by Lieke Campbell, Student Dentist, Ghent, Belgium
I am a dentistry student and in the course of my work, I started developing pain in my neck and back that stayed until the next day, even from working just short periods of time with patients. As a dentist, I have to work in an area that is small (and moving) which asks for precision and attention to detail whilst working with the instruments in the person’s mouth. To be able to see it all, I often find myself going out of the preferred ergonomic position – which is with back and neck only slightly bent – bending and turning my back and neck in all directions. This is the worst position to be in for your back and neck, as it puts a huge strain on the spine and the muscles around it. Even when knowing this fact, not wanting to cause harm to my patient can drive me into going into such a position anyway. Combine this with a little nervousness and tension about treating my first patients and this developed into neck pain.
For this pain in my neck, I felt I needed some support.
I was recommended an online session with an Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapist in Australia, and it was great. Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is a very gentle way of treating the body, honouring the fact that our connective tissue is what holds us all together and is the stuff through which the energy that moves our body flows. She was able to give me the connective tissue exercises I needed to support my back and neck. These consist of rhythmic gentle small movements of certain parts of my body in my thorax area. I got much more than just exercises though; as we talked about my body and the effect of the exercises during the session, I noticed how I felt I was dropping deeper into my body. Feeling my legs, arms, and neck more and from the inside out. From there I felt a level of settlement and contentedness I had not been feeling for a while. I also felt warmer and all the tension I had been feeling released, through doing these simple exercises.
One thing the practitioner said during my session stood out for me especially. She talked about appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do. I had never stopped to appreciate my body like that before. It was a real eye opener for me, as before I saw my body a bit as a nuisance, not able to let me easily do my job, but at that moment I could feel how willing my body was to do everything I needed. The only thing it was and is asking for was to be taken good care of and to be honoured in its limitations.
One of the ways I deeply care for it are these exercises now and I feel the benefit of them instantly. The exercises are easy to do in between patients or if I have to wait a moment during a treatment – because of their simplicity.
This one session with the Esoteric Connective Tissue Practitioner has already made something shift in my body, and I no longer have pain during or after doing my job.
By learning to appreciate and care for my body in this way, I feel I will become a much more caring practitioner, and more able to care for my patients throughout the course of my career.
Connective Tissue exercises are truly a gift from heaven that supports our body on many levels; they are applicable in many industries and dentistry is just one of them.
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Medicine and Serge Benhayon 
‘…I felt I was dropping deeper into my body. Feeling my legs, arms, and neck more and from the inside out.’
When we feel our body from the inside out, we have a very different perception of us, that allows us to move and take care of ourselves in a more loving and deep way.
We do seem to have this tendency to ignore what our bodies are showing us and you have exposed this Lieke by saying
‘I saw my body a bit as a nuisance, not able to let me easily do my job, but at that moment I could feel how willing my body was to do everything I needed.’
We treat it a bit like a rubbish bin expecting it to digest whatever we eat, and if it gets sick we expect it to be repaired so that we can carry on as before in the same total disregard. Where I wonder does this arrogance come from and this same arrogance on a micro level is played out on the macro level where we rubbish the planet we live on and expect it to maintain an equilibrium so that we can abuse ourselves and it and not have any repercussions, or take any responsibility for what we are doing how arrogant and at the same time ignorant is that!
Lieke, I love Connective Tissue Therapy, it’s a beautiful gentle form of therapy that reconnects us to our bodies. There needs to be more research around the benefits to this.
The biggie comments you made, is ‘appreciating’ your body and we don’t do enough of this on a day to day basis. The body carries much more than we realise and how gorgeous for it to receive that support when we are out. I ponder on how the body would respond if it received these sessions on a regular basis, before the aches and pains. It’s the equivalent of keeping the car oiled all the time, then it would be with you all the time…
“The body carries much more than we realise”, so true Shushila, the body carries the Light of God within it, quite literally and if we were to truly (and I mean truly) acknowledge this then we would live completely differently, as opposed to living in a way that totally abuses our bodies thereby making God inaccessible for that time.
Hey! Amazing article. You’ve covered everything on tissue exercise for pain one should know. I’ve subscribed to your mail list, so whenever you post a new article I can keep an update of it. Keep sharing such articles. Cheers!.
It’s really amazing how powerful very ‘small’, gentle movements can have a huge impact on how the body feels.
Leigh, your comment raised something within me, gentle movement can have a huge impact on the body, so the larger movement does not mean more to the body and if anything it will have the opposite effect. I have learnt this through pushing my body to the extreme, definitely not loving for the body.
Esoteric Connective Tissue therapy is simply marvellous, it helps me to surrender really deeply and takes me to a deep place of healing.
So much can happen in micro movements, and how powerful a healing is that when that is initiated from the rhythm that is true to our body.
We need to bring our bodies back into line with the rhythm of The Universe, we are all totally out of sync with it and that’s where all of our problems stem from. We see ourselves as totally separate from The Universe and therefore act independently of its deep rhythmic and unifying pull.
