Do you understand pain?

So many people are living in pain. Many may even have forgotten how life without pain feels like. Pain can make us feel alone, frustrated or vulnerable. However, pain is not to be ignored or suppressed, it is our body giving us a message. Read on to know how to interpret our body’s signal of pain and take action.

What is pain?

Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. Pain also has a character – sharp, dull, burning, constant, tingling etc

Everyone processes pain differently. The tolerance to pain also differs. Pain is also sensed differently also based on our emotional state.

Understand pain as an indicator

Our body is a highly intelligent machine. It does not unnecessarily want to cause you discomfort. It is always working for your wellness and trying to get back to balance.

How does a baby communicate with you when it is tired or hungry? Crying out aloud to get your attention isn’t it? Similarly with our bodies.

With most of us leading busy lives, we may fail to attend to our body’s needs. So, pain is an indicator, a symptom that something is wrong in the body. Pain draws your attention. Paying heed to the pain means understanding the need of correction in some aspect of lifestyle.

The accumulation of toxins in the body due to wrong lifestyle causes imbalance in the body. Read our article on Toxinsto understand how toxic waste builds up in the body which is basically the cause of all disease. Pain is caused when there is extra pressure in a part of the body as the body is trying to restore balance.So the nerves in that part of the body communicate this message to the brain and we perceive it as pain. Beneath the pain, restoring action is taking place – restoration of circulation of fluids in the body and restoration of balance. Pain shows up in a particular part of the body which is unique to an individual.

The wiser choice is to listen to our body, analyze what is wrong with our lifestyle and make corrections. When the cause is removed, the body corrects itself and pain disappears.

So don’t fear pain. Pain may be present but suffering is optional.

Role of medication

Many people resort to pain killers, muscle relaxants, ointments and balms to manage the inconvenience. Medication has its uses as a quick fix in case of emergencies. Maybe you have an important meeting or presentation to give and can’t go through it while having a severe headache or back pain. However, medications can become habit forming and prevent you from addressing the root cause which caused the problem. Repeated suppression of pain may cause the pain to appear somewhere else in the body or return back with higher intensity.

Hence paying heed to the signal of pain and taking corrective action is a better choice.

Importance of resting

In our modern day rushed lifestyle, we have forgotten the art of taking rest and doing nothing. Let’s learn from nature. What do animals do when in pain or injured? They give rest to the affected part by keeping it immobile. They lie down in the shade and take rest for a few days. Many animals also cease to completely eat during this period.

Let’s take a few practical examples to understand the body’s messages:

• Toothache – Solid foods can’t be had. Indicative of going off food, reducing snacking or have only easy to digest foods in liquid form. When the tooth is given sufficient rest, the pain reduces.
• Headache, can’t open eyes – Cry from the body to give mental rest. Lie down and rest in dark room. Eat easy to digest foods like fruit juices and fruits body can conserve energy.
• Neck pain – Body is indicating tightening of muscles in the area around the neck due to stress or overwork and asking for rest. Loosen your muscles with simple stretching exercises and take a break from computer work or other work which strains those muscles. Correct your posture with awareness.
• Stomach pain – Eating a heavy meal without proper hunger, eating in a hurry and overeating can be probable causes. Giving digestive rest to your body by simplifying your diet for a few days (i.e more fruits and vegetables in raw form, coconut water, nimbu pain, vegetable juices etc) can help. Also masticating your food thoroughly, eating only when there is proper hunger upto the point of satisfaction are the proper actions to take.

Hence understand pain as a need to give rest to the body part which is painful and conserve energy for healing. With the conserved energy, the body can do its job of self-correction, self-repairing more efficiently.

Read more about how to handle pain naturally in the second part of this blog.