Therapy for chronic pain and anxiety
“The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life [...] that is a door.”
— Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves
Chronic pain can feel like such a place of stuckness. Forcing and battling your way through symptoms and obligations and getting out of bed in the morning. You are alert, on guard. Looking out for what could go wrong. Looking out for signs of yourself being wrong, in your mind or in your body.
When pain hits, we are taken completely out of the present moment. We worry about the past - what we did to cause the pain, or what could possibly be wrong that’s causing it. Or we worry about the future - how will I manage these symptoms for the rest of today/this week/my life? This fear lets our brain know that this matters, and the brain pays extra attention to the pain. This cycle, where pain and fear fuel each other, is how pain becomes chronic.
But chronic pain can also be a door. A door into staying with sensations we would normally avoid. A door into listening to our own needs differently. A door to a deeper understanding about what our nervous system is communicating to us.
Pain is protective, and intelligent, and it’s often connected to the ways that we have learned to survive. And when we are ready to shift out of survival mode, we can also shift our pain.