The symbolic meaning of wounds
03/04/2023
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Think about the last time you hurt yourself... Maybe you dropped something on your foot, or cut yourself while cooking or "tripped". Maybe you were bitten by an insect on a beautiful day outdoors or came home with a sunburn... Did you know that all these scenarios contain meaning, messages about our thoughts, feelings and behaviors?
In the DSSI training, students learn about symbolism not only in dreams but also in everyday situations. When analyzing an injury, illness or even an "accident", several factors must be taken into account. First of all, we can look at the general setting: the time and place, what our thoughts or emotions were at the time of the injury. Depending on whether we hurt ourselves at the office during the work day or while out with friends at night, the interpretation will be different. Of course, we can always improve our safety in concrete ways, such as improving certain standards at work or equipping ourselves differently for different types of activities. However, even so, we can always understand the deeper meaning of an injury, what it brings us in terms of information on a symbolic level.
Here is an example based on the testimony of a DSSI student, who recently injured his calf during a group martial arts class. The fact that we get injured while exercising is related to our willpower, our drive. Because the injury occurred in a group setting, it is related to how the student relates to others and exchanges in a group setting. This is different from an injury during an individual activity, for example, which would indicate a tendency to push oneself individually.
Each part of the body also has its own symbolism. Some of these are probably intuitively known or can be understood, such as the connection of the throat with communication, our hands representing the way we give and receive, and the heart symbolizing the driving aspect of our life energy (the heart actually performing the function of a pump) which can also be related to the way we love. The Source Code dictionary is a fantastic resource for discovering the deeper meaning of signs and symbols. But even without this dictionary, if we don't know the meaning of something - in this case, a body part - it can be helpful to research it online. We can then take what we have learned about its physical properties and apply it as a symbol, a state of consciousness existing within us.
The muscles of the upper leg are some of the largest and strongest in the body, so they are related to power and strength in the way we move forward. The calf, on the other hand, relates to propulsion - it literally pushes us forward when we take a step (this is the movement the student was doing when he tore his calf muscle). So while the legs generally represent how we move forward in action, the calves specifically represent our initial energy in that action. The calf muscles are also important for balance, posture and stability.
Even the left and right sides have specific meanings: the left side is related to the inner world and the right side to the outer world. In this case, it is the right leg that was injured, so it is a concrete, physical action, as opposed to a more figurative inner progression.
When the injury occurred, the students were standing in a circle - strengthening the bond with the group - around the teacher who had just explained a technique. She turned to our student and asked him to help her demonstrate. The student recalls that "at that point, I threw myself at her enthusiastically - too much so - and I got hurt. I wanted to do a good job in the eyes of my teacher, with whom I have a very good relationship and whom I admire, but also in front of the other students."
Here we can understand the student a little better in terms of memories: the experiences, thoughts and emotions that he carries within him, even unconsciously. Part of his being was in contact with memories of seeking approval, feeling of belonging and needing recognition. Sometimes this strong need pushes the student to take action too impulsively and too energetically. This can destabilize their progress and, paradoxically, end up blocking it.
If we can consider injuries as messages about the parts of ourselves that we need to work on, then the severity of an injury suffered corresponds to the urgency and intensity of the memories stored within. A simple scratch would indicate the existence of a small percentage to which the injured person must be attentive, as a small reminder to recalibrate their energy and attitude. In this case, although the injury could have been much more serious, the muscle tear disabled the student enough to realize the need to take stock and see what needed to be changed.
Having to go through the gradual recovery process with acceptance and patience brought to light other things to understand. "More than one of my training partners pointed out that my body insisted on resting," the student admits. "And I'm someone who always wants to do 'whatever it takes.' Having to do things more slowly also made me realize how often I rush through things."
Being injured can also, surprisingly, lead us to acknowledge or appreciate what we were previously unaware of, as the injury brings about a "forced" internalization compared to the overly emissive movement that leads to the injury. The student had to rely heavily on his training partners right after his injury, "I felt really well taken care of… it brought me closer together with this particular group" the student says. "In fact it helped me realize that it is Ok to rely on others, and it also felt good to share my feelings of gratitude."
