Pain Management

I always get amazed when I see people who do pain management. If you’re in a lot of pain and reading this, I’m sure you are well acquainted with pain. In fact, you might even be saying, well my pain is so bad; I’ll do anything to get relief from it. That

In my life, I’ve grown up with people who suffered from intense pain and I’ve been through moments myself that I prayed for God to send anything to just take the pain away. Yet, I’ve seen people go through all kinds of surgeries, procedures, tests and take numerous medications in the hope that the pain will go away. In the end, I’ve witnessed myself and the same people being told that it was “all in their head”.

Pain is a messenger from the body to our brain telling us that something is wrong. From what I have experienced and seen in my life, pain is the result of something emotionally, mentally, spiritually or physically that is out of balance. There are some exceptions like disease and other medical conditions. Let’s be crystal clear in all the possibilities that can cause pain, not just a few that western medicine and society focus on.

Of course, we can choose to take the route of pain medications, medical procedures or surgeries all day long. In the long run, I’ll propose that the pain may disappear but it will find a new avenue to show up. The reason being, we did not deal with the source of the pain and I’m not talking about just a physical source of pain.

When we experience pain, we have to go inside and connect with that which we don’t want to see, so we can find the true source of pain. If we do anything but that, we are only putting a Band-Aid on a gushing wound. If we go inside and get more acquainted with the mind body connection, it is then that we will experience true healing for our life, not just a momentary escape from the pain that bothers us.

Further Reading:
1) Emotional Pain Is Physical Pain (Blog Post 4/18/11)
2) Freedom From Pain (Blog Post 9/10/10)


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Blog Post & Images (c) 5/13/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

If any part of this post is used or shared, a link back to this site is required.
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Scars And Wounds Of Pain

Finding balance in our life can be difficult at times, especially when an event tears open past wounds. When we have been wounded, reminders of those scars can bring the old pain right to the surface. Often times, these moments appear distorted to us making it difficult to step back and see the bigger picture.

In our civilization, so many have been wounded that it is heartbreaking. As a result, everyone has taken up so many causes that the messages are being drowned out. The causes are noble, but with everyone screaming at the top of their lungs, the whisper of the messages goes unheard.

One thing that can be so helpful in life is what we do to heal ourselves. There is no greater change we can show the world than to heal our wounds and offer up our healthy and balanced side. There is no greater affect we can have on the world than to find peace and light within ourselves as we travel through the darkness of our own life.

Healing the scars and wounds of pain gives us strength and courage. Through the courage and strength we find, our impact upon the world is often in much bigger ways than we realize. Let us do everything we can from the healed and peaceful state within our life, so that our motives and actions carry the loudest sound around the world.

(c) 11/12/10 by Don Shetterly - use by permission only

Intense Back & Shoulder Pain, Part 1

In the middle of the night, I woke up with some intense back and shoulder pain. It is a burning pain that feels like prickly needles are stabbing me one right after another. It is pain that hurts so badly and actually made it very difficult to lay in the bed or sleep. I have not experienced pain this intensely or this hurtful for a long time.

For anyone that knows me, I no longer reach for pain pills or pain relievers to deal with pain such as this. I now realize in my life that doing so will not really take "the pain" away, it will just mask it. Yes, there are times when I just want to say, I don't want to feel the pain but I know deep down that this is misleading. I'm sure there are many that are reading this that what I am saying makes absolutely no sense. There are others reading this that some of what I am saying makes sense.

One of the things that I have learned is that pain is a messenger in our body. It is a connection to something that is trying to get our attention. Attempting to determine what that is may not always be easy and in fact it often seems more difficult than we want it to be.

Usually when pain comes up, our first reaction is oh my gawd, what is wrong with me? We may answer it in ways such as "I slept wrong last night", "I worked out at the fitness center too much", "I did to much physical work" or a number of other explanations. You can probably come up with a million more that fit for your own life. Remember, pain is a messenger in our body and is a connection to something that is trying to get our attention.

After we have gone through the first reaction, we normally start looking for things to relieve the pain. It may be through pain relievers, pain pills like Oxycondone, Darvocet and others. It may be through various forms of body work that only focus on "relieving" the pain rather than going into it. We might even turn towards alcohol and other drugs to numb ourselves from the pain.

