Chronic Pain: The roots

I saw this quote today:

‘If you don’t know how to say no, your body will say it for you through physical illnesses.’

~ Dr. Gabor Maté (Renowned addiction expert, speaker & author)

How accurate this quote has been for me. Before pivoting my career into a Women’s Spiritual Life Coach & Energy Medicine Practitioner, I was a registered dental hygienist for 13 years. Within those 13 years in the dental profession I definitely battled the mental, emotional and physical load of stress that can happen to the body within the profession: Carpal tunnel, low back pains, upper back, shoulder and neck pains were constants and those were just the physical stressors. The mental stress came with working in one of the busiest general & cosmetic dental practices of downtown San Francisco where staying on schedule with sometimes chronically late patients, managing their temperaments on top of their heavy anxiety overwhelmed me. Taming their dental phobia before any dental work was done had to be the biggest mental and emotional stress that was insidiously affecting me. As an empath, being around a majority of people expressing silently and most times verbally, that they hate coming to the dentist was unconsciously weighing on me. On an invisible energetic level, what they were amplifying loudly like radio waves was affecting me more than anything else.

Opening up my mind to and educating myself in energy healing and the impact of trapped emotions (e-motion = energy in motion) in my body—which is basically unprocessed stress—I was able to see the root cause of my chronic pains. I was not getting better because I was not practicing healthy boundaries, I was not taking care of my overall health. I was not aware that my emotional health was just as important as my mental health and that BOTH directly affected my physical health by giving me these chronic pains. The chronic low back pain, tense upper shoulder/neck pains and wrist pains continued to worsen despite my best efforts to see a chiropractor, get massages, practice proper ergonomics…anything I tried was fleeting in relief.

With the newfound awareness and knowledge I gained about energy healing and emotions that can lodge in your body I was able to see that the pains in my body were essentially a collection of symptoms that were signaling to me that something deeper was going on that chiropractic visits and massages alone could not permanently clear. The chiropractic visits and massages would help, but I personally was not experiencing long enough relief. The root cause was trapped energies--trapped emotions; trapped stress-induced emotional energies. The chronic pains were my body screaming at me to stop being such a people-pleaser and to put myself first. The chronic pains, in turn, started affecting my daily lifestyle. I could not sit for too long, I could not walk for too long, I could not lift too heavy… and in my THEN late 20’s, early 30’s that was no way to live!

If you suffer from chronic pains, you know what I’m talking about. The pains nag at you like a buzzing fly by your ears and irritate and take precedence of your life more than anything else. You become desperate to seek out medications, tonics, tinctures, services, massages, whatever it is, etc. anything and everything for relief only to find it temporary and expensive! I wanted to find solutions that could yield lasting relief and I found it by implementing 2 modalities: daily self-care rituals and energy medicine.

I found my answers by learning how to say no to the stress (work-related, people-related, etc.) and say YES to me and my needs. If you are someone who has a hard time saying NO and setting boundaries, chances are you are struggling with burnout related chronic stress, chronic headaches, have pains in at least ONE area of your body, may suffer from anxiety/depression and/or difficulty sleeping or even struggle with constipation. These mentioned symptoms are all a sign that your body is making you STOP. Making you REST. Making you take a break long enough so you can become aware enough to ask ‘why is this happening?’

Our bodies are always speaking to us…. It is built on multiple living cells collaborating together to be the beautiful YOU… and it is speaking to you.

What is your body saying?

What needs your attention?

What can you do for yourself, DAILY (and for free), as a method of self-care that replenishes you on a mental, physical and emotional level?

Truly think about the answers to those questions and start implementing a nice self-care routine for yourself and see how you feel in 2 weeks.

**Disclaimer: This is in no way to take away from the medical advices of your personal medical doctors and specialists. Always consult with your personal physician and any other medical/mental health professional that you work with before applying any new healing modalities to yourself.