When I am working with a patient I often find myself explaining to them that their physical complaints and symptoms are similar to those flashing highway signs that announce a traffic jam is ahead.
Physical symptoms are the body's way of saying that something has gone awry and is out of balance.
It is a message delivered to each of us to say "Pay Attention", only it does not clearly explain what the cause of the problem is.
Sometimes, a physical symptom, say perhaps a neck pain, can be traced directly to something that happened, like whiplash in a car accident.
Other times, a neck pain in the neck can result from the stress of having to work with someone who is "a pain in our neck".
Pain can be a powerful metaphor for emotional situations that are ongoing sources of stress.
This stress can result in muscle tightness and soreness which can become hard-wired into our bodies as real ongoing sources of pain and dysfunction.
Most people still remember the sarcastic way that physicians might have said that their condition "was all in their head".
Psychosomatic pain was seen as worse than being a cancer diagnosis.
Now, ongoing brain research continues to elucidate how difficult unresolved stressors lead to anxious or disturbing thoughts, creating neurotransmitters that may result in an emotion (i.
e.
anger) that results in hormone release (i.
e.
cortisol) which leads to a wide array of physical system effects including vascular, respiratory, digestive, neurologic, immune responses, and others.
This then can result in hypertension, heart disease, digestive disturbance, immune system susceptibility, amongst others.
In reverse, any physical pain, especially when it doesn't resolve as quickly as you would like it to, may result in feelings of frustration, anger, hopelessness and more.
these emotions only serve to increase stress hormones that can make the pain even worse and extend the cycle..
Whether your pain began with a physical trauma, or was the result of ongoing emotional and psychological stress, the interplay between the two are inseparable.
Healing must address all involved aspects.
Some situations certainly tend to be more physical or more emotional in origin, but a holistic and broader approach is always a useful and more effective way to go.
When we look at the matrix of all that life is, we ultimately come to the realization, that everything within our bodies is interconnected and everything in life is ultimately inter-connected in some way.
So don't feel bad if you do not know what trauma might have been responsible for your pain, its not just in your head.
But at the same time,.
yes it is,.
for all of us, and that is just the way we are wired.
Physical symptoms are the body's way of saying that something has gone awry and is out of balance.
It is a message delivered to each of us to say "Pay Attention", only it does not clearly explain what the cause of the problem is.
Sometimes, a physical symptom, say perhaps a neck pain, can be traced directly to something that happened, like whiplash in a car accident.
Other times, a neck pain in the neck can result from the stress of having to work with someone who is "a pain in our neck".
Pain can be a powerful metaphor for emotional situations that are ongoing sources of stress.
This stress can result in muscle tightness and soreness which can become hard-wired into our bodies as real ongoing sources of pain and dysfunction.
Most people still remember the sarcastic way that physicians might have said that their condition "was all in their head".
Psychosomatic pain was seen as worse than being a cancer diagnosis.
Now, ongoing brain research continues to elucidate how difficult unresolved stressors lead to anxious or disturbing thoughts, creating neurotransmitters that may result in an emotion (i.
e.
anger) that results in hormone release (i.
e.
cortisol) which leads to a wide array of physical system effects including vascular, respiratory, digestive, neurologic, immune responses, and others.
This then can result in hypertension, heart disease, digestive disturbance, immune system susceptibility, amongst others.
In reverse, any physical pain, especially when it doesn't resolve as quickly as you would like it to, may result in feelings of frustration, anger, hopelessness and more.
these emotions only serve to increase stress hormones that can make the pain even worse and extend the cycle..
Whether your pain began with a physical trauma, or was the result of ongoing emotional and psychological stress, the interplay between the two are inseparable.
Healing must address all involved aspects.
Some situations certainly tend to be more physical or more emotional in origin, but a holistic and broader approach is always a useful and more effective way to go.
When we look at the matrix of all that life is, we ultimately come to the realization, that everything within our bodies is interconnected and everything in life is ultimately inter-connected in some way.
So don't feel bad if you do not know what trauma might have been responsible for your pain, its not just in your head.
But at the same time,.
yes it is,.
for all of us, and that is just the way we are wired.