Who can blame anyone though for reaching for something to try and numb the pain especially if it in the back, shoulders and neck. These pains feel debilitating and paralyzing. They are scary and they limit our functions in life. Many times they are also exhausting. There is nothing like back, shoulder or neck pain to stop you dead in your tracks. However, if you understand that pain is a messenger, than an episode like this does not have to keep you down.

One of the biggest things that keeps us down is the fear that comes up with these episodes of pain. Fear disguises itself in many ways from the misdirected actions in what may start the pain or what actually relieve the pain. Instead of stopping and listening to what is the underlying message to the pain, we turn to things to numb ourselves from the pain. While that is a short term fix, it will not ultimately connect us to that which the body is trying to tell us. We may believe it does and we may feel "healed" in the moment, but this is a false illusion. At some point in the future, the message will come back until we listen, heed its purpose and release whatever is stored in our body.

Before anyone thinks that I'm just being strange or radical in how I view this, I have been through moments where I had to go to the Emergency Room to get injections so that the pain and muscle stiffness would subside. I've been through moments where my body shut down so badly because I wouldn't listen to it and I was paralyzed to the point of almost breathing my last breath. I know first hand what can happen to a body and I know first hand the pain pills, pain relievers and other methods I used to numb myself from the pain.

I see so many healing bodywork modalities that focus on telling people they "relieve pain". As well intentioned as these people are, they are missing something. I do understand that people go through these things and the pain or situation "disappears". It may disappear for a long time but that does not mean it is gone. If you have not listened to or dealt with the message, it still has residence in your body. It is still stored energy that is locked within your body and your mind. To just relieve the pain, is an illusion. I realize that many do not like to hear this said but it is the truth and there are many people including myself that can give evidence to this. It is not some new age thought. It is a real concept based upon science.

So, lets get back to my situation for a moment. As I write this, I feel the intense pain in my body. It is consuming my energy and I feel miserable at this moment. However, I know that I need to stop today and listen to the pain. I need to allow myself to not go into the fear but to just connect with whatever it is that is coming up through my body. I have an idea of what it may be but I will be in the moment, just allowing it to shine through. For I know from my past experience, that if I allow myself to connect with it, I can move through it. Any other method of numbing the pain is not going to make this happen. I can try to fool myself like our society is so trained to do or I can look past the illusion and really bring forward some deep healing.

Stay tuned of course for the follow up to this. As this unfolds, I will write more about what came up and what I did to allow that to happen. Most likely, I will get on my massage table today and just allow myself to go into some of this to bring it on through my body and release it. Numbing myself or going into fear by trying to just relieve the pain is not going to get me to that point. Sure, I could do those things but at some point, these messages from within will get my attention.

Further Reading: Intense Back & Shoulder Pain, Part 2


(Above Picture taken Chiacgo, IL - (c) 10/19/10)

Listening To The Universe

How much do we miss in our day? It is most likely much more than any one of us want to admit. The messages are there but in our culture and society, we've been well trained to just go on in our daily life and sort of ignore them. It is like getting a cell phone call, and then dropping the call. The universe is then saying to us, can you hear me now?

While there may be some very gifted people that are meant to connect with the universe in a special way, I believe that anyone can do this. I believe we all can get messages if we are open to them and allow them to come in. All too often, we close our lives off through fear and shutting down that stream of information we so long for.

Isn't it amazing that there is no shortage of people in this world asking questions of what they should do in life. The questions include finances, abundance, relationships, jobs, careers and purpose in their lives. They often seek out others to tell them what they should be doing in life. While others may help them discover some of their truths, they often give their power up to those people. At the same time, they fail to connect with their own internal message stream.

Things like not trusting one's self, fear and past experience can muffle the message or block it out all together. Staying so busy in our lives or chasing the wrong rainbow gives us little opportunity to connect. Having low self confidence, leaves us doubting all that we experience, wondering if we are trusting a thief in the night or a good Samaritan. Past trauma and even current day stress can distort all that we view and pick up in our days even with the best of intentions.

This information is so valuable to us. It shows up through heart tugs, feelings of ease or difficulty, abundance or lack, body pain and illness and many other ways. How we feel in our lives is the prompt to evaluate our direction. If we attempt to hide from the things we need to face, can we expect a good outcome for our daily lives?

Yes, often we are not sure what the next step is. I have been at the point of being physically paralyzed from a conversion disorder and quite literally did not know how to take the next step. I had to trust that the physical therapist and doctors knew how to help me. I had to have the courage and determination to keep trying no matter how tough it got, to function once again. I had to allow myself to focus in the moment, and on my body, so that I could recover. Sometimes we do not know what to do, but inaction or doing nothing will get us no further than we are in the moment.