The next time you find yourself with an injury, you may feel frustrated and think, "It's just one of those things that happens"... But look beyond that ???? . Accept it as an opportunity to reflect on all aspects of what happened, as well as the thoughts and feelings it brings up in you. Why did life create a limitation? Then you can work on transforming what is necessary to develop your qualities and improve yourself as a person, without dramatizing and doing your best internally and practically...
The definition and meaning of symbols - what we call symbolic language - is one of the cornerstones of understanding the functioning of human consciousness. This language is essentially revealed through dreams, which we patiently learn to decode, in order to understand the messages that are delivered to us to guide us in our projects, our choices, our decisions, our actions, our words...
The UCM Teaching and Research Center has published the Dictionary The Source Code, a fascinating, essential and fundamental reference, through which it becomes possible to learn and understand, in an autonomous way, the signals of our unconscious, the keys of our memories...
Thus, it becomes "easy" - more and more with time - to shed light on our dark and hidden zones, the regions buried within us that can only be discovered if we truly decide to walk towards them.
But in the deep desire to know oneself spiritually, there is sometimes a widespread tendency to "just see the invisible", i.e. to be interested only in what happens in the inner world, with the logical consequence of moving away from the concrete presence of daily life, to become weary of the surrounding reality, even to reject it. We fly away. One goes away. Finally, we get lost. Because it is possible to lose oneself in the abstract... Because one only listens to oneself. We are sometimes only interested in ourselves and our "evolution". And one can forget the others.
One of the explanations for this is that we have lost the ability to listen. Listening attentively to every moment of our lives. Listening consciously. Just as there is symbolic language, there is also the symbolic listening, alive in every interaction, every exchange, every gesture. In every silence even...
Here is a particularly vivid example from a teacher's testimony: during a class assembly, a student suddenly complained of severe discomfort during a health class.
- Sir, I don't want to go to this class anymore, it disgusts me, and the lady doesn't understand anything, she doesn't listen to me. Everything disgusts me, it makes me want to vomit!
Strong words, a raw language, almost brutal; a tense face, drawn, scornful, grimacing...
- What did you talk about, José?
- It was that sex education, that disgusting thing, the male apparatus. It disgusts me!
When we learn that José does not eat at the same table as his father, even to the point of going without meals, that they do not speak to each other, that he does not receive pocket money, that he is one of many children born to several mothers, we begin to understand why the male reproductive system disgusts him and why he no longer wants to attend sex education classes.
In this first stage of accompaniment of a young person in disarray, struggling with life, symbolic listening is of primary importance. It is a matter of detecting the memories at stake, finding the roots of the malaise, understanding through the heart what kind of destiny has been activated...
We certainly have a particularly evocative example here, almost "obvious", and yet... If we reflect well, with honesty, on our day yesterday, our past week, our days as a whole - are we listening well?
You don't need to analyze a case of abuse to find symbols; they are everywhere... Like images that help us understand what others experience in their inner world:
But this can be positive too, of course:
When you practice symbolic listening, it's like opening your eyes to a new world. Everything takes on a meaning that we may never have suspected. And thanks to its friend the law of resonance, they form a top-level guidance duo capable of teaching us as much about others as about ourselves.
This is what symbolic listening is all about: hearing that behind a disgust, there is suffering... that behind the winter cold, there may be the beginning of a depression... behind the flowers, there are feelings that are perhaps never said, or received...
