Heal
the Pain
“One
of the most basic principles of holistic health is that we cannot separate our
physical health from our emotional, mental, and spiritual states of being. All
levels are interconnected and a state of ‘dis-ease’ in the body is always a reflection
of conflict, tension, anxiety, or disharmony on other levels of being as well.”
Shakti
Gawain (Creative Visualization, p.57; Bantam Books, 1978)
This information
is always met with a tightening in the stomach—somehow, we hear it as
accusatory. We believe it means that when we are sick or hurt, it’s because we
were not responsible with our bodies. We ate too much, we drank too much, we
stayed mad and tense for too long—all of which may be so. However, the truth is
that we have no choice but to live in these bodies, and since our body is a
single entity made of many moving parts, all of it functions, or malfunctions,
together. It’s simply not possible for some part of us to declare its
independence and secede from the body. What we think, what we do, how we feel
emotionally affects every cell in our body.
It’s
not “woo-woo” to say that when circumstances in our lives cause us stress, we develop
pain patterns in our bodies. When we are emotionally tense, for instance, our
muscles tighten, and each of us is particularly vulnerable in one muscle group
or another. Our head hurts, our neck and shoulders are painful, or we make a
stiff movement that twists our low-back and causes it to spasm. Some of us
develop gut issues or heart irregularities. The heart is a muscle, after all.
The
problem here is that blaming ourselves for the pain we are in is
counter-productive. It causes more tension and therefore more pain. At the same
time, if we want to stop the pain pattern, we must take responsibility for
reducing the stress we are under. Many people find that regular meditation and
exercise helps them reduce their stress level and therefore, their pain. And if
we can do them without placing mandates on how much time or how many miles is enough
(the hallmark of a Type-A personality), that’s even better. When we set “required
time” mandates, we are making one more demand on our already stressed-out body/mind.
Here’s
a rule of thumb: Be kind to yourself. Get some exercise, relax, give your body
time-off to rest instead of pushing through with a busy social life after a
busy work life after a busy family life. Learn to breathe between beats.
Slowlys inhale, slowly exhale for three good, deep breaths. Listen to some
music that relaxes you. Take these regular “body-cations”—three-to-five-minute
breathing breaks—to tune in to your entire body, and let it know how much you
love it and want take care of it. Appreciation goes a long way towards relieving
pain.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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