Guru’s mom has not been able to carry him because she had an operation that prevents it and he is not able to sit in wheelchairs because he does not (as yet) have the capability to hold himself up.

Lastly, Guru understands language but does not speak, another component, I suspect, of his trauma. He does makes groaning and moaning sounds like a baby, but can’t form words. However, during the tail end of one treatment it almost sounded like he said a word. So, I have encouraged his mom to encourage Guru to start speaking, the same way you would encourage a baby to speak.

For Jin Shin Jyutsu people

Here are the flows that I have been using so far.

1, 10 breathing (both used numerous times)

2 (caused wheezing sound in his voice to disappear for a few minutes)

3

1st Method of Correction

2nd Method of Correction

3rd Method of Correction

As you can see, there has been a focus on his breathing. As his breathing stabilized, I moved to the Methods because they are some of the most powerful flows there are for complex projects.

Waistline/mental (overload) and 15/physical (deficiency) have been the most prevalent in Guru’s pulse. All make perfect sense given his condition.

More updates to follow...