Copper Embossing Hands & Heart by Megan

Have you ever heard “no pain, no gain”?  It may be time to reconsider that concept.  Pain is the body’s natural defense that something is very wrong and please stop it right now!  Pain actually serves us by bringing to our awareness that we are hurting.   There are people who are born with Congenital Insensitivity to Pain & Anhidrosis and they have no pain receptors; they break bones or burn themselves and they don’t even know it because they can’t feel it.

No experts anywhere agree on exactly what pain is, and no one (so far) has been able to quantify pain levels.  There are brain scans which can show areas of the brain tissue that lights up when stimulus is applied, but it does not measure the degree of pain that each person feels.  There are many people in chronic pain that have gone through extensive testing and have not been given a clear diagnosis for the source of their pain.

Sometimes, we may feel the need to have our pain validated by another and it doubly hurts when we are not believed.  Some of my clients say that they have been told that their pain is only emotional, not physical.  In many ancient healing systems, emotional pain is acknowledged to be the forbearer of disease in the physical body.  The fact that many different ancient healing systems combine the emotional and body wisdom validates this point of view to me.  I am only a lay person, but intuitively, I knew that emotional pain is just as real (and often times even more difficult to overcome) as physical pain and I also learned about this because I felt it in my own body after an automobile collision. And was completely discounted…

Thank goodness for challenges!  I’ve had a chance to learn new possibilities about body work and healing and found them to be very uplifting and life altering.  Traditional Chinese Medicine shows a correlation between the meridians and emotions in the body.  For some interesting reading on the meridians with a western spin, look up Candice Pert or John Diamond.  Ancient Ayurvedic Medicine focuses on the chakra system and there is a link between each energy center, the physical body, mind, and spirit; thus showing an individual as a whole, and not only that- each of us are part of the whole.

In the book “The Body has a Mind of It’s Own”, brain research has shown the an area of the brain called the insula lights up from emotional trauma such as shunning or name calling exactly as though the body has felt a blunt force trauma.  Western research is beginning to find the hard core link they need to validate emotional pain is real pain…finally.

I truly enjoy the moment when my clients feel whole again- mind/body/spirit connection through gentle loving touch.

Now, what we can for ourselves to enhance healthy change no matter where we are in life?  We can begin by practicing loving kindness towards ourselves and others.  We can be compassionate about other peoples’ pain.  And we can nourish our mind, body and spirit with healthy healing touch!

Enhance your health; it’s a precious gift and thanks for checking in.

Jane Ann, massage pro & NHC