I’ve said for years that any of us can withstand almost
\nunlimited pain in the present moment–if it’s limited
\nto this second. The problem comes when we can point to
\na cause we don’t control–especially if it brings
\nanger, shame, or fear–, we don’t believe we have the
\npower to make it stop, and we believe that it will
\ncontinue beyond “now.” <\/p>\n
Usually this is because we associate the pain with an
\ninjury, traumatic event, illness, and\/or diagnosis.
\nExperts we trust, along with our past experience in our
\nown bodies and experience with people we know who’ve
\nhad similar problems, reinforce our expectation of the
\npain continuing or recurring.<\/p>\n
There’s often some physical proof of the injury or
\nillness beyond our pain and memory of past events and
\nsymptoms. It might be scars, swelling, a differently
\nshaped bone or joint. It might be an MRI, CT scan,
\nx-ray, blood test showing some abnormality that
\nsupports the diagnosis and explains the pain.<\/p>\n
When there isn’t an explanation, we often find
\nourselves putting a lot of attention on the pain while
\nwe keep seeking help from someone who can provide an
\nexplanation that proves we aren’t crazy, aren’t making
\nit up.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the side effect of this effort for
\nvalidation feeds the pain.<\/p>\n
Why is this?<\/p>\n
Shockingly, there’s little correlation between chronic
\npain and the physical aspects of the body that are
\nsupposedly causing it. This is frustrating for those
\nwho look only as far as the body for the cause and cure
\nof the pain.<\/p>\n
When we are willing to look beyond the body, we
\nsometimes find interesting things.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, deep inside, we don’t really want to do that
\nthing the pain prevents us from doing. The pain serves
\nus. For example, if you’ve had 20 years of disability
\nwith others taking care of you, it would be normal to
\nfear having to get a job, support yourself, and be
\nresponsible for managing your household.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, the painful condition makes us feel
\nimportant. Even if we don’t want to admit it, maybe all
\nthe attention we get from medical professionals, family
\nand friends feels good. Maybe it fills our loneliness
\nor hunger to feel special. How would those needs get
\nmet without the painful condition?<\/p>\n
Sometimes, it’s regret, guilt, grief, or disappointment
\nwe’re feeling when the pain is most intense, and we
\ncan’t let go of the idea that we should have done
\nthings differently, and that we somehow deserve
\npunishment or that it’s right to suffer.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, even when we know it hurts more when we’re
\nangrily blaming someone for something done years ago,
\nwe don’t want to let go of the anger or blame because
\nwe think it somehow protects us.<\/p>\n
It’s all okay. No one is going to force you to give up
\nyour diagnosis, your memories, your expectations, your
\nneeds, your fears, your suffering, your anger.<\/p>\n
But what if there were a way other than pain to feel
\nsmart, courageous, validated, free, powerful,
\nimportant, forgiven, safe, and loved?<\/p>\n
WHAT IF YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO LIVE WITH CHRONIC PAIN?<\/p>\n
Even if you feel 100% sure that your pain has a clear
\nphysical cause with no association at all with any
\nmental, emotional, or spiritual component, there’s a
\ngood chance that if you’re reading this, you’re at
\nleast a little curious about techniques that could
\ndecrease or eliminate your pain without drugs, surgery,
\nor a lifetime of physical therapies.<\/p>\n
…that is, if you’re ready and willing to be free of
\nyour pain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve said for years that any of us can withstand almost unlimited pain in the present moment–if it’s limited to this second. The problem comes when we can point to a cause we don’t control–especially if it brings anger, shame, or fear–, we don’t believe we have the power to make it stop, and we… Continue reading Healing Your Pain<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-healing","tag-pain","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1081,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions\/1081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}