It all starts with quieting our minds, connecting to our bodies and allowing ourselves to open up and listen. Acknowledge the fears so that you are able to let them go. Let the energy of the fears and pain, help motivate the change instead of allowing it to pull you under. Spend time regularly allowing yourself to stop, rest and be open. Allow yourself the opportunity to listen. Give yourself the permission.

Then, just observe what thoughts, patterns or yearnings you notice. See what thoughts pop into your mind and prompt you to take action. See how different events make you feel and move towards the ones you are passionate about. Let yourself be in the moment, giving yourself the permission to just open up and listen and connect with all that you are.


*For more articles, check out the Mind Body Thoughts Blog

Ignore The Pain

How far am I willing to go to ignore pain?

One of the things I have been thinking about lately through the tooth pain, is just how much I ignored it. I really didn't think I was ignoring the pain, but as I look back, I realize that I was. It took such an intense pain that would not give up, to push me to actually do something about it. Imagine the depths I went to just to avoid the inevitable of going to the dentist.

At first, I was having a painful wrist, where it was hard to do anything with my right hand. I was trying to explain it in my mind as carpal tunnel or spending too much time using the mouse on my computer. Little did I realize at the time, my body was compensating for me during my sleep time at night. It was helping me to avoid laying on the side of my face that hurt by using my hand to shield me from the pain. I was completely oblivious that this was going on. Yet, I felt the wrist pain.

Then there was the sore throat and the barely felt tooth pain, which I just passed off to heat stress and allergies from yard work. However, the tooth pain and pressure in my jaw persisted days after these stresses. Yet, I did not allow myself to connect with the pain. I was oblivious to it.

Even the days leading up to the start of the horrible tooth pain, I tried to ignore the nuisance of it. I remember using ice packs on my mouth to help relieve the pain. This was all done in silence and away from the view of house guests we had staying with us.

For I could not let anyone know the truth about how bad the pain was. If I did, then everyone would have seen the shame that I harbored deep within me, I reasoned. I didn't want anyone to see that. The shame I felt from being triggered to things in my past was nothing I wanted anyone to know about. I suffered in silence, hoping that all of this would just go away.

The thing is, the pain got so intense that I had to push through the fears and shame to make an appointment. I was so scared to call the dentist office that I sat with the intense pain for many days. For in my mind, it was not about the tooth that needed attention. It was about the shame that it connects to that my mind so badly wanted to hide from. While that may sound "strange", it is at the root of what is behind my avoidance of the dentist.

Just image though, what my mind and body was willing to do to avoid the pain and not deal with it. It did everything it could to pretend the pain was not there. My body completely disconnected from the pain. It found ways to compensate and shift the pain to other areas, but it was still there. It tried to cover it up and act as if it did not exist.

We all do this in our lives to on degree or another. It may be back pain, neck pain, illness, disease, colds and flu, headaches, financial stress or just about any other situation we face in life. If this sounds too far fetched, read any one of Dr John Sarno's books and see what the body connects to and how far it is willing to go. Times of pain, discomfort and frustration in our lives, is the way in which our body, mind and spirit try to get our attention.

It is the wise that listen to these messages from the body and not ignore them. For they show up for a reason. They help us grow, heal, move forward and evolve our lives. If we medicate them or compensate for them, we may alleviate the pain and discomfort temporarily, but it is still there. Not until we go in and deal with these things, will we get to the true source of the pain.

It will be like a tiger waiting in the brush, ready to pounce upon its prey at an unexpected moment. The slightest trigger or unrelated event may begin a cascade of situations that once again bring us front and center with our pain. May we then have the courage to embrace and allow it, instead of compensating and running from it. For when we embrace courage, we truly give ourselves the moment to change our lives forever.

*For more articles, check out the Mind Body Thoughts Blog

Pain, It Does A Body Good

Pain scares me as it does most humans. it often leads us to think that there is something wrong or abnormal about ourselves. In conjunction with fear, it can create doomsday scenarios in our mind. It can alter reality to the point that we barely recognize life in the way that it actually appears.

Yet, pain is a messenger. It is something that lets us know there is a situation that needs our attention. Just like there are warning flags at the beach, so is pain a warning flag to our lives. It is something to get our attention and get us to acknowledge our bodies, instead of ignoring them.