Et vous, êtes-vous bien à l’écoute de la vie ? 🙂
Quand tu étais plus jeune, tu aimais tellement les réunions de famille, jouer avec tes cousins, cousines, voir tes oncles et tantes, ou des amis de la famille. Mais depuis quelques temps, tu trouves cela différent. Tu réalises que ton oncle raconte toujours les mêmes histoires à propos de son travail et tu te forces à l’écouter. Quand elle te dit bonjour, ta tante t’embrasse toujours avec son rouge à lèvres qui dégouline sur ta joue, et elle te serre dans ses bras en te faisant presque une prise de catch. Et le pire c’est qu’elle ne s’en rend pas compte… 🙂 Ton cousin fait des blagues cochonnes pendant le repas et ça fait rire tout le monde, mais tu sens que sa femme en a assez et qu’elle se force à sourire depuis trop longtemps.
And you, in the midst of all this, remain the one who is nice to everyone. You'd like to say certain things, but you try not to create any discomfort around you because you know it could break the mood. So you keep quiet, you smile, and you continue to play your role, like everyone else around you...
It is very common when we become spiritual to have the impression of playing roles with the people around us. And it is normal at first, because to know ourselves in depth, we have to experiment, to "test" all the roles that exist to better understand them. You have to have been too kind to understand true kindness... And you have to have been crushed to know where your limits are and to have them respected... Just as you have to have been too imposing with others to know how far you can go.
"It's okay to play roles at first... We experiment with our personality... Until we find the Essence of who we are..."
One day, we come to understand these different roles that we have played, or that we have seen around us, and we understand that certain energies do not create a harmonious energy, and that others can create on the contrary a beautiful atmosphere. We analyze the + and the - of each one and we know which roles are positive, and which are negative... And we can then integrate in ourselves the positive side of what we have experienced...
And it is by getting to know ourselves better through our dreams that we can truly know the facets of our personality. We can see in our dreams our need for attention, our desire to please, our memories of low self-esteem, etc... But also our welcoming energy, our generosity, our motivation, and all of our beautiful qualities... And by studying them, by understanding them, we can also better recognize them when they manifest themselves in our daily lives, whether in ourselves or in the people around us.
With the opening of consciousness that we experience when we are spiritual, we can feel very destabilized, because we discover many different parts of ourselves, and our personality can feel fragmented, not knowing who we are anymore. But by practicing meditation or Mantra, we can find a unity in our personality, know what our main essence is and develop it in a way that is constructive for ourselves and for the people around us. We no longer need to play a role, because our personality is better unified, focused.
Then we can more easily react to the different energies we encounter in our daily life... We are able to talk to someone who has disrespected us, diplomatically, without projecting our disturbance on the other. And we are able to let it go too, to not be extreme in our reaction... And we have compassion for the other at that moment, rather than responding with hate, because we come back to ourselves... We understand that the other always shows us a facet of ourselves through the Law of Resonance...
"With the Law of Resonance, we understand that the other is always a part of ourselves."
Because yes, your uncle, your aunt and your cousin are always parts of you to be transformed... And if you feel disturbed by their attitude, it is because there is something to understand about it, a percentage in you that resonates with them... And if you work on it, if you transform it in yourself, one day you won't be disturbed anymore, and you will manage to react in the right way.
When we are spiritual like you, it is our responsibility to work on ourselves, not to project our disturbance on the other. And if we manage to do it one day at a time, one memory at a time, then one day we feel unified, confident, and we don't need to play roles anymore... Because we know who we are, we know who the other is, and we know exactly what is the right energy to adopt with the person...
When you see people around you, some have a good job, a good salary, but you feel that something is missing in their life... You have the impression that they live in an illusion... Matter is present around them, they have a family, but they don't look deeply happy. Before, you didn't realize it, but the more you observe the people around you, the more you understand that matter and money are tools that help to create stability, but are not the source of happiness...
So you ask yourself questions and wonder what you are doing here? Why do we live, why do we die? What's the point of having a job if you're not happy doing it? And you think more about your salary than anything else to motivate yourself?
