Pain

The dictionary describes pain as “an unpleasant sensation occurring in varying degrees of severity as a consequence of injury, disease, or emotional disorder.”

Most people would agree that the majority of the population does it’s best to avoid pain. And yet, pain is a part of our lives.  It is just one way that our body tries to communicate with us to let us know that something needs attention in our bodies.  Pain teaches us not to touch a hot stove, not to walk into walls, etc.  There has been a little girl in the news the past few years that doesn’t feel any pain at all.  Her parents have a very difficult time trying to prevent her from touching her own eyes, and not to walk into the table, etc. as she didn’t feel pain, and didn’t know the difference, as her body was unable to communicate with her via this important mechanism.  To learn more about her here is a link: http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/conditions/02/03/btsc.oppenheim/index.html Thankfully, most of us don’t have this problem.

However, it is surprising so many people are constantly telling their bodies to shut up!  How, you may ask, does this happen? By simply taking pain medicine and hoping the problem goes away! Isn’t that what the TV commercials and the ads in a variety of magazines tell us? Take a pill and power through it.  Take a pill as it shows and you have strength and stamina.  Take a pill and you will overcome the war with pain.  It is sad to me to see people doing this because not only is this making their liver incredibly toxic it makes their body extremely acidic which puts stress on the kidneys. And most drugs contain bromine, which displaces iodine in the body, which in turn causes more issues down the road.  But even more distressing is that these people often become completely out of touch with what their body is trying to tell them.  When your body talks to you it is trying to tell you something.  If you keep telling it to shut up over and over and over again, at some point it is going to really try to get your attention by making you very sick.  How else it is supposed to get your attention?

People are so disconnected with their bodies.  I know of no class in school that teaches people about how to take care of their bodies in this way.  I don’t think that most people even realize that there is any communication going on from our bodies to our brains.  We are simply taught in society to ignore the pain or tell it to shut up, and it will go away. 

I encourage you to get in touch with your body.  No one else is be able to decipher it better than you.  You are in it, if you listen, you can hear or feel what your body really wants.  One book that gives an excellent way to start to listening to your body is called The Self-Healing Cookbook by Kristina Turner.  On page 30 she has a wonderful little exercise that is a guided visualization to talk to your body.  She specifically talks about how to listen to your body, ask it for guidance and discover what food would be best to help heal a specific part of your body.

So you may be saying now, so what do I do if I have pain?  How do I fix it without telling my body to shut up?  Of course, this can be challenging depending on the person and the pain.  First of all, listen to your body; see what it says.  Pain can be because you have an emotion buried in a specific part of your body.  In this case, work with someone who can help you get to this emotion and release it – like a therapist, hypnotherapist, etc.

Pain can also be caused because the body is too acidic.  I see this one the most.  As mentioned in previous articles, our emotions are the largest acid producer in our bodies, and most food (with the exception of vegetables and most fruits) is acidic.  Our bodies get so out of balance that pain is a result.  Many of my customers have just changed their diet to include 80% or more vegetables and are amazing within a week or two how their pain has just disappeared.  Enzymes are also helpful to neutralize acid, repair damaged tissues and flush toxins – all of which can cause pain as well.

Pain can also be because of toxins in the body.  Fish oil specifically can help with this.  Think of your body as a car – you change the oil and lube your car right?  Why not do the same for your body?  And take a fair amount of good fish oil.  Some people take 2 capsules a day – which is hardly any at all.  If you are having a problem in this area, adding 3-4 tablespoons or 15 to 20 capsules a day can help to nourish the tissues, remove the toxins and once you get to where your body isn’t in pain anymore, then you can cut down to maintain.  Remember, if you are having a problem, taking more of some supplements can help by providing that tool to your body to do a specific job.  Once that job is completed, then you can cut down to maintain.

If your pain is caused from inflammation of tissues – there are many natural products that can help with inflammation including yucca (which is fondly called by herbalists as “nature’s anti-inflammatory”), boswellia formulas, and turmeric formulas, formulas with mangosteen and Chinese inflammation formulas.  White willow bark also is very popular because it is, like yarrow, a natural source of Salicylic acid, which is the main ingredient in aspirin.  But unlike aspirin, these herbs are the way nature intended it so they are much more gentle to the body.

Often taking homeopathics can also help with pain.  Arnica is a popular herb that is used in pain relieving lotions and creams and can also be taken as a homeopathic to help with most minor pains.

For muscle pain, magnesium, which is the mineral that feeds muscles, can help, including Epsom Salts, which are made from magnesium sulfate.  Taking Epsom Salt baths or soaking your feet can help with pain by nourishing and relaxing the muscles so they can repair.

Phenylalanine and phellodendron amurense (sold under the trademark name of Nexrutine) are two other popular nutrients that can help people transitioning to becoming pain free.

What is transitioning?  Transitioning is when you make a conscious choice to be pain free by a certain date. You work on changing your diet, your surroundings (so that you are supported by positive people in a positive environment) and find gentle tools like those mentioned above to help you when you need it to overcome the daily pains till you can reach your goal.

So now you might be thinking – isn’t taking something like this in a pill the same thing as taking a drug?  On the surface it may seem that way.  But actually, taking quality natural products helps you to provide nutrition to feed the cells and to repair the cells and sometimes even to give you the strength to help overcome the buried emotions that are causing the pain in the first place – drugs can’t do that.

I would also recommend you look at other alternative therapies such as chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, cranial sacral therapy and other healing arts.  There is a plethora of them out there today and millions of people have found pain relief using these techniques.  They may not all work for everyone – but you will never know if they work for you unless you try them.

I used to have terrible pain, daily pain, and excruciating pain!  I made a choice that I didn’t want it anymore.  I made a goal and worked hard to get my health back so that I could do the things I wanted to do in my life without pain.  I encourage you that if you have pain, to find sources to help you achieve this.  You don’t have to live with it anymore, and you don’t have to tell your body to shut up anymore – unless you choose that.