There are people who live in pain every day.  People walking around suffering physically with no outside symptoms to be seen.  I often wonder how they make it through the day, a week, years.  No one can understand what it is to live with day to day pain unless they have experienced it themselves.  How does one cope emotionally with such suffering going on within their bodies?

 From my journal a few weeks ago:
 “I have been in incredible pain for the last 2 weeks.  Something heavy, rocklike, something deep that has settled into my upper back & neck area.  The pain feels like labor pains or a migraine in my shoulder area.  I can’t sleep, I don’t want to eat, and pills don’t touch it.  It’s deep.  How did it get there?  I’ve been telling people that it was brought on by my dancing antics at my brother’s recent wedding but I know it’s deeper than that, that this sort of pain does not come on overnight.”

One of my best friends is a massage therapist who does deep tissue massage.  This usually will loosen me up but the pain was so deep, so sensitive, so painful that it hurt too much.  She was overwhelmed by the energy I was giving off around the shoulder area.  She could feel that it was just too much for me.  She said to me, “Honey, there is a deep emotion stuck in this area… what is it?”  As holistic practitioners, we both know that pain and disease may be manifestations of emotional issues that are calling for attention, that need to be acknowledged in order to move on and heal.  I witness this ‘letting go’ during coaching sessions, reiki sessions, and guided imagery sessions.

Just by her acknowledgement that she could see there was something deeper going on helped me a lot.  She noticed that something wasn’t right and reminded me to listen to what my body was trying to tell me.  I didn’t know in the moment what issue was calling to me but my body did.  The brain doesn’t always acknowledge what the body is trying to tell it. It takes a conscious effort to listen to the body and understand what the subconscious is trying to say.  It takes time to listen. It takes strength and courage to hear what needs to be heard.

My friend simply put her hands on my shoulders and gently reassured me in the moment.  This began the process and my journey to understanding the issue that was calling to me.