11 Jun Physical emotional pain

‘Does this hurt?’ asks my physiotherapist Rogier. He presses with his fingers on a spot in my groin. I don’t have a chance to answer. I scream out in pain. It hurts much more than you would logically expect. Rogier presses again. Once more, I feel a sharp pain and tears well up in my eyes.
The physio takes a step back and looks at me. Have you ever considered that emotional pain could be the cause? I want to deny it immediately. No, that can’t be. I am a stress coach, I have developed a method to process emotional pain. This pain certainly does not have an emotional cause.

Hip pain
This pain in my hip, which should have been gone a long time ago, appeared suddenly overnight. During a free day of a Zen retreat, we had been canoeing. Our boat capsized during a ‘rapids’ and I hit my hip hard against a rock. That was the cause, there was no doubt.

Rogier explained to me that if an injury had occurred, it would heal within three months. If it lasts longer, the pain has become chronic. In my case, no physical cause could be found for this pain. So why do I almost hit the ceiling when Rogier presses on a specific spot?

Injustice
Then I remember. In the period before the summer camp, there was a fellow practitioner who, for some reason, started to portray me in a negative light. I was close to the master for many years. He had entrusted me with the leadership of our center. Was she jealous? In any case, she started inventing stories to discredit me. They were truly fantasies in her head that she presented as true stories. The master did not quite know what to make of it. She presented it so convincingly and even influenced more people behind my back. Suddenly, it seemed as if I was unreliable. The master kept some distance from me. At that moment, I decided not to defend myself. I found the accusations utterly beneath contempt. If people wanted to believe it, that was their choice. I did not let myself get involved in it.

But this incident did leave its marks. The injustice affected me more deeply than I wanted to admit. Rogier had placed his fingers exactly on the sensitive spot.

Emotional cause
The physical pain in my hip that I had been suffering from for so long had an emotional cause. How could this be? Many books have now been written on this topic. Among them, the book ‘Explain Pain’ provides a scientific explanation.

What helped me to get rid of the pain were the following steps:

• Realizing that there was emotional pain present as a possible cause. By reliving the story and feeling the pain of the injustice instead of suppressing it, I was able to achieve processing.
• Gradual exposure. I had increasingly begun to exhibit avoidant behavior. I no longer went for long walks.
• As I described in the previous Inspiration, I started challenging myself to go a little further each time, without it becoming painful. Each time I could walk a little longer. Now I go on mountain hikes again in the summer.
• Following a tip from a friend, I began reading a book by Dr. Sarno. The remedy prescribed by this doctor consists of… reading one page from his book every day. On each page, the same idea is described in different words: ‘There is absolutely no physical cause for your pain; it is your brain that is still sending alarm signals because it wants to protect you.’ Dr. Sarno recommends communicating with the virtual body. You can literally say to it: ‘You don’t have to do this, nothing is wrong, you don’t have to give me pain signals. There is no physical reason for it.‘
• I started wearing FiveFingers shoes in the warmer months. It’s like walking barefoot, but with a protective layer in between. You also need to get used to them gradually. Walking barefoot means that you place your feet slightly differently. This affects your posture and spine.

All of this together caused the pain to decrease and eventually disappear completely.

Disclaimer: There is no guarantee. After the previous Inspiration, a lady wrote to me saying that she had literally tried everything, including roughly the steps I mentioned above. It did bring her some improvement, but the effects of the pain still interfere significantly with her daily life. She said that with this kind of argument, there is always the risk that the message may be interpreted as if it is your fault if you cannot do something about it. Of course, that is not the intention of my story.

*This post has been automatically translated from Dutch