The unlimited power of an Esoteric Connective Tissue session is only limited by our own limitations.
I’m sure many people would not realise that there are situations like this where a compromise of ourselves is not needed, that there can be ways to be and work in the world that support our bodies as we go about supporting others and completing tasks.
One of the ways a therapy can help if the client establishes a habit of looking after their body – the easier the therapy makes it to follow a regimen, the more effective it may be.
“This one session with the Esoteric Connective Tissue Practitioner has already made something shift in my body, and I no longer have pain during or after doing my job.” Such a beautiful example of the miraculous but simple power of Connective Tissue Therapy.
Our body has a natural elasticity to it when we do not force it to bend to our will but rather use our will to align us to the universal order we come from and in so doing create more space for our body to perform in rhythm with this and not construct a way of moving that goes against this flow.
Until I encountered Universal Medicine I thought suppleness came from stretching your body and challenging it in this way regularly. What I have learned from my own body since then is that when I have let go of hurts and issues, the space generated creates more natural suppleness without the push.
The Esoteric modalities support life-transforming shifts. The depth that they can bring us to is one hundred percent out of this world in more ways than our simple, temporal mind can comprehend.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy reminds us that no matter what we may think/believe our body is one whole unit therefore what we do to one part of it affects every other part.
Very true and this opens up a host of possibilities how to heal the body without necessarily only dealing with the afflicted part.
It is so ingrained in us to take our bodies for granted and to be able to stop, feel and connect with our bodies sounds super easy and it is, yet how often do we do this? I mean really feel and connect to the body. Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is super supportive with this and I love how your practitioner brought it back to really appreciating what the body is actually offering us.
Connective Tissue Therapy… a must for all dental students around the world.. ( and Doctors, nurses, physios… etc ..:-)
Ah lovely great reminder to appreciate my body for all the bending and turning it does, I can so often go in automatic wanting to get things done and not giving the attention my body so rightly deserves.
How we move is everything. The more we align in the rhythm of our body the less pain can ever occur. Connective tissue therapy is an amazing tool to remind a driven body of its actual quality.
What a beautiful summary, Stefanie, ‘Connective tissue therapy is an amazing tool to remind a driven body of its actual quality.’
I like this part about appreciating your body, it makes me think about how warm and delicate my body is, and how it works so hard – never stopping a heart beat or a lung expansion.
That is so true- imagine our body would make breaks of caring of its function how we have off moments, where we don´t care about it ?!
Given the body’s unceasing function we do take it so much for granted, but I love the stop moment offered here to appreciate it, its intricacy and dependability as well as its communications of our choices, supporting us back to what is true.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is truly a gift from Heaven that supports our body on many levels and the exercises offer a way to care for our own body.
Absolutely, Mary. A gift from heaven that keeps on giving and connects us back not only to our body but to the universal love we are from.
All true therapies ultimately act in the same way and that is to encourage the body to return to its naturally divine nature. These therapies never add anything they always promote a sort of a re-grouping, a reorganising of the body so that it re-assembles itself into a more harmonious way. A way that is basically in harmony with Life itself. It’s a very nuts and bolts thing, there is nothing airy fairy about any true therapy.
“I could feel how willing my body was to do everything I needed. The only thing it was and is asking for was to be taken good care of and to be honoured in its limitations” – this really stood out for me. The body is so accommodating and supporting in our movement and asks so little when in fact it deserves far greater care and attention. It feels like whether we end up developing a chronic pain that we feel like we have to learn to live with for the rest of our life lies in a very simple choice of awareness.
I never heard of connective tissue until I was on a Universal Medicine course and I got to understand and appreciate what an important aspect of the body it is. So deep within yet so deeply important. So to have the Connective Tissue Therapies and exercise to work with is seriously supportive.
I love the way Esoteric Connective Tissue therapy reconnects the body and anything that felt disjointed or not aligned falls back into place and not only that it also makes me feel far more expanded than my physical body itself.
Appreciation for our wonderful body working alongside the Connective Tissue Therapy exercises; what an awesome combination for healing any issues in our body. Like you Lieke, I have had such incredible results from this beautiful union and deeply appreciate the healing it offers me every single day.
We easily do we forget to appreciate everything our body does for us. Recently with bending I could hear and feel my heart beat and I was just in awe about it. That was my heart beating in my body and how beautiful was that!
“One thing the practitioner said during my session stood out for me especially. She talked about appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do.” Amongst a myriad of other things that our body can do, this is just one example of how we can and do so easily take our bodies for granted. If we stopped to appreciate everything that our bodies do in every moment of every day, with that deepened awareness we would undoubtedly and willingly take more care of ourselves.
Shoulder, neck and wrist pain are all the things we have been discussing at work due to working on computers all day, so it’s great to be reminded of the connective tissue exercises and having an appreciation for what the body can do, and is willing to do.
Especially when your body needs to do several tasks over and over again it is crucial to build a foundation within you, that is a fitness how to hold your body to handle everything that it is asked to do.
