A time of affirmation

The days are getting longer, but spring is still a long way off: this is a time when we are already on our way to the rest of the year, and things have certainly already been decided.

Every beginning of the year carries a particular essence or impulse. Like the child, who is a « zero point » from which everything springs and to which everything will return. The child « knows » who we are. This is a healthy basis for building on.

It is certainly now, supported by the energy of the year, that our desires and non-envisions are most reliable to listen to.

If everything was in order, we would have to be, with all our intelligence, listening to these internal affirmations… so we would then go down easier and more solid paths.

Listening to the Yes and No

The child knows very simply how to say « Yes » or « No ». These two expressions are very instinctive, but should be considered as sacred: with them our inner child takes shape and life can unfold around him instead of constraining him.

The challenge is to know how to listen to the clear, instinctive messages of the body, not to « submit to its whims », but to consider that what opens or closes in our body is the reflection of a very deep intelligence that speaks of who we are.

Our problem is that often we were not really ‘received’ in our childhood in the depth of our Yes and No’s, whether they were ignored, crushed, or fulfilled without adult intelligence (we say ‘spoiled’).

For many of us, we have had to say yes to others, to certain expectations, to certain situations, while at the same time saying a deep no inside… and these big no’s often remain well buried but very active throughout the rest of our lives, creating this feeling that life is painful, grating, joyless, without momentum.

Something in us is not heard, and like a disgruntled child says « No ».

We cannot crush these No’s, they are « stronger than we are ». We must learn to listen to them again, to give them space without necessarily obeying them. The aim is above all to relax them: behind what blocks, there is in reality something precious, an inspiration for our life that can be given when it is heard.

This is the objective of relearning to dialogue with your body….

The Large Intestine and the Proud Archetype

The area of the body associated with this time of year that completely embodies this Yes and No function is the large intestine. For this reason we call this area of the body the Proud Child.

The colon is where digestion ends, where we decide what we are going to evacuate or keep, especially water, which is reabsorbed: there is indeed a choice there, a Yes or a No that brings the digestion process to a close.

In the same way, our excrements are put on the ground as a constructive affirmation, which seeds the humus: in a way, the No is a source of Yes… and of life.

It is remarkable that in psychoanalysis, at the « anal stage » of development, the individual simultaneously acquires the ability to say no and the autonomy to have a bowel movement.

Finally, in a way, the Proud gives shape to the child’s impulses: this is reflected in the fact that the large intestine goes all the way around the belly, as if it were there to delimit it.

Joy and the need for security

Originally, the Proud is like an enlightened child: he sets limits, by a No without ulterior motives. His desires are a real law. It is a real source of joy: asserting oneself is simple and gives energy.

For the child, it is like creating a playground that makes him happy to live here on Earth in matter.

The proud can upset the established order, it is normal, as a source that brings more life.

He needs intelligent support, like parents who do not smother him by covering him, but who feel deeply what his essence is and what corresponds to him.

In the same way, listening to the proud in us consists in intelligently watching what we let into our sphere by listening to our feelings. Not everything is good for us, and our body is a good guide.

Moreover, to be able to deploy this quality of pride, we need to be able to lean against the community of elders, as children living in a tribe can do: the security and stability behind us help us to feel legitimate to feel what we feel and thus to clearly authorise ourselves to say Yes or No.

The symptoms of the colon

From what we have said above, we can assume that the symptoms of the colon and anus have to do with a difficulty in clearly, healthily, instinctively asserting what is OK and what is not…

In a society where listening to the deep needs of each person is a skill that has yet to be taught, the reasons can be multiple: feelings of shame, illegitimacy…. that can go as far as self-neglect (diarrhoea?) to deep resentment and the inability to move on (constipation?) … and to the suffering of not being able to live out one’s joy in the midst of others (anal irritations, haemorrhoids…) …

The message of the Proud

« When do you take the time to value the fact that you don’t want to?

« Do you value your cravings, regardless of whether you are going to fulfil them?

« Do you put yourself first? Say me first?

Nicolas BERNARD

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)