All too often, we want to avoid the pain. This is so understandable because it sometimes becomes very hard to live with. Pain affects our day, our mood and our quality of life. We usually strive to flee from it through medication, surgeries and procedures. We even use alternative health procedures to stimulate, treat or wish it away. Yet, in the end, have we really gotten rid of the pain or have we just masked it so much that we don't recognize it? Does it just return a few days or weeks or years later? Does it morph into something else that becomes the new face of our pain?

Fear is a big motivator in the desire to not feel pain whether we consciously connect to it or not. Fear is a strong force that can alter the view of how we see pain, how we feel it and how it shows up. Fear can make pain appear as being much harder to give up and let go than it really is. I'm not talking about theory either. I have faced some horrible pains and fears in my own life. I've been there, done that and got way too many t-shirts as souvenirs.

To try to avoid or ignore the pain is the same as letting fear talk you into ignoring the messages coming from the body. Yes, it would seem to be that relief from pain is the right thing to do. However, you're hiding valuable messages the body and mind are sending you.

There are times when some pain relief is needed to help us hear the messages more clearly and take care of ourselves. If we however, look to medications, surgeries, and alternative health treatments to give us our reasons for the pain, we are only letting fear fool us. There is a time and a place for different treatment methods but only if we do these in a consciously connected way with our mind, body and soul.

If you really want to get at the source of your pain, you need to feel it more - not less. Yes, it may hurt and it may be difficult to do that, but by doing this, you are able to travel deep to the source of the pain. Remember, fear is very deceptive and it alters how we feel, view, sense and understand pain.

By going into the pain through the fear, we get the opportunity to take back our power and heal parts of our life that were untouchable before. We give ourselves the moment to grow and evolve in consciousness, so we can make different choices for our life. It gives us the ability to heal our body in ways we can barely imagine. It makes us more human. It helps us discover and reclaim more of who we are.

I'm not going to state that it is easy to do this. However with courage, we all have the ability to stand up to our fears, take on our pain and discover the wisdom waiting for our life. No person, treatment or thought can do that for us. This must come from within. After all, this ability is in all of us and it has always been there. May we search our lives and find it.


*For more articles, check out the Mind Body Thoughts Blog

Balance For The Mind And Body

Balance is so very important to our lives and yet it is easy to be knocked or pulled certain directions in life. Whether it is noise in our day, pains we must face or having to determine what our priorities are, we all are influenced by these things.

If you notice though, there are people who are able to stay the course. They know the route they need to sail and so nothing veers them off course.

Then, there are others that are tossed to and fro, as the waves of life batter their ship. The waves don't have to be very strong either. They hold on for dear life, hoping that only smooth waters are in the future. Yet, they forget that the wind not only propels them but it creates the waves. It is hard to have one without the other.

So how do we deal with life when it seems to be more in control with us as willing participants. Maybe if we stopped each day and gave ourselves a moment of pause, we would clear our minds to put our day in a different view. What if instead of trying to mask the pains we felt, we looked for the courage to allow them to speak their messages to us? What if we held our moments of quietness in the same regard and emphasis as we do for our busy moments?

Yes, it may be true that this could lead us to changes in our lives. It may push us to rethink our priorities in any given day. It all depends of course, on what gets our attention in our day and what we choose for our lives.

Our bodies send us messages through pain, when we fail to listen to them. Our lives send us discomfort, when we are stepping off into the edges of our path. When we run from our fears, questions of what we should do and moments of confusion hold us from embracing the courage that we need.

In the end, all the answers we need for our life can be found within us. While others may help us to discover our truth we hold inside of us, it is our self and our body that holds the answers. We will not find them anywhere else. It is up to each one of us to be open, to listen and to allow the messages and wisdom we hold, to come forth. All too often we stifle the message and curse the messenger.

It sounds so simple but sometimes fear makes us think we have a giant to conquer. However, if we stuck a tiny pin into the giant, it would deflate instantaneously.

May each of us examine our life and embrace our own messages as we find our courage to put the pin into the giant of our fears. May each of us not run and hide but fully embrace every little part of our lives and our bodies. For the more we become one with ourselves, the more united we are. So, when the winds of life blow on our sails, we will be strong and secure. We will be at one with our life and who we are as an evolving and growing consciousness.



*For more articles, check out the Mind Body Thoughts Blog