Cyclotherapy

Healing.  Part 1.  Being alive means facing certain situations or events that cause unpleasant, painful feelings to arise inside of us.  There is no escaping it.  It is simply part of what it means to be human and alive.  If we were to touch a burning stove with our bare hand, the pain receptors in  our skin would very quickly communicate to our brain to remove our hand from the dangerous scorching heat source.  That’s the purpose of pain.  Protection.  With emotional pain, our inclination is similar in that we instinctively want to distance ourselves from what hurts.  Because of this, our tendency is most often to push down unpleasant emotions.  Repression.  Our best attempt at protection at that moment.  It kind of works.  But only temporarily.  The pain never gets released.  It remains inside of us.  Eventually buried under layers and layers of suppressed painful feelings.  Until we reach a certain breaking point.  For some it’s middle age.  For some it could be much sooner.  These unbearable accumulated emotional anchors immobilizing us.  Disguised as anxiety and depression.  Can we free ourselves from these shackles?  How do we begin to heal back into happiness?  Maybe it all starts with locating, identifying and releasing these difficult and painful stuck feelings?  Maybe this is why I love my solo rides so much?  These pedals.  Drawing circles.  In nature.  Pointing out these emotional anchors.  Lifting them up to the surface.  Giving me the opportunity to allow them to move through me.  Something about the meditative aspect of these rides that just seems to give me the courage that I need.  Something about spinning these legs that makes the pain of the release a bit more bearable.  Long before psychotherapy.  I was unknowingly working on healing my trauma using what I call cyclotherapy.