Let’s face it - Physical pain sucks! Pain can hurt not only the body but also the mind and Spirit.

Below, I listed seven tips that greatly have helped my clients and me reduce or heal pain.

But first….

Here are some of my personal and professional findings regarding pain and emotions:

Pain has its own consciousness and your body has an intelligence that many people have not been taught to utilize. Focusing on your internal emotional experience and discovering how to communicate with your body’s pain can help guide your healing process.

You may find answers that you have been looking for regarding treatment options, steps to take that will support healing, or what in your life is contributing to your pain and/or associated illness or injury.

I have seen many people prolong or even self-sabotage their healing process by harboring painful emotions such as self-blame, anger, resentment, shame, hatred of the pain, etc. In my experience, these emotions can cause increased suffering and increased pain partly by constricting energy flow in the body. Acknowledge these feelings without blaming yourself. It is not your fault.

Let’s instead learn from our painful experiences, from they story behind the pain, so we can tap into the infinite healing intelligence of our bodies. These 7 Tips below are a great start…

7 Tips to Support Healing Back Pain/Physical Pain:

1. Notice and Understand your Beliefs/Thoughts

Limiting beliefs about yourself, others, and the world can constrict the body creating tightness, pain and tension.

Ex of limiting beliefs: “I have to accomplish xyz or I’m a failure”; I am not as smart as my sister”; I’m not worthy of a happy relationship; I’m a bad wife/husband/partner because I did or didn’t xyz…..” What limiting beliefs do you have about yourself? Others? What beliefs do you have about your pain and your body’s ability to heal itself? Just notice these beliefs. No beating yourself up for having them.

2. Notice your Emotions

Notice what types of feelings do you have when you are in pain. Are you Sad? Hopeless? Angry? Bitter? When are you happy? Joyful? Notice the suffering that accompanies your pain.

Client story: I had a client who suffered from chronic back and neck pain for about 8 years. She didn’t believe that her thoughts and emotions affected her pain level. Her worldview stated that pain was solely structural due to a car accident. After some time, she began to understand the connection her thoughts and emotions had on her body. She would literally say something like, “I hate my job and how my boss treats me” and then unconsciously she would put her hand on the back of her neck. When I would ask her what was happening, she began to notice that every time she spoke of certain situations in her life, her neck would hurt. After some time, her pain decreased and she enjoyed days without pain.

3. Explore your Body

Pain is communication so try traveling into your body and into you pain to see what IT has to say. What does the pain want or need? Also, educate yourself generally about the mechanisms of your body. If your issue is back pain, learn about the spine, the vertebrae and what emotional and physiological issues they relate to (you can Google “spinal chart” and click “images” to find the info).

4. Notice Where you Are

Notice where you are physically when you experience discomfort or an increase in pain. Notice where you are when pain subsides.

For example - Does pain increase after a fight with you spouse? Does your back hurt more when you are stressed at your job? Where and when do you get relief? Does your back still hurt even after you’ve had the ergonomic expert adjust your chair and computer? Are you sitting with a particular friend or co-worker that you are not fond of when pain increases? Just notice the patterns.

5. Let go of Anger, Resentments, and/or Hatred of the Pain

Being angry and hating pain is easy to do. I’m not advocating resisting these emotions. In fact, feeling your emotions is important. They are there for a reason and serve a purpose, usually protective but sometimes certain emotions no longer serve you. It may be that the anger or some other emotion is keeping you stuck in emotional suffering and may be increasing physical pain. Honor what you are feeling and try to shift into a new experience.

6. Choose your alternative health practitioners and doctors wisely

Does your healer, doctor, acupuncturist, physical therapist, or psychotherapist believe you can heal? Surround yourself with professionals who not only EXCEL at what they do but who also BELIEVE you can heal. I’m not saying to be impractical. What I am saying is to be conscious about the energy and beliefs you surround yourself with. Here is why:

Energy is subtle. We energetically pick up on the beliefs that others project into our environment. It is our responsibility to learn to discern these beliefs and decide which ones are TRUE for us and which ones are not. If something feels “off” or “not right”, explore that feeling and ask your inner self for guidance.

Cut yourself slack because learning to discern truth and your inner guidance comes with practice and patience!

7. Experience Joy

Any sufferer of pain knows that joy can be hard to experience when in the throws of physical pain. It can feel like a catch 22 because the energy and experience of joy can also help relieve pain. What gives you joy? Do more of it. Do something daily that gives you joy and acknowledge those moments.

Pain can feel like it has taken away your spark for life. If you are ready to explore the connections between your body, mind, spirit and pain, please contact us.

I would be happy to help. Contact me here.