Last year, the CDC estimated that upwards of 50 million Americans (that is 20% of adults) suffer from chronic pain. Of the 50 million, 20 million of those have high impact chronic pain.
Chronic pain is typically defined in the medical field as pain that is longer than normal healing, lasting several months; though many define it as living with pain for more than 24 hours.
The National Institute of Health estimated that 11 million have high impact chronic pain (half of what the CDC said). Either way, that is a whole lot of people living day in and day out in pain, and if you are one of them, then ONE is too many!
“A growing body of evidence suggests that some complementary approaches, such as acupuncture, hypnosis, massage, mindfulness meditation, spinal manipulation, tai chi, and yoga, may help to manage some painful conditions. ”
Even the NIH can see the benefits of “complementary health approaches” to chronic pain. There is no need to accept a chronic pain diagnosis, there is more you should know…
5 Things You Need to Know About Chronic Pain
Pain is not just physical.
We tend to approach healing physical pain with a physical approach - taking medication, physical therapy, surgery, etc. But pain is not just physical. There is an emotional and mental aspect of pain. So in order to heal, we need to take a physical, emotional, and mental approach to healing.
The modern medical model doesn’t know how to deal with chronic pain.
Pain is subjective.
In one day, I saw two clients with similar injuries. One had a pain level of 9, and the other one had a pain level of 2.
Pain also moves in your body.
One day, it might be in your lower back, the next day it is in your neck. Your pain changes from day to day, moment to moment, largely because your coping mechanisms for the day have changed. It may be frustrating, but it is normal.
Because pain is subjective, and it can move, it makes it much more difficult for medical doctors to deal with. They are typically systematic, focusing on one pain, one cure. Many tend not to see the big picture, the entire system. Do not give up on modern western medicine, because they do have a lot of the answers. However, they don’t have all of them.
When dealing with chronic pain, I highly recommend a team approach. Like a good pot of soup, it requires many ingredients and spices that all complement each other. In order to completely heal, you need doctors to help with the surface pain, and you need healers to help with the deeper pain. In our instant gratification culture, we want a quick fix or artificial pain relief. These will help you get through the moment, but complete healing is a joyous journey and happens on a very deep level.
The deeper, underlying causes of continued chronic pain can stem from the emotional effects of trauma.
It is imperative that you heal the trauma to heal the pain. This is true of any pain. Traumatic experiences are held in our bodies at a cellular level, so it only makes sense that they must be healed at a cellular level for complete healing.
I had a client who had been in a major gas explosion, had 20 some odd broken bones, multiple surgeries, and years of physical therapy. He had recovered about 80%, but still had pain, and debilitating fatigue. Basically, he felt like he didn’t really have a life. The doctors told him he was destined for more surgery, but in the meantime, there was nothing more they could do for him. Not willing to give in, he reached out to me for help. Using cellular release hypnotherapy, we cleared all of the details of the explosion and all of the experiences of the traumas while recovering in the hospital.
For each and every experience, we cleared all of the shock and trauma, all of the physical pain and sensations, and most importantly, all of the feelings that were a part of the experiences. These are cleared from every cell, gland, organ, bone, and part of the body. And from all of the body systems, including the entire energy system. Then we dove even deeper, and not only cleared every symptom, but the causes for every symptom (that weren’t from the explosion), and even the cause for being in the explosion. We also worked on forgiving the people he blamed for causing the explosion and how he was treated afterward.
Today, he is riding his horses, staining his house, enjoying the company of his family and friends, and happy to be alive. Last I heard, the subsequent surgeries had been placed on hold indefinitely.
Traumas that contribute to your chronic pain today may have happened in this lifetime, in the womb, or in a past life.
We are holographic beings. Our soul, our consciousness, is all of us. It transcends all time, all space, and all dimensions. Only the physical body changes. This creates some of the great mysteries of our lives.
For example, one of my clients suffered from migraines and had no diagnosis of why or how to get rid of them. In hypnotherapy, she realized that, in a past life, she had suffered a violent trauma to her head. When we cleared this experience using cellular release hypnotherapy, her migraines stopped.
Another client had a deep belief that she did not deserve to be well. Her mom had been very sick while she was pregnant, and my client had carried this guilt with her into a body and life living with chronic pain.
It can also be as easy as carrying pain from a trauma like a car accident, and your body creates the pain as a way of telling you that you still need to heal the emotional trauma you created around the accident.
There is no separation of physical, emotional, spiritual, or energetic pain.
We cannot separate our physical, emotional, spiritual, or energetic bodies from each other any more than we can separate our heart or brain from our bodies and still function as a human being.
A client asked me once if I thought her pain was emotional, physical, or spiritual. My answer was YES! So it only makes sense that in order to heal your pain, you have to heal it on all levels, and in all of your energetic bodies. When you heal only the physical body, you will get pain relief, but you won’t heal.
Using the modern western medical model will get you pain relief for the physical body, but it can also actually cause more trauma (think surgery), leading to more pain. I would never tell you to stop using your doctors.
However, it is important to approach healing chronic pain from all levels possible… healing trauma, healing emotions, healing feelings, and healing from a cellular level.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HEALING CHRONIC PAIN:
AUTHOR: Leanne McClain is an OSYL Transformational Healer, Medical Intuitive, Hypnotherapist & Stress Coach utilizing HeartMath Coaching, Intuitive Stress Relief Guidance & Hypnotherapy for Relief from Stress, Trauma and Abuse. Her invitation to you, is to take a leap of faith and realize the divine light and love that you are, and heal. Her purpose is to help her clients find relief from the effects of abuse, trauma, or PTSD, and to help them see that it is possible to have a healthier, happier, and joyful existence.
Find out more about Leanne and her services HERE.