Sometimes, it takes a singular, unfortunate incident to create an extraordinary change in someone’s life. It may seem, at first, like that one terrible moment is just that: horrible. But life is rarely straightforward in its revelations. Because as events unfold, a voyage toward something meaningful is ignited, and life, as you know it, will never be the same — in a spectacularly good way.
A simple twist of fate
This is somewhat similar to what Ben Pianese experienced. Ben, whose academic background is in Electrical Electronic Technician, is one of the most highly recognised experts in massage therapy today. Sought after by some of the more illustrious personalities and celebrities in London, Ben has been a therapist for over 19 years, successfully treating clients who suffer from chronic pain, injuries, postural misalignment, and other conditions. He specialises in sports massage, The Magrin Method, The Reconnection, Reiki, and Lymphatic Drainage, and is a qualified Emmett Technique practitioner.
But this wasn’t always the case for Ben. His life today started with an injury while ice skating. Ben recounts how he was trying out different techniques on the ice, despite having an existing knee injury and low back pain. As he twisted and turned, the pain became unbearable, and Ben found himself in an Italian hospital, being diagnosed with a lateral meniscus tear. With physiotherapy and what Ben describes as faith in medical experts, his long journey to recovery began. And it was anything but easy.
A life-changing…
Ben recalls the constant agony and discomfort he felt as he went back to work. He mentions, “The pain became worse and worse, and I had no option but to stop working for two years. The years spent nursing these injuries gave the mind a way to see things in a new perspective. A profound shift in consciousness gave way for a new perception of reality and the self.”
While Ben says he’s not in any way dismissing conventional medical practices, he discovered that the usual treatments did little to help him recover and heal from his damaged spinal vertebrae and irritated nervous system. Instead, alternative treatments such as acupuncture, shiatsu, sports massage, and Bowen therapy, to name a few, set him off on a path to recovery — healing, to be precise.
As Ben’s body began to heal, his mind began exploring other ways to resolve pain, and it was at this juncture in his life that he gave birth to his destiny. He enrolled in several massage and complementary therapy courses, including meditation classes. He sought better knowledge to understand pain, recovery, and optimal healthcare. To this day, Ben endeavours to seek new techniques to help people achieve better health consistently.
“The door was there to be opened,” Ben remarks, “and by transforming the negative to a positive, I could unlock the bolt and open the door to a whole new dimension. It all felt natural and familiar, too … had I been there before? Anything is possible.”
Beyond physical pain, effective healing
Ben’s journey to discovering relief from pain led him to physical healing and a more meaningful, fulfilling life, which in turn improved other people’s lives. At the start, he wanted to recover from his injuries. But he also discovered the knowledge, skills, and willingness in the process. This gift allowed him to help others be free from their physically and psychologically debilitating conditions through massage therapy. Freedom from pain unlocked the key to what he called “a profound shift in consciousness” and “a new perception of reality and the self.”
At first, it may look too far-fetched to connect the “simple” matter of getting rid of back pain to a life-changing, life-affirming experience. It may seem like an over-reading to say that finding an effective treatment for a persistent headache is the same as finding the cure for a lonely heart or a broken spirit. Many people leading busy and practical lives may find it hard to link physical pain relief with concepts such as life transformation and spiritual breakthrough.
But as you stop, pause, and look closer, the link becomes more precise and decisive. For one, there’s a rich body of resources to prove it. You’ll find medical data, specialist studies, surveys, and anecdotal evidence revealing the mind-body-spirit connection. They all say that the body is composed of many parts but is undoubtedly a single system, an entire organism.
Still, the best way to understand this is to experience it firsthand. As they say, experience is the best teacher—and so is pain. So listen to what your body is trying to tell you. When you’re suffering from pain, don’t ignore it or keep it “under control.” The critical step is to make yourself responsible for your pain and permit yourself to spend time, effort, and resources seeking a solution.
Think about the last time you had a terrible, depressing, painful day and decided to go for a good massage. Under a skilled and compassionate therapist, you’ll eventually feel the effect on your muscles, joints, bones, and blood. At the same time, your emotions mellow out, the noisy thoughts in your head quiet down, and you feel a lift in your spirits. Your body receives the healing energy of touch, extending the positive impact to your mental, emotional and overall psychological well-being.
