I Don't Feel Like Moving Today

I thought I’d take a little detour today and discuss something that can contribute to chronic pain and is often overlooked. That is emotions and how they affect what we experience in our bodies. Or is that the other way around, how the sensations we feel in our bodies precipitate the emotions we feel? Perhaps it’s both? I’m sure you’ve all heard the expressions: “Scared stiff”, “frozen in fear” or “You make me sick”; “It made my skin crawl”; “I was all chocked up”; “My heart sank” etc. These are all ways we describe sensations in our bodies that are linked to emotions. They literally describe the physical responses we have that give us the experience of feelings. Feelings are very much a physical experience in our bodies. They signal what is being perceived in our environment and tell us whether there is a threat or if we are safe. They are our most basic means of interpreting what is going on in our environment and whether we need to act or not. They get us moving.

How does that affect chronic pain? Well if we are in continual pain emotionally we may start to feel hopeless and helpless. In the beginning we may have felt fear, frustration or anger. As we continue to feel pain we get worn down emotionally. The sense of hope we had about recovery may erode. The fear may increase. We start to feel sad and perhaps a sense of loss. A sense that we won’t recover our old self. We won’t be able to do what we used to do. Our lives won’t be the same. We become depressed and sluggish. Our energy goes way down. Then we start to feel hopeless and helpless. So, we stop taking action toward recovery. We may or may not have asked for someone else to help us. For those of us who did the help we got may not have resolved our pain. That can be very discouraging. No one seems to be able to help us. We can become very isolated. We push other people away. When we get into this position we can stop doing all but the very basics required to live. Go to work, eat, go to the bathroom and sleep. Our whole life is affected. We stop participating which makes things worse. When we don’t move then the pain can increase. So, we stop moving even more. No one likes to hurt. In fact, pain is our bodies way of telling us something is wrong, and we need to pay attention to it. This produces a vicious cycle that keeps bringing us further and further down making it almost impossible to continue taking action that might help us. Over time our physical capabilities continue to decease. Our emotional capacity continues to decline as well.

Because our bodies adapt to what we experience physically as well as emotionally other parts of our body can start to be affected. We start to hurt in other places. This contributes to the depression and the feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. So, we become even more stuck and don’t move, which could be the best thing we could do for ourselves. We stop ourselves from doing the very thing that could help us the most. I know it is hard when we don’t seem to have any options. If the treatments you sought out didn’t work or did for a little while and then stopped it can be very frustrating and disheartening. Most of us will keep trying. We’re programmed that way because it saves us. We are geared to survive. So, we adapt and survive. I would encourage you if you are in this position to keep seeking alternatives and options. In most cases you will find something that helps you. You may find something that works so well that the pain is virtually eliminated if not greatly reduced. Keep searching. Keep trying. We are learning more every day. There are more options being created every day.

I’d also like to point out that if you are in emotional pain the same process can also create physical pain. When we are depressed and feel hopeless or helpless we stop moving. Those emotions prevent movement, they prevent our moving. They keep us stuck not only emotionally but also physically. Our emotions are directly connected to our bodies. Intense feelings of fear can also stop us from moving. If we’re so afraid that we don’t want to expose ourselves to any danger, whether real or not, we tend to hide and avoid. It’s a protective instinct. We don’t move. We don’t participate. It becomes too risky from our perception. These situations may be hard for you to relate to. They affect far more of us than we realize. Denial can be a powerful thing. It is highly protective and at the same time it can become very damaging. I encourage you to reflect and look at why you are not moving more, being active and participating in life. Only 25% of Americans are regularly active. That figure hasn’t changed in decades. Obesity rates continue to climb especially among our children. Preventable diseases continue to escalate along with health care costs. More and more people are suffering from chronic pain. What we’ve been doing about it hasn’t worked. That’s a subject for another article. What I’m saying is that there is a good chance you are one of those people who are not moving and may not have been for quite some time now.

When we don’t move our bodies adapt to it. Over time the structures of our body change. Starting with our spine and the rest of our skeleton. Our spine is our foundation. Everything else is built off it. When it is strong and in the correct place, aligned, every other structure is aligned and moves in relationship to it the way it was designed to move. When we don’t move our posture, the alignment of our spine changes. With most of us in sedentary jobs where we sit in front of a computer screen for 8 to 10 hours a day at work and more during our recreational time our spine adapts. The misalignment is heightened. Our arms, legs, feet and hands don’t move like they were meant to because our body has adapted to our spine. When we do move it wears on our body. Over time we start to experience pain in our back, our neck, our hips, our shoulders and any other part of our body. We get headaches, we develop arthritis, we start wearing out joints and need them replaced. So, emotional pain can also create and increase physical pain. They are both linked together. This is only an overview. There are many more ways emotional pain creates physical pain. There are numerous reasons why we experience emotional pain. A significant amount that is not resolved from our past including childhood. If you are interested in more information about sources of emotional pain and how they affect the body as well as the rest of us a tremendous resource is The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. He’s a specialist in treating trauma and has been working with victims of trauma since the 70’s. It’s an amazing book that describes the relationship between our minds, emotions and bodies.

I think I’ll continue focusing on this topic from different perspectives next time me meet. Questions and comments are welcome and encouraged. Until then, have a great day.