The secret of using pain as an amazing healing tool
Each of us have experienced a feeling of pain on one level or another during our life time. Whether it is physical or emotional pain, living with chronic pain can be very challenging and it greatly impairs our quality of life. It is very difficult for us to ignore the feeling of pain and that is actually the reason why it came in the first place. The pain’s role is to point out to the problem and to direct us towards the changes that needs to be made. In most cases when we address the root of the problem the pain will end its role as a teacher and will be released on its own or significantly reduced.
As one who has a deep familiarity with pain through personal experiences, I will try to share my insights about the process from the onset of pain to its complete release from body and mind.
What is pain?
Pain is a physically or emotionally unpleasant sensation that indicates actual or potential damage to body tissue. Pain is intended to signal us and the body itself to respond in order to prevent future damage.
In practice pain is felt when an electrical message passes through the nerve fibers of the body to the brain that interprets the message. The experience of pain varies between each person which makes the interpretation unique to that person. It requires early understanding to define its intensity and tailor the best treatment. Pain can be interpreted as a physical experience of pain in a particular muscle or area and can be expressed emotionally as distress or mental stress.
What causes pain?
Pain is felt in the body when a nociceptor in the nervous system detects an immediate or future nerve damage and transmits information signals about the problem to the brain. The way the brain translates these signals and the effectiveness of the communication channel between them determines how a person will feel the pain. The brain can also release chemicals that will cause a good feeling such as dopamine as an anti-pain treatment.
How the body Reacts to pain?
Intense and / or persistent pain creates limitations on the body’s daily ability to function and can even influence social behavior when the body has difficulty performing activities that were normal in daily routine. Emotions like frustration, anger, resentment and stress can rise as a result of the situation and aggravate the pain.
The body and mind work together in cooperation and are inseparable. The way the brain controls thinking and the way of life affects the way it controls body pain. The pain and the fear of future pain can cause the brain to refrain from physical or social activities and subsequently lead to a decrease in physical and emotional capacity.
As a result of the persistent pain the body tends to feel pressure that can cause an increase in blood pressure, respiration rate and heart rate, muscle aches and cause sleep and appetite problems. These by-products further aggravate the condition of the body and makes it difficult for it to recover and heal and can lead the body to more extreme conditions such as anxiety, depression and dependence on people and medications.
Pain is associated to our emotion?
Humans are the combination of body and soul and when we examine a person’s condition, we must examine both the physical condition and the mental condition as well. A poor mental state can lead to a muscular response of stress, contraction and lack of blood flow to a muscle or an entire area. Sometimes it is possible to connect certain organs or areas in the body to a certain effect, for example the shoulders symbolize the accumulated tension and load in our lives, the abdomen and kidneys hold pressures and fears.
Our body is made up of cells known for their memory capacity and they know how to work automatically when repeating familiar patterns. Every event we go through in our daily life affects our body in one way or another and proper actions are needed to release it from the body before it settles in, becomes a part of it and begins to affect its proper functioning.
Every event from the smallest to the biggest is interpreted and translated differently in each person when the same case can be considered negligible in one and traumatic in another. In most cases these events are not properly released from the body and the result is usually expressed with multiple thoughts about the event and the way it was conducted, or with a combination of pain in a particular area.
Important aspects in the healing process
In order to heal the body and mind we must address three important aspects:
- The brain
The way we think and our beliefs will determine whether we control the mind or it controls us. If we do not know how to conduct properly with the mind, we will find ourselves in lost battles facing a survival mechanism that is unaware of our full powers and abilities. In a survival state the brain may resist by experiences like repeating events in the brain, pain, fear and anxiety that will prevent us from being in balance and releasing the trauma.
- The body
The cells in our body are endowed with an extraordinary memory capacity in various actions. Just as while learning to play music the cells remember the patterns and function automatically, the same happens during trauma. It is very important to treat the physical body because it is the one that activates the pain signals and together with the brain prefers to be in a state of survival. Like the mind, the body may show resistance along the way. - The soul and the energetic level
The body produces, flows, absorbs and emits energies that are indistinguishable to the eye, such as our aura, qi energy, meridians and chakras. The energy flows through various energy channels in the body which strengthens and keeps the body in a healthy state. As soon as the body undergoes trauma, a disruption is created in the energy channels, which creates blockages and holes in the energy flow and in the integrity of the soul.
The healing processes
- The brain
In order to create real change we must start with a change in our belief system and learn how to use the brain in a way that benefits us. The brain is a survival mechanism that usually works automatically according to the information it receives from the variety of senses in our bodies. The mind undergoes an experience and interprets it according to its understanding and belief as good or bad. He then weighs into the decision-making process the unwillingness to re-enter the same experience. Working only on this plane is usually not enough because we have to go deeper in order to release the trauma.
Introducing new and beneficial habits, accepting and assimilating different thought patterns, teaching the mind to relax and relieve stress is necessary for progression and release of trauma from the body and mind.
Examples for training with the mind are meditation, yoga, breathing exercises, reading, intention, writing and the use of mantras. - The body
The body is the unit that stores and holds the trauma down to the level of the individual cell. The pain that appears signals us where the blockage is forming so that we wake the body up for healing right away and help it restore its normal physical and energetic flow. The cells in the body are the ones that hold the experience and memory from it so we have to help them release the experience.
There are numerous techniques that help treat the physical part of the body such as medical massage, acupuncture, western acupuncture, dance, vibrations of various musical instruments, yoga and breathing exercises. - The soul and the energy level
The energetic level is the most important one, because proper energetic flow in the body is necessary for healing. Trauma creates splits or holes in the energy level of the body, we will delve into the reasons for the formation in a separate article but basically small soul particles that are separated from the body as part of the defense mechanism of the soul to deal with trauma. The return of these particles to the body constitutes the closure and dealing with the same trauma, it’s complete release from the cells and the return to normal energetic flow in the body.
Techniques that help treat our energetic field include Reiki, shamanic therapies, circular breathing, meditation.
When we look at the body as a whole and understand the intensity of the trauma we want to release from our lives, we must understand that it is an ongoing process. The goal is not to “put on a band-aid” and move on but to fully deal with the experience and release it from our bodies and lives. Like any process of change it is initially accompanied by objections and fears of the expected change, the effort, the way we have to go through and the struggles we will experience along the way. But after a short time, we will feel the change in our way of thinking, inner peace and proper work with the body’s healing abilities. Every little step we take will bring us closer to the goal and slowly we will be able to see the tremendous path we have gone through until the full release of the experience.