What if you could get to the root of your pain— and heal it— by taking stock of your emotional state?
hen our bodies start to ache, we can usually identify the source of the problem: The kink in our neck is because we slept the wrong way, or our shoulder hurts because we lifted too heavy a box. But sometimes the physical pain that surfaces in our lives is actually triggered or exacerbated by our inner world and the way we experience or respond to life circumstances.
“The areas of tension in my patients’ bodies often directly correlate to emotional events in their lives,” says Dr. Ariella Borish, a chiropractor with 30 years of experience who has a practice in Atlanta, Georgia. “It could be as simple as tense shoulders. When a person feels she is carrying a lot of responsibility, it’s as if there’s an actual weight on her shoulders. Similarly, you wouldn’t believe the number of times I’ve had patients who are planning a big move, and before they even pack a single box, their back starts hurting. That back pain is clearly not coming from lifting boxes — it’s something much deeper than that.”
Dr. Borish looks at the human body as a physical hologram that can reveal the spiritual and emotional experiences a person is going through. “For instance, the pelvis is the foundation of the body,” she says. “So when a person shifts her foundation in any significant way — be it a momentous move, a joyous event like getting married, or a baalas teshuvah implementing serious life changes — it can often result in pelvic or lower back pain.”
When we feel an emotion, we experience it as a physical sense, whether we’re fully aware of it or not. If we’re happy, a sensation of lightness pervades our body. When depressed, we feel weighed down and lethargic. If we’re stressed, our bodies tense up and tighten.
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