5
Causes of Pain- Spiritual Perspective
The Mystery of Life
I used to believe that if I did everything “right”, I could think myself well, and my body would heal to perfection. If someone’s cancer can disappear within minutes through Qi Gong healing, surely I’d be able to heal myself to physical perfection, right? Even James’ mother, who developed liver cancer, went into spontaneous remission, after almost dying of pneumonia after toxic chemotherapy weakened her immune system. So I thought to myself, why do I still get pain? What was I doing wrong?
I’ve since made marvelous discoveries about how experiencing pain serves me as well as others. Being inspired to write this book to help people in chronic pain is just one example. Although we have great influence over our personal lives, there is much we still don’t understand about the mystery of life and how our experiences evolve the human species. Asking “why me?” is often not a valuable question to ask if you are wondering what you did wrong. Asking in this way puts you in judgment – an energy that is anti-healing. Instead, asking “why me?” in the context of wanting to know how your experience is supposed to evolve you or humankind, that’s the key!
Your Unique Journey
Everyone’s experience is truly unique. Chronic pain has a way of forcing us to stay more present in our bodies, rather than up in our heads. As my parents will tell you, I’m quite a dreamer, so I love spending lots of time dreaming, imagining and thinking. During those times, I forget I even have a body! When that happens, sometimes I don’t even eat or drink because I’m not “in” my body…I’m in my head. Pain has a way of reminding me that I have a body and if I want to feel good, I need to pay attention to it and treat it well.
From a spiritual perspective, your chronic pain serves a purpose. It isn’t just an inconvenience to “fix” as quickly as possible so you can get back to normal life. Only your higher guidance can reveal the purpose of your chronic pain. Through self-inquiry, you can transform from feeling victimized to feeling empowered and peaceful. This is possible at any stage of physical healing. In the Spirit section, I’ll be taking you through an inquiry process and giving you real life examples of how chronic pain can be a doorway to your personal evolution. In the meantime, here is one example of how a patient discovered that for herself.
Frannie worked as secretary for a State institution. She was the perfect secretary, always knowing what her boss needed her to do before he even asked. Everyone loved Frannie because she was the “go to” person and generously offered assistance to her co-workers. Yet, despite her popularity and feeling useful at work, Frannie was not feeling well. She’d wake up feeling as if she had been run over by a truck. She felt slight relief from an anti-seizure medication prescribed by her doctor. Unfortunately this medicine caused extreme brain fog and Frannie referred to it as her “stupid pills”. When Frannie came to see me for acupuncture, she was lovely and intelligent. Under her calm demeanor, however, Frannie was desperate. She didn’t understand why she had such pain and why prescribed medication wasn’t offering complete relief. Discouraged, she was even taking anti-depressants because her doctor said that some of her pain might be “in her head”.
It was obvious that Frannie was everything to everybody. She loved being adored by family, friends and co-workers and rarely said “no” to anyone, even if she was too tired or achy. Frankly she was so busy helping others that she didn’t have a clue how to help herself. She was hoping that I would just magically “fix” her, but that’s not how healing works in the real world.
Frannie’s healing began with the realization that she was trading her health to be liked by others. Her self-sacrificing habits had been imprinted as a young child from parents who couldn’t differentiate between selfishness and self-care. Frannie learned that taking care of herself meant that she was selfish and “bad”. Her self-esteem was fragile and dependent on pleasing people. When people liked her, Frannie felt great, and when people didn’t, she felt horrible. Frannie exhausted her energy stores doing whatever she could to guarantee that people would like her. Of course, this strategy proved only to feed into the pain/illness cycle.
While working with me for over two years, Frannie finally took responsibility for her own healing by setting healthy boundaries with family, friends and co-workers. She practiced saying “no”, and with my support and encouragement, applied for a promotion enabling her to direct others. Once she experienced true empowerment with healthy boundaries and accepted that she might be disliked by someone, her pain literally vanished. Not surprisingly, so did everyone whose needs were not met by Frannie. You see, Frannie’s pain had a purpose. It was there to say “no” when others encroached on her boundaries. Once she created healthier boundaries, the pain no longer had a purpose so it dissolved.
Frannie’s experience is witness to how pain can be a helpful guide and blessing. Her soul was directing her to a state of higher awareness, to take action out of choice rather than out of habit. Hopefully when you read the Spirit section, you’ll experience an “Ah ha!” like Frannie did, as to how your pain is currently serving you.
I believe that through what Rupert Sheldrake refers to as Morphic fields, those of us who can successfully navigate through our painful experiences transforming them into empowering journeys, evolve the entire human race.
Chapter Summary
Pain has a way of forcing us to become more present and in our bodies instead of being up in our minds
From a spiritual perspective, the symptom of pain serves a higher purpose
Pain is a way for your body to say “no” when you aren’t empowered enough to say “no” aloud
Pain is an avenue through which you grow your Soul and help evolve the human race