Next, let’s dive into some practical ways you can begin to find your medicine in the pain. 

It’s my clinical and personal experience to use various tools to guide someone through working with the pain they are experiencing, as a kind of medicine to actually help relieve the pain. It can wake up their spirit in profound ways. This awakening often brings new understandings about who they really are, why the pain was there in the first place and how to dissolve the old aspects of their self and life that held them back. 

Your body stores memories and experiences in your tissues, this is called cell memory. Pain and stress often have emotional, as well as, physical components. Releasing the cell memory often releases the pain. 

Pain can be like a sign post, pointing you in the direction of the unresolved root issue. Even old injuries that never seem to heal, can have an emotional piece to work through. Your body speaks to you in a unique language; pain, symptoms, and stress.

Discovering the root of the pain, in the body, mind, and spirit, can have a profound impact on your entire life. When you find Why the pain is there, you can then take appropriate action to dismantle the old pain patterns and experience freedom. 

Here’s What To Do:

This is very basic and generalized to help plant seeds in your awareness and offer a few new tools to get you started. If you’re interested in a more individualized approach, please consider reaching out and having a remote session with me or find another therapist/healthcare provider familiar in this kind of deep releasing.

  1. Set an intention about where you’re going as if you’re already there. This means how would you be without the pain and if you were standing in your fullest power? Use your imagination. Put this into an “I Am  (fill in the blank) statement”. Example: I am whole. Next connect to how it feels to be whole (this is a positive emotion). Add it to your intention like this: I am (fill in blank), Feeling (fill in blank).
  2. Lay down or sit up in a quiet place. Move into the pain, not away from it. Whether physical or emotional, gently and lovingly guide yourself into the pain patterns. I like to use the body as a kind of portal to dive into the pain. Find where the pain is stored in your body. Even emotional pain is stored in the body. You can also ask where the root of the pain is stored in your body. It may be a different place than the actual physical pain.
  3. Make friends with the pain. Do your best to stop hating it and trying to get rid of it. It’s there for a reason. Please get curious and learn about every aspect of it, the best you can. This may take time, there may be layers. Write down what you learn. Making friends with pain doesn’t mean you accept it forever; it just means you’re going to soften your heart to learn more about it and stop the war going on inside of you. No one really wins during a war. Getting curious about it allows you to see it in a different light and learn what it is needing and how it is there to help you, although possibly as an old strategy of protection.
  4. In your mind’s eye, after you identify where the pain or the root of the pain is in your body, you can ask it how old it is. I mean how old is the part of you that is associated with the pain. Perhaps the pain feels new, maybe from an injury. But when you go inside the pain, you notice that there is a 4 year old part of you inside it. It can help to open up to remembering the first time you felt that way, how old were you. When was the first time you felt this similar kind of pain or stress?  Sometimes there may be a part of you that feels younger. You can ask this part of you how old it is. You may get an image of yourself at a particular age. You can then notice the environment around this younger part of you. (Are you happy, sad, scared, mad, isolated, etc). 
  5. Then identify any unmet needs that this younger part has. The adult self (you now), can then step into a parent role and help the younger part get those needs met. Examples of unmet needs are: Not feeling loved, heard, understood, seen, acknowledged, and safe. 
  6. As the “parent” to the younger part of you, notice what you can offer the younger part to get those needs met. Use your imagination. You may need to remove the child part from a situation or house, you may take them to the park or out in nature. Go with the flow of what unfolds for you. Everyone is different. 
  7. Thank this younger part of you for showing up. Using your imagination, bring this part of you to your chest, for a hug, and watch it dissolve into your heart, as if whispy white smoke is dissolving back into you. You are allowing this younger part to re-integrate back into your adult, whole self. Check back in with your body and notice any sensations. Often the pain or sensations will be quite different. 
  8. Repeat this process as often as feels good to you. There are layers to peel off. 

This is just the beginning of finding your medicine in the pain of your body and life. 

Stay tuned for my fourth book that will go much deeper into this topic and offer practical, and often spiritual, practices to discover freedom and peace. 

If you’re interested in experiencing a session please reach out by filling out my Optimal Wellness Consultation form here: https://kristingraycemcgary.com/optimal-wellness-form/