In preparation for my next book, I have been going back through some old journal writings about my therapy sessions with Dr. Paul Canali. As I am doing this, it is interesting to read what I wrote back then and the issues I faced. Throughout these therapy sessions, I’ve learned and healed so much through the pain connection.
As I was doing this, I was starting to recognize that my body was somaticizing. My neck and shoulder became very painful. Initially, the “untruthful tapes” began to play that it was because I was sitting at my computer.
When I started to observe and notice the pain connection, it was then that I saw where the shoulder and neck pain was coming from in my body. It wasn’t from the computer – it was my body reacting to emotional things. Obviously, there’s still a part that needs to be healed, but just recognizing the body connection is a big big big biggie!
Excuses Why Pain Shows Up
We often tell ourselves excuses for why pain shows up.
- “I slept wrong.”
- “I am getting older.”
- “The weather is causing my pain.”
- “I’m sitting wrong.”
- “The computer is making my neck stiff.”
- “I’m doing too much physical work.”
Of course, there could be an element of truth in all of these, but more often than not, there is more to the story. If we stop at these factual points, we will miss the story of the pain connection.
We’ve Buried The Pain Connection
On the other hand, often we don’t notice the pain because we have buried it. Pain is a messenger that is like a warning sign on the highway. If we’re not getting those warning signs, we’re not feeling everything in our bodies. When we don’t feel, that’s when “dis-ease” shows up and gets us because of neglecting that which the body wants us to see.
Back to my moment sitting here at the computer. My mind badly wants to excuse and explain the pain away – distracting me as if it didn’t exist. This is a human condition. However, if I would not have made the pain connection, that stressful point of connection would have found residency in my body.
Now I have the opportunity, because of awareness, to find a physical way to let it go. It is not just a “mind release,” but one that connects where the physical says I can let go, and the mind acknowledges that process.
Emotional Connections With Pain
These emotional connections are not only stored in the mind, but they literally take up space in our bodies. We can only let them go when we make that pain connection. Sometimes it is not a single moment of letting go, but a process of many experiences where we let a little bit go each time.
The best thing you can do when you get pain showing up in your body is to stop and notice it. Then, ask why it is there. What is happening in your life at that moment, or what happened just before it? Often, this connects with something that has taken place. It could be a trigger to something long ago or something more recent.
The more we can make these pain connections, the more in control of our lives we become. We end up with better health and well-being because we’re connected to something deeper within, rather than being disconnected to that which we can’t see.
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