One part of the solution is to use the proper techniques, therapies, procedures, and products to eliminate pain. The best pain relief experts and therapists know that. Freedom from physical discomfort, aches, exhaustion and tension is only possible if you also work on spiritual healing. To do that, you must be a little brave and daring because you must believe in and live by some principles that are not as mainstream or trendy today: kindness, gratitude, compassion, and self-appreciation. When you hold on to these, it becomes easier to commit and consistently do things that are good for your body: eating well, being active and seeking the help of doctors, therapists and healers. Eventually, you become more equipped to serve others as you become stronger and healthier. Ben’s life is a testament to this.
If you still believe that connecting pain relief and spiritual healing is a little “far out,” you may be right. Addressing pain from a spiritual perspective is, in its very essence, a leap of faith—a leap that trusts someone will be there to catch you, care for you, and offer a hand to heal your body and create a healthy, happy life.
Emotions play a significant role in the healing process
We often like to think that the body and mind operate independently from each other, that they are two separate systems. But take the time to reflect on times when you’ve distinctly experienced some connection between the two. Many a young boy’s stomach has fluttered with butterflies at the sight of a lovely young girl, ribbons in her hair, passing by on a bicycle. Maybe you remember how the looming deadline of a potentially career-launching report put you through a rollercoaster ride of headaches and sleeplessness for weeks on end, and the relaxing strokes of massage helped soothe you enough to gain better focus and confidence. Or maybe you’ve discovered that time spent with beloved family members always made you forget that you ever liked alcoholic beverages or cigarettes in the first place.
Tuning into your feelings
Health specialists and scientists have researched how a person’s emotional well-being, and even mental health issues, have a significant impact on their overall health and can even be considered health issues on their own. Harvard School of Public Health associate professor of society, human development, and health, Laura Kubzansky, once shared in a talk that there have been studies suggesting that positive emotions can benefit a person’s health, the theory being that such good emotions act as a buffer for stress. Maintain a positive outlook and an optimistic mindset, for example. You can be less likely to smoke or drink alcohol and more likely to exercise and enjoy improved quality of sleep.
Generally, positive emotions have been found to curb stress, anxiety, and depression. Psychosocial factors such as worrying about family problems or work-related issues, for instance, are associated with a substantial risk of heart attack, pointing to negative emotions as having a relevant correlation with a person’s health. A Time Magazine special by Michael D. Lemonick entitled “Health: The Biology of Joy” also noted that happiness and being hopeful and content “appear to reduce the risk or limit the severity of cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease, diabetes, hypertension, colds and upper-respiratory infections.” Depression, on the other hand, which he names “the extreme opposite of happiness,” is known to have the ability to “worsen heart disease, diabetes and a host of other illnesses.”
Taking charge of your well-being
Of course, diseases and health conditions are very real, and medicine is constantly evolving to deliver effective cures. Still, the knowledge that there is a relationship between body and mind suggests that a person can steer his own life toward greater well-being.
One way to harness the healing capabilities of positive emotions is to create greater harmony and balance within the body through interaction with the comprehensive Reconnective Healing spectrum of frequencies made up of energy, light and information. After all, energy points to the essence of the physical, organic human body. Conversely, light serves as the communication within such frequencies between people and the universe—information results from the play and entrainment with light and energy.
Dr Eric Pearl, the man behind The Reconnection and Reconnective Healing, identifies healing as a state of balance. “Every health challenge is a combination of the physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional (and probably a few other classifications we don’t have words for),” he shares. “We simply classify it according to its predominant characteristic. Reconnective Healing doesn’t specifically ‘treat’ anything. If, in its presence, you allow yourself to come back into balance, as many people do, then you do. You do.”
Looking at the bright side, finding happiness and optimism in all situations, servicing the body through restorative, beneficial massage therapy, and acknowledging frequencies that help you look at healing differently. By connecting with emotions, spirituality, and consciousness, you gain greater control over your well-being and discover an instinctive path to improved health.
