Physical Signs of Stress and How to Begin Self-Healing
If you were to sit and tune into your body by doing a body scan, where in your body do you feel a sensation, ache or pain? Perhaps you rarely tune into your body and prefer to ignore the pain, or see it as an enemy and push it down with medication or an emotional prop such as food or alcohol.
Sadly as a society we very often try to move away from pain or unwelcome sensations in our body. We try to “get rid of the pain”, “push it away”, “numb the pain” and in desperation we stuff anything in our body to alleviate suffering.
The human mind is an amazing machine, like a video camera it records all our experiences, traumas, happy times, sad times and other emotional experiences. Every night when we are asleep our subconscious processes all the information and situations we have experienced throughout the day. Often the natural processing of these experiences takes place harmoniously, but if we experience repeated symptoms of stress, shock or trauma, our brain cannot always process the experience straight away. As a result the memory gets stuck and the natural processing is delayed (particularly if there has been sleep deprivation or interference from drugs or alcohol). As the stuck emotion continues unprocessed over a period of time, the memory footprint can often manifest into a physical sensation. If left unresolved for a long enough, the message gets louder and the physical symptom becomes more severe.
Pain and illness is often a manifestation of stress, repeated negative thinking, limiting beliefs and a way of releasing physically blocked feelings and emotions. It is essentially an indication that something has been suppressed, and needs to be released. The great news is that there is always a positive intention behind any physical symptom, so acknowledging the symptom is really important (but of course arrange a visit to the Doctor if you are worried about anything). Understandably we are not always able to identify what has caused a symptom to appear without the support and guidance of a therapist or coach. But you can start in the right direction by following the exercise below.
When you feel pain, welcome the pain and appreciate that your body is trying to tell you something. You can close your eyes and mediate on it, ask what message it has and send it love and acknowledgement. It may feel strange at first but the sensations you receive from your body is a form of communication that something within you needs addressing.
If you are consistently unwell or have a physical symptom that keeps appearing in your body, ask yourself these questions:
Who has annoyed me?
What am I angry about?
Who am I angry at?
What do I need to communicate but haven’t yet been able to express?
What am I sad about?
Who do I need to forgive?
What do I need to let go of?
What do I want to achieve in my life?
What stops me from achieving what I want?
What needs to change?
What am I holding in?
Who do I resent?
What am I in denial about?
Hopefully you get an idea of the kind of information that is useful to elicit. Take some paper and work through some questions that resonate with you. In addition take some quiet time and focus on the area you want to address and ask it questions. Your body will respond as you trust your subconscious mind.