These questions are very important to ask, and they are often found among spiritual people. For one day, the more deeply one understands life, the more one is aware of the illusions in which most people live. But at the same time, there is an essential aspect to understanding all of this, because the illusions have their place... Illusion is educational, et c’est bien important de ne pas l’oublier… Si tu dis à tes parents du jour au lendemain que leur mariage est une illusion car ils ne s’aiment pas vraiment, ou qu’ils ont passé 40 ans de leur vie à faire un travail qu’ils n’aiment pas, ils vont probablement pas très bien réagir… 🙂
"We should never impose our values on each other, even if they are positive."
That's why you have to be careful when you are a spiritual person not to become extreme about the meaning of life. Yes, you have chosen to see life more deeply, and that is great. But it's not because the other person doesn't meditate or is too materialistic that he is a bad person... Maybe your uncle tells dirty jokes at family gatherings, but at least he is a reliable person, well organized in his work, a good family man who loves his children... And that's important to remember.
The meaning of life is something so personal and deep, and that's why we should never impose our values on others, even if they are positive. Car même le positif, s’il est imposé à l’autre, peut devenir négatif à cause de l’intention que tu y mets… Alors avant de parler du sens de la vie à ton oncle, tourne ta langue 7 fois dans ta bouche et fais attention à ne pas lui “retourner le cerveau” trop vite… Car il a besoin de ses étapes pour évoluer et développer des qualités qu’il ne pourrait pas développer autrement 🙂
And yet you have everything you need in your life... You have a place to live, a family, food and material in abundance around you; you have everything to be happy but you are not and this puzzles you. So you go to see a psychiatrist and he gives you a diagnosis: you are suffering from depression. He's right, and wanting to do the right thing he prescribes anti-depressants. It helps you and it gets better for a while, but when you stop taking them, it's a free fall. It's a roller coaster of emotions when everything is calm around you, and it turns you upside down...
But it's not your psychiatrist's fault. He has advised you to the best of his knowledge and antidepressants have their place for people who are dangerous to themselves and to others. But if you really want to heal deeply, it is time to go and meet your memories... They are what create these discrepancies in your life...
And when we understand the reality of memories, we even realize that depression is a stage that is sometimes necessary for some people... Because someone who is depressed is experiencing an opening of consciousness... And this can activate in him a new strength, a seed of renewal that would not have been possible without this emergence of memories. All these phases are typical of spiritual people, and even if you don't really feel depressed, you understand what it is like and you too experience ups and downs without knowing why.
"It is the memories that are the source of all the difficulties we encounter... Like a computer that is saturated with programs..."
Indeed, it is our memories that make us feel bad inside... And they can sometimes make us act in a weird way too... Like rejecting someone we love, being afraid of love, or feeling attracted to someone who hurts us or disrespects us...
You can see it all in your dreams. And by working on your dreams, studying them and understanding them, you can really integrate deeply why you don't feel well. And with the practice of meditation, of Mantra, you can cleanse your memories, and thus transform yourself from the inside. And then you finally understand why you feel the way you do... And you can start to appreciate what life has given you again.
It's so important to remain grateful for what we have received in life, even if it's not perfect. We should always take a moment in our day where we thank Life, the Universe or God, whatever we call Him, for everything positive in our life... And one day, if we cultivate this state of mind, we are even able to feel gratitude in the more difficult, negative moments... Because we understand that the negative is there to help us grow.
If you're still feeling under the weather, feel free to make an appointment at the UCM clinic. We know what it's like not to feel well. We've all been there... And if you're looking for deep life advice on what you're going through, you can be sure that you'll be understood and accompanied with kindness...
When you watch the news on television, you wonder why they don't talk about more important issues. It's always the same refrain, the same energy of fear and insecurity. You are tired of it and you wish people would realize the beauty of life, get out of their problems and stop worrying about nothing. You even start to wonder if there isn't a plot somewhere...
So you try to change the world around you. You have heated debates with some friends who think differently. They call you an idealist, but you resist. You don't give in. And sometimes this creates tension with those close to you. You get angry with people who have a too down-to-earth view of life. Or you don't say anything, and you remain silent, but you get crushed by the opinions of others... Hmm...
