Page 5 of Big Pitch Energy

“Okay, you can go ahead and lie down now.”

He hesitated, but did as I asked. I placed a yoga bolster under his knees to make him more comfortable, then pulled the soft gray blanket up over his chest. His wary eyes met mine and I smiled.

“Just close your eyes and relax,” I said.

He didn’t look entirely convinced that he should, but after a beat, he exhaled and let his eyes drift shut anyway. I took aslow, grounding breath, letting the outside world fade away as I settled into the quiet hum of the room, reminding myself of my role in his healing journey.

I’m not here to mend what’s broken. I’m here to create the stillness where healing becomes possible, a quiet space where the body can remember what balance feels like.

I ran my hands just above his body, scanning for shifts, anything that pulled at my attention. The heat and congestion around his elbow and solar plexus chakras were intense. Blocked. Guarded. But not hopeless. I closed my eyes and began to work.

Chapter Two

Sam

“Takea deep breath in through your nose and let it out slowly through your mouth.”

Her voice is low and steady, almost hypnotic. I’m still not sure I buy into all of this, but something about the rhythm of her words makes it hard to resist. So I do what she says. I inhale, counting to four, hold it, then exhale just as slow. Her voice is the only thing I focus on. It anchors me, pulling me out of my head. I’m still tense, still skeptical, but with each breath, something starts to loosen.

“I'm going to begin now,” she said quietly. “You may feel warmth, tingling, or nothing at all. There's no right or wrong way to experience this.”

I felt her presence near my head. Her hands didn’t touch me, but I still felt them. A subtle heat hovering just above my skin, like sunlight filtered through clouds. She moved in silence, and I tried to stay still, to be open, whatever that meant. I’vedone rehab, ice baths, stim, dry needling. This was not that. This was…something else.

Little by little, the tension in my shoulders melted away and my jaw unclenched. I stopped trying to analyze what was happening and just let it be. And that’s when the sensation changed.

A weightlessness settled over me, like I was floating, untethered. My muscles twitched, a reflex to anchor myself, but her soft words of comfort made me feel safe enough to relax again.

She slowly circled the table, her hands hovering just above me. Sometimes I felt that gentle warmth, sometimes just the quiet hum of her presence.

I slipped into something close to sleep, my body so relaxed it was like I wasn’t even fully conscious. But I could still feel her presence, and as she moved to my right shoulder there was something else. Not pain. Not pressure. Just a slow unraveling in my chest, like something I’d been holding tight was loosening. Instead of feeling jarred, my breath went deeper, slower. As if my body finally realized it didn’t need to hold on anymore.

At first there was nothing but darkness. Then the familiar swirl of colors flickered behind my closed eyes. I tried to concentrate, watching the colors twist and blend, searching for some kind of pattern. Red bled into blue, then shifted to a soft yellow, before swirling back to a deep violet.

And then I saw it.

A baseball field. Empty. Fog curling over the grass like smoke. I’m on the mound, ball in hand, but the stands are silent. There’s no catcher. No batter. Just me and a heavy, aching stillness.

The ball rested against my palm like it always has and I drew it back, ready to throw. But as I lifted my arm to go through the motion, the ball vanished. Confused, I glanced down, and theball was somehow in my hand again like it never left. I gripped it tight in my fingers, certain this time it’d stay. But as I went to throw, it slipped away again.

I found the ball over and over, and each time, it disappeared just before release, like it was never really there. I kept trying, desperate to hold onto it, to finish the motion, tofeelthat snap at the end. But all I got was the ghost of it…weightless and unfinished…leaving my arm hanging midair and my chest tight with failure.

My chest tightened. My legs wanted to move, run, dosomething, but I was frozen. Not because of pain, but because I was afraid. Afraid I’ve lost it. Afraid I’d never get it back. That the version of me, the one who used to throw heat without thinking, was gone forever.

Before I could make sense of it, Hope’s voice drifted in, soft and steady, like a rope pulling me gently back to the surface.

“Take a deep breath in and slowly let it out. Wiggle your fingers and toes.”

I wasn’t ready to move, but I did what she asked. My fingers gave a small twitch. My toes curled against the blanket, grounding me. The table felt more solid beneath me, like I was easing back into my body, one breath at a time.

She placed her hands lightly on my shoulders.

“Start to bring your awareness back to the room, and when you’re ready, slowly open your eyes.”

I blinked against the dim light, feeling oddly disoriented. My body felt heavy, relaxed in a way it hadn't been since before the injury. If ever.

“How do you feel?”

“I’m not sure.”

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