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Friday, August 22, 2008

Where Does It Hurt You?

A few months ago I started to suffer from severe hip pain and it often kept me awake at night so a horrible nightmare was the least thing I wanted right then!

I woke up screaming, frightened and alone...

... and was overcome by this wave of feeling that surged through my whole being as I turned over to find my partner wasn’t there to give me the hug of reassurance I so badly needed at that time. Of course at some level I already knew he had arranged to go and sleep over at his mother’s place that night, but the fact that he just wasn’t available when I really needed him, triggered something in me ...

... deep hurts from the past.

I was brought up in a family consisiting of an alcoholic father and an overstressed, highly strung and depressed mother of five. Constant worrying seemed to take up so much of her time there often wasn't very much left for us. Needless to say,I ended up adopting the role of ‘parent carer’. My needs came last and often didn’t get met at all. It was a Love-Pain connection where I gave my all and was left longing for a love that never came. They just weren't there for me.

Now it might not seem immediately obvious but there is a rather interesting connection here with the excruciating pain I was also recently suffering from osteoarthritis of the right hip which had become inflamed of late - as if to flag that there was something that needed my urgent attention. I believe pain is here to get our attention and sometimes if we are not listening straight away it has a tendency to get louder and louder until we are 'driven' to do something about it!

So then, I had what I saw as two choices here. I could of course take the conventional path of pain management and start a course of pain relieving medications - and for the first few days I did, as an emergency measure. The other choice was more in line with my belief that all pain has an underlying cause that, once addressed can remove the need for pain to manifest at all.

This meant finding a quiet space, bringing all of my focus to the hip and asking at a deeper level the question ‘Where does it hurt?’

You see, pain has different levels.

When the doctor asked me ‘Where does it hurt?’ I let him know it was my hip, that my movements were stiff and restricted and that some related areas like the groin, the knee and lower back where also in pain. He examined me by moving and rotating my leg mechanically to see where it hurt. The whole focus was physical and resulted in some 'ouch!' noises, some prescribed medication, physiotherapy and a referral to orthopaedics for further investigation.

As a Journey Practitioner, Therapeutic Counsellor and EFT Specialist on the other hand I also addressed the pain at a different and deeper level. So when I turned inwards and asked my deeper self ‘Where does it hurt?’ my hip whispered ‘feeling unsupported and unloved’ and I experienced an intuitive urge to let go of and resolve these issues once and for all in order to move on and step forward confidently in life again. Through the use of deep inner reflection and focus work, creative visualisation and some energy healing I found myself opening to a place of peace and deep inner support as I let go of the hurts of the past that I had apparently stored in my hip. At the same time I found the hip pain going down so dramatically that I didn’t need to carry on taking the pills any more.

My nightmare, in relation to all of this then made much better sense. It had in fact been a 'wake-up' call (doh!) alerting me to these deep hurts of feeling unsupported and unloved. It was a ‘clearing out’ process at the same time, almost like the ‘whoosh!’ of a wave as my body energy, like a river that had been clogging up with ‘emotionally charged’ debris over the years, finally become unblocked and began to flow freely once more.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Back Pain: What Does it Mean?

There's more to back pain than meets the eye.The key to its cure may lie more in dealing with the underlying meaning of pain than simply dealing with its physical manifestation and symptoms.

I was a young woman abroad, travelling around and teaching to pay my way. It had begun as a very enjoyable adventure, exploring and interacting with the many different cultures, people and places I cam across as I savoured the sense of freedom and play that being abroad seemed to bring.

Then one day I got up in the morning to go and deliver my class as usual and felt a nagging and persistent pain in my back It came across as a deep, tired ache. Bending backwards was a real problem for me. It was the ability to bend forwards that led the doctor to say I was fine and should go to work. By the look in his eye it was obvious what my backache meant to him –that I was playing a 'fast one' to get out of a day's teaching!

To me it meant:

* suffer silently, ignore the problem and pop the pills as I go to work so I don’t lose my job

* not being able to deliver my teaching well through lack of concentration and energy

* that when I need help no-one listens as often happened in childhood

* feeling unsupported and alone - that no-one cares or understands, or even wants to

* feeling like a victim - 'why me?'

* that my efforts to be happy are usually sabotaged by unexpected events

* remembering the car accident a few years before, during a traumatic kidnap attempt where my back took the brunt of the impact

* being burdened with yet another challenge and having to make the best of it

* a drain on my energy turning a natural zest for life into an act of suffering and 'bearing up' under the strain

I think the conclusion of all of this is that back pain is not as straightforward and simple a condition as it sounds. We need to look at what MEANING it has for the person who is experiencing it and understand that all of these thoughts, memories and accompanying emotions can act as additional stressors to aggravate or even cause the condition in the first place. So any treatment of the pain needs to include an investigation into what meaning it has for the patient and a way needs to be provided to work through or let go of these stressors which otherwise can get in the way of our body's natural healing processes

We could explore what 'new meanings' might be assigned to the experience to enhance and encourage restoration and wellness.

* seeing the pain as a 'wake-up' call, a message that something needs to be done. Being the ‘victim’ is just one way of seeing it. I can make a more empowering choice for myself and see the pain as a simple and supportive message from the body that 'something needs to be addressed'

* It is an opportunity to take a nurturing attitude towards myself. I can experiment with laughter or EFT for example, since it is well known that these techniques are very good for pain relief and wellness

Understanding the effects that 'meanings attached to pain' can have gives us the choice and opportunity to address the underlying factors and come up with a cure instead of just 'putting up' with the pain or popping pills that can often do more harm than good

And you can make a fast start in that direction right now by getting hold of my free video at
www.instantnaturalpainrelief.com