Yes, that is true. I worked in a motorway services grocery department and we would get 500 customers on one shift and I found lifting the bags a strain due to having a constant stream of customers. Then I took up the advice of an Esoteric Practitioner who told me to do some light weights as a support for the job and very quickly I found that my body could cope and the job became easier.
Yes very much so. And I found that our fitness not only includes our physical fitness but also our way of being in life, emotionally, psychologically and so on as it all matters and has a huge impact. For instance thinking badly about ourselves all the time wears us out too.
It has a huge effect how we “hold” ourselves in life – I realised I do not have to do weights, as how I hold my upper body in life and whilst working as a photographer is exercising me enough now.
It is amazing to have modalities, such as the Universal Medicine modalities, available to us that work in honor of and with the intelligence of the body and Soul, supporting the body and being to return to a state of harmony and union along with the understanding of what energy was behind the ill-momentum. This is what offers true healing and empowerment, supporting us to live with greater responsibility of taking care of our own health and well-being as much as possible.
Connective tissue therapy should be really an integral part of all dentists training … Imagine that 🙂
I agree. Dentists, Hairdressers, Carers, Nurses….the list is endless. Anyone in fact who works in a way that involves putting any kind of repetitve strain on their body would benefit from Connective Tissue Therapy training.
And just imagine what it will be like going to the hairdresser who knew this… How amazing it would feel as they did your hair…Well I can imagine 🙂
We all put our bodies under strain constantly regardless of what we do for a living or what our personal circumstances are. The very fact that we’re not living the truth of who we all are is a massive strain on our bodies because our bodies are having to live in a way that is not natural to them. We are the divine order of the universe, and as such should be living as an integrated part of the whole but we’re not, we’re living like teeny tiny parts that are constantly trying to pull away from The Mother Ship.
I have noticed this too as a physio – that we tend to compromise our own bodies in order to support someone elses! How does this make sense that to help someone else we need to wreck our own bodies? And yet this is the reality for many health care professionals.
Recently Universal Medicine practitioner Kate Greenaway presented the Connective Tissue Movements to three different kinds of audiences – one of students, one of healthcare workers and one with general public. All three instantly could feel the benefits of these exercises and how they can be so easily used in everyday life. It is super supportive for all but even more so for those who have physical jobs.
The settling and contentedness offers a marked difference from the unsettled feeling we have come to take as normal in our body.
When we feel discomfort we can be quick to complain, yet do we appreciate the time when we are able to move freely, to bend and twist, to dance and play and just enjoy our own body?
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is such a gentle supportive modality, yet the profound changes that can result from a session are amazing.
Connective Tissue Therapy can sometimes allow us to feel what has been suppressed in the body for example someone who has had a severe accident and lost feeling in their legs can begin to feel again. This can be disconcerting but actually may be a sign that the connective tissue is coming alive again and a flow is being restored.
Connective Tissue Therapy… Something so simple, something so true, that can be used from the cradle to the grave.
Building our awareness of what’s going on in our bodies gives us more awareness of our reactions, thoughts, feelings and emotions- and then the clarity to see some of our behaviours and patterns more clearly. In my experience, building a relationship with my body has started to bring more appreciation of all that it does and carries me through; a foundation that makes me want to look after it more carefully, treasure it more deeply.
Hi Lieke, are you able to share how things further developed?
What I love about Esoteric Connective Tissue is that it asks me to surrender, so as soon as I think about doing any of the super gentle stretches or exercises I have already started to put my body into a more gentle state of being and this in itself supports the body and any pain I may have begins to disappear.
I love how this session supported you to realise that your body is actually working with you and all it is asking is for you to work with it too. A two way street that has amazing benefits and results.
A two – way street that brings each movement together with purpose for the body and what it offers others.
Connective tissue therapy will one day be an essential part of healthcare for humanity.… It really is inevitable considering the incredible quality of this modality.
I agree, this modality is incredibly powerful and the answer to many of the health problems we encounter in the world today that we so far can only manage, such a chronic pain.
” She talked about appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do.’
I had never seen it this way and I was thinking of all the turning and bending and twisting my body has done over my whole life.
Yes, it sounds silly to say this, but our body is quite amazing.
It is astonishing to learn that a physical pain can be dealt with via an online session, with no hands on treatment from a practitioner. Sure, you get given the exercise, but there must be an amazing level of alignment and communication between you and the practitioner for this to happen.
We often take our body for granted, yet when we truly appreciate the support and wisdom it offers us, I have found through Esoteric Connective Tissue we learn to move in a different way.
I have been suffering from some lower back pain recently and was wondering if Connective Tissue Exercises might help, so it’s very interesting to read that some simple exercises were such a great support, as not only did they help on a physical level but in a way that taught you to appreciate the amazing body you are in rather than be annoyed at its failings. I can feel how I have gotten irritated with my body and the pain it is causing rather than appreciating what it’s telling me and all it does for me throughout the day.
Yes Fiona we berate our body for being honest! I have to say it is a good reminder to me about who else I berate or blame for being honest….