This is often the way a spiritual person will react: either by being too reactionary, extremist, or by saying nothing and being too nice. Or sometimes by going from one to the other. And one day we understand that no matter how hard we try to put forward the best arguments in the world, if the other person doesn't want to change, he won't change.
But at the same time, it is not an excuse to avoid conflicts and never express yourself when someone asks you for your opinion. You have to be careful when you are spiritual not to run away from the disturbances you may have about certain subjects or people... And to withdraw from society saying to yourself that you will never manage to change it anyway...
"It is the deep desire to improve that everyone has within them that can one day change the world... One person at a time."
Indeed, when one is spiritual, sometimes not knowing how to change the world, one prefers to withdraw from it... But this is not an ideal solution. If we want to change a society, we must also understand its rules, its functioning, how to change it from the inside while respecting the rhythm of each person who lives there. It is the same thing in a family, if we want to solve conflicts, leaving is not a solution, we should rather discuss, find solutions together to move forward with each one making efforts.
So if you want to change the world... Change yourself first... And you will see that your positive efforts will also one day inspire others. If you overcome problems or difficulties, it may one day become an example for the people around you. You will speak about it with more wisdom, experience, and through your experience you will be able to help others one day if you wish.
You will even change the way you work, talk to your family, your colleagues... This will create questions around you, they will ask you how you manage to have such energy... And you will be able to tell them that you are working on yourself, in all humility and sincerity... and they may even tell you one day about one of their dreams, because they will feel that you could provide them with answers... And that is when you will understand that in order to change the world, each one of us can make an effort...
Every time you look at the clock, you see that it says 11:11 or 7:07. It often happens that you think of someone and they call you a few moments later. Sometimes you feel connected to your surroundings and "feel" things before they happen. It is a fact: you are developing one of your spiritual powers.
This is called clairsentience, the ability to feel things around you with a sensitivity that goes beyond your senses. And this is one of the first signs that a person is spiritual. Science is showing more and more that everything in the Universe is connected, linked in some way, and that events that seem at first sight to be distant can have a common meaning, a metaphysical link...
We can compare the Universe to a big living computer, where everything is calculated, precisely organized so that certain events occur. And when we work on ourselves, when we meditate, when we study our dreams, we are able to "enter" into this framework, into this rhythm of Life, which always brings us exactly what we need.
"The universe is a living computer where everything is organized."
But do you think this way when you walk through dog poop? Do you think this way when you miss your bus before an important meeting? Do you think that there is no coincidence when you are outside without an umbrella and a heavy rain soaks you from head to toe?
Everything has a reason for being in life. Parfois, on ne comprend pas pourquoi sur le moment même, mais chaque situation, chaque difficulté ou chaque événement a une signification profonde pour notre évolution. Même les “petits” événements ont en réalité une place importante dans notre vie. Le simple fait d’aller aux toilettes peut être vu comme un geste banal, ou une purification profonde et dimensionnée… Respirer aussi, on le fait tous inconsciemment, mais quand on prend une bonne bouffée d’oxygène en conscience, qu’est-ce que ça fait du bien ! Sens-toi bien à l’aise de respirer profondément si tu lis ces lignes, je suis sûr que ça va te faire du bien 🙂
Alors continue à observer la vie, la ressentir, voir chaque chose qui t’arrive sous un angle d’évolution, de compréhension. Et avec le langage symbolique, même un caca de chien peut prendre un sens très profond et éducationnel… 🙂 Car quand on comprend le sens de ce qui nous arrive, on ne “subit” plus la vie ou les événements douloureux ; on intègre leur sens éducationnel, et on n’est plus jamais perdus ou dans l’incompréhension… On a une guidance profonde qui nous permet de s’y retrouver dans les moments de doutes…
So if sometimes you doubt your way... Ask for dreams... Ask for signs... And you will see that Heaven and the Universe will help you... Not always in the way you think, but in the best way to make you evolve... Because now you are spiritual... You see life differently...
So, are you ready to change?
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