Why Giving A Voice To Your ‘Dirty Emotions’ Will Heal Your Chronic Pain
Emotional burying creates pain in the body, it’s not a theory anymore, it’s a fact.
Pain science has recognised the existence of psychosomatic pain, or TMS as Dr John Sarno famously called it, for decades. And emotional stimuli creating real physical pain doesn’t stop at a funny stomach or sweaty palms. TMS can create chronic pain conditions, such as bodily pain, migraines, IBS or fibromyalgia.
If words aren’t enough, a recent ground breaking study showed the effectiveness of Pain Reprocessing Therapy on back pain patients. This type of therapy was created by well known pain therapist Alan Gordon, which changes recipients' mindsets on why pain is created and the steps to take to heal.
The results of the study proved what we’ve all known for decades now, stress from the past or in the present day creates real physical pain. The antidote to this type of pain is to change your understanding of why pain is being created, and find emotional outlets to resolve the stress.
If you have chronic pain and you’re busying yourself going from treatment to treatment, only ever managing but never healing, then you’re missing a vital piece of the puzzle. You must start reflecting on your emotional and mental health in order to take steps to heal.
In between going to the next appointment for your pain, it may have been suggested to you that there may be emotional factors causing your pain. However you may have either disregarded this assertion, or even thought to yourself ‘but I don’t have anything emotional going on, so how could it be that?!’
I was told for years that my IBS could be emotionally induced, however I never knew which emotions were causing the pain. To be honest I thought I was a really relaxed guy. Only when I started to find emotional outlets, did I realise that I was very controlling, a perfectionist and a people pleaser. Typical personality traits which bury emotions.
As I reflected on my internal dialogue, I started to see that I wasn’t very kind to myself. So I took steps to be kinder to myself by allowing what I call ‘dirty emotions’ to have a voice. These ‘dirty emotions’ were things like anger, sadness, guilt, regret, uncertainty, doubt, shame, loneliness, resentment, disappointment, fear, envy, comparison, judgement. Emotions which I would never allow myself to feel, out of fear of being a ‘weak and horrible person’.
Moreover as adults we’re taught not to feel these emotions in front of others, socialised to always act respectable in front of others. On the one hand this makes sense, you wouldn’t want to be having temper tantrums at dinner or feeling full of envy at work. However, these emotions still need a place to be felt and expressed, otherwise we just bury them in the body and create pain.
Turns out as soon as I allowed myself to express these emotions, not only did nothing bad happen, but my IBS gradually started to subside as well. I benefited massively from safe emotional outlets in the form of journaling, mentorship, meditation, movement and group work. And so can you.
You may be asking why allowing yourself to feel these emotions helps to heal chronic pain? This has to do with how chronic pain is created in the brain, simple proven science that has helped millions heal their pain.
…
If you’re suffering from chronic pain and you’d like to know what steps you can take to heal, start by taking my Mindbody Quiz . A quiz which shows you your level of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health. After the quiz there are options for you to get started on your journey to heal and testimonials from clients of mine who have healed.
You can also skip straight to finding out more about my Pain Relief Programme, a proven method to help you heal your pain. There I offer a complimentary call with me to get you started on your journey.