My Chiropractor gave me valuable life lessons last week.
I just started seeing him after tolerating neck and shoulder pain for 3.5 years.
After doing what chiropractors do, he wrapped up the session with Do’s and Dont’s
One of them being;
“Don’t take the pain medicine”
“I am not mean, but I don’t want you to take it’ and then he went on to explain the most important lesson we all need to learn.
He said :
“It’s very important that you understand this, if you take pain medicine, I will not know what’s going on in your body.
Pain is like an engine light. It gives me clues. It tells me what’s wrong, where exactly is the problem and then I can fix it.
The pain will tell me if I need to work on T4 (thoracic spine) or 7C (Cervical spine), if I am off even by ½ inch, it’s going to make you feel worse.”
Makes sense, but let’s break it down coz you and me, we live on pain medicine – a lot!
First, “Pain is like an engine light”
Just like an engine light tells you if you have a faulty gas cap or if your indicator needs fixing, our pain tells us the core issue.
Just so we are clear, I am no longer talking about physical pain
I am talking about the emotional pain.
Anger is a clue that perhaps someone has crossed your boundary or done something to hurt you.
Sadness may be a clue that you feel abandoned by your friend or spouse.
Our emotions become our engine lights. We can look at these emotions and get “under the hood” to find out what really is the problem.
Second, “Don’t take the pain medicine”
What’s the pain medicine you’ve been taking to avoid going to the root of the problem?
Mine are Social Media, Cleaning and sometimes, even meditation.
Yours may be Netflix Binge, Alcohol, Shopping at Target, Working out or finishing a party size bag of Cheetos.
When my mom passed, I used food to make myself feel better. Or in other words, avoid feeling grief.
I’d go through packs of chips in a matter of minutes. Anything that’d keep me from feeling the pain that was gnawing at my chest.
Avoiding is easier, feeling is hard and we have plenty of things to choose from our “Avoidance Menu”
FYI, none of these things are bad, but when they are done to ease the pain momentarily, it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger……until one day it shows up as a crisis or a dis-ease.
Third, “look under the hood”
What is this pain aka the emotion pointing towards. Get under it. Where is it coming from? Yes, Sally on Instagram just had a 6-figure launch and you didn’t and that triggered you, but what’s under it?
Get curious. Like a child. Ask a lot of Why’s.
Peel the layers of your pain. You’ll know when you hit it.
Lastly,
And, this is coming from Dr. Deepshikha not my Chiropractor.
Give yourself the dignity to feel it.
If the engine of your car breaks down, you won’t keep driving with it. Don’t do it to yourself either.
The best way to release the emotion is to put it in motion. It’s called E- Motion for a reason 🙂
Feel it.
Usually, tears are a good sign that it’s been released.
Shaking too. Animals do it all the time.
I promise you, you’ll feel like a new human.
So next time, you mindlessly reach for the remote, remember “don’t take the pain medicine”
