MODULE 4:
The Problem is NOT the Problem – Pain is Priceless Feedback!
At this moment, you may feel that this statement about pain makes total sense, or you may totally disagree! It’s a provocative proposition. After all, you don’t like pain. No one does (unless they’re masochistic)!
You learned early in life that pain is a problem, and that when you experience pain, you should take a pill that magically goes to the area of pain and nowhere else. You can probably relate! Whether that pain is physical, emotional, mental, financial, or in your relationship, you’ve been taught that something outside of yourself will take the pain away, so you can go back to the same old life once more, doing the things you did before.
Well, the same old life, doing the things you did before, is WHY you’re in pain! Actually, experiencing pain is a sign that it’s time for changes. In fact, pain indicates that changes are overdue. You didn’t get the earlier, more subtle cues saying it was time to make changes. Now, pain is your messenger, inviting you to get real with what’s not working, see what’s really required to start getting healthy, and walk down a road to a better, healthier, more real life.
Remember, when you get the message, you don’t NEED the messenger! Sometimes you hit snooze on the alarm clock… yet for some reason, the alarm keeps going off again until you get out of bed OR you’re late for work… and that’s even more painful than just getting out of bed! Pain is the wake-up call. It’s how your system lets you know that something is stuck and you didn’t get the more subtle “memos”. STOP! PAY ATTENTION! CHANGE!
What Happens When We Feel Pain?
On a physical level, pain is also how your body keeps a nerve pathway alive, if there’s a challenge in your nerve system. If interference is so substantial that NO signal can get through to a nerve, your body engages an apoptotic, or “self-destruct” pathway along that nerve. It can take months or years to regrow that nerve, so as a survival strategy, a pain signal is sent through the nerve to keep it alive.
This is why things can hurt less when you receive an adjustment at Intrinsic, if your brain can now better send a healing signal TO your body. That’s also why sometimes things can hurt MORE when you receive an adjustment. If there’s been a communication breakdown getting to your brain, as the nerve comes back to life and discovers there are some things that need healing, pain signals also alert your conscious mind to the fact that something has gone awry and needs to be rectified ASAP.
Some studies find that when you take painkillers or anti-inflammatories for daily aches, pains, and headaches, it can actually slow your healing. If your body can’t find it, it can’t fix it. When it comes to the source of pain, if you can’t feel it… you can’t heal it. This is, again, why you are receiving these body-awareness exercises. The better you get at listening to your body, the less you need pain to get your attention!
