Emotional Healing -A Surprising Natural Remedy for Chronic Pain and Fatigue

Modern society teaches most of us to avoid or fix our pain as soon and as easily as possible. However, most of the remedies we are given are temporary and often result in the symptoms increasing over time. Thankfully, more and more people are looking into more natural, holistic, and sustainable ways to live peacefully in their bodies to resolve these unwanted symptoms. The science of Mind-Body Nutrition teaches us that there is one really important way to heal, through a very intentional process of emotional healing.

Most modern approaches to healing treat the body as separate from the mind and the emotions. However age-old wisdom has always shown that the mental and physical are never separate and impact each other. Any unresolved or unhealed emotional pain will create stress chemistry in your body and result in symptoms such as pain, fatigue, digestive discomfort, illness, and more. So to really address the root cause and heal, you have to understand the emotional pain you’re holding onto.

First, let’s talk about why this is not something you hear or learn a lot about. It comes down to social conditioning and values. We live in a world that praises hustling, pushing ourselves, climbing to the top, working hard all the time, and not being overly emotional. You learn that if you can control your emotions it will result in getting you what you want like material items, love, affection, happiness, success, and more.

This is an outdated approach because it keeps you on this constant hamster wheel of trying to control your outside circumstances in order to feel better on the inside. The truth is, what you’re experiencing in life and in your body is actually affected by what’s going on with you on the inside. So, let’s start there.

Emotional pain isn’t less important than physical pain. It’s often at the root of most physical symptoms! If unfortunately, you break your leg or your arm, your body activates pain receptors and sends an electrical signal up your nerve fibers through your spinal cord and to your brain. Your whole mind and body get the message: “I’m injured, don’t walk on that leg.”

It’s the same when you experience emotional pain. However, you learn to ignore or suppress the sensation and push through it. Would you push through walking on and re-injuring that broken leg? No!  It’s time we give the same level of attention and importance to emotional healing. Learn to see emotional pain as the signal that your soul needs healing so you can feel better.

Possible causes of emotional pain and how to recognize it

Sometimes you go through life experiences that can have a major impact on your mind, body, and soul. Think about your last heartbreak. The loss of a beloved one.Unfulfillment in your personal and, or professional life, a setback in your career. A traumatic event, financial stress, or unprocessed memories can cause you so much pain, emotional distress, and trauma.

These unresolved wounds do a number on your connection to yourself and to what’s going on in your body. Even if you’re not actively thinking about them, the body forms a memory of them. Ever notice that certain sounds, places, people, or reminders cause you to suddenly feel unwell? You might get a stomach ache, feel shaky, or suddenly feel very tired. That’s the way the body has held that emotional memory. When you’re not aware of the importance of this signal, you’ll keep walking on that metaphorical broken leg.

Emotional pain can make you feel despair, powerless, hopeless, and uncomfortable. It may also distort your thoughts, your reality, how you feel about yourself and life. It can have an effect on your mental health.  That’s why it’s so important to do this work as part of your journey to health and healing.

Trying to find relief from emotional pain

 It can feel uncomfortable to sit and feel our emotional pain. It’s common to try and escape by seeking relief outside of yourself. This can result in developing behaviors and habits that can become addictive because they are temporarily satisfying or distracting. In the longterm, they cause harm to the body. They’re a response to the unhealed trauma.

There are so many behaviors and addictions that can be developed to cope with a painful reality. To name a few, alcoholism, overworking, drugs, eating disorders, escapism, sex addiction, love addiction, etc. Emotional pain can also lead to the body developing its own “defensive mechanisms” such as overthinking, trying to control everything, and fantasizing about what could be. Further examples include self-delusion, overcommitting to a bunch of tasks, and overgiving of yourself to others to feel validation.

Any behaviors that become compulsive or repetitive and are in the end making it difficult to feel at ease in your body, are ways we learn to escape from pain. However, they do not heal what is causing the pain. The crux of the matter is that emotional pain can express itself insidiously( in a gradual, subtle way but with harmful effects). When it is repressed for so long, you’re often not aware of it.

The first step toward emotional healing is awareness. How can you become aware of your pain if you’ve repressed it? Through being more conscious and intentional about processing what’s happening now and how it connects to your life experiences and patterns. What you learn through this process teaches you what you are ready to confront and shift now. This can result in a shift in how your body feels. Emotional healing is necessary and valuable to take back your power.

How can you experience emotional healing?

It’s not a miracle formula. There is only healing work to do. Healing work is a process of change over time. When you’re willing and open to reconnecting with your emotions in a safe space, that’s where the healing takes place. You’ll see how each story behind the emotion carries a message. See how each symptom connects back to those experiences and be more aware of the symptoms as feedback when they come up. You will feel less controlled by the emotion. Instead, you’ll understand how to learn from the feedback your body is giving you and course correct.

They are so many modalities you can use to do this kind of mind-body healing work. The purpose of emotional healing is to break free from your pain and regain your spark and power. Emotional healing will help you transform your emotional trauma into strength. You can start to explore your feelings and deepen your self-awareness with guidance.

Healing is not easy, but it will always empower you and allow you to become stronger and relaunch higher. Every time we reflect inwards, we learn something new about ourselves. But some things are too deep to reach on our own! So by reaching out to a therapist, coach, or counselor for support may help you reflect on those hard to reach parts of yourself. After all, the only way out is in. Always remember to be kind and gentle with yourself along with your path of healing.

At Nourishment Vitality our founding principles are based on compassion practices. We offer a “shame-free”  non-judgemental safe space. Here you can heal through the power of being seen, self-forgiveness, of been still and present, and lightening up by letting go of what no longer serves you.

The Author Sheryl Puterman is an internationally trained and certified mind, body, nutrition, and wellness practitioner. Sheryl is also an expert in stress relief management.

Sheryl and her family are survivors of the 2004 Asian Tsunami –  video link https://youtu.be/jdJ-SLG02KU

www.nourishmentvitality.com