A Literal Pain in the Ass

After injuring myself three times in under a week (cutting my finger, burning my mouth, and tripping on the sidewalk), I felt inspired to write this!

We’ve all thrown around expressions like, “Pain in the ass,” or, “A weight off my shoulders” to convey a certain feeling. But, have you ever stopped to consider the extent of that feeling?

There isn’t a human being on this earth that doesn’t experience some form of repressed emotions: unexpressed anger, unhealed trauma, stress, anxiety, and/or feeling abandoned, unsupported or lonely. And so on.

Not so coincidentally, millions of people worldwide experience a number of acute and chronic ailments that come with unpleasant symptoms. You name it, someone’s suffered with it: back pain, constipation, digestive issues (hello!), migraines, respiratory infections, and the list goes on and on.

You can probably see where I’m going with this. The physical pain you think is “just a part of getting older” or something that “runs in your family” is intrinsically linked with your emotions and state of mind. What I find most interesting is that, more often than not, the physical pain you feel/injury you suffer mirrors your emotional state verbatim.

For instance, when someone says, “I can’t stomach this,” they’re saying I can’t tolerate it, I can’t digest this. You may find that the person who can’t tolerate certain things, emotionally, also suffers with some form of digestive distress. Think: food intolerances, IBS, indigestion.

While we’re on the subject of gut health, unresolved trauma has been associated with constipation in many individuals. You could say these individuals have a hard time “letting go” of their trauma.

Or you may experience back pain, thinking it’s an old injury or something you inherited. But, as your back is the main support structure of your body, have you asked yourself if you get enough support from your loved ones?

It’s not just bodily ailments and symptoms that mirror our internal landscape, but environmental symptoms, too!

What do I mean by that? Have you ever found yourself saying things like:

“I feel like the roof is caving in over my head.”

“I feel like I can’t keep my head above water.”

“I feel like I’m trapped.”

You may say these expressions when you find yourself in situations that are not ideal. Maybe things are breaking, ending, or falling apart, such as your car breaking down, a leak dripping from your ceiling, or your computer crashing. These are symptoms, too — external symptoms in our environment — and can mirror what’s happening inside us on an emotional level.

Personally, I notice that I sometimes trip, stumble, or slice my finger while trying to cut veggies when I’m feeling emotionally clumsy. I know these outward injuries are a reflection of an inner disorientation.

You may start to notice these “coincidences” for yourself. You may encounter a leak or a caving roof in your home at a time when you feel like the “roof is caving in” on you, emotionally. You may wind up in claustrophobic, tight spaces, or in a suffocating relationship and find yourself saying, “the walls are closing in on me.”

These expressions exist for a reason: there’s a direct connection.

Many of us freely use these expressions, but don’t always work backward from the symptoms. Meaning, we may link the symptoms with their stressors when we lead with the stressors, e.g., “My job is stressful, and that is giving me headaches.” However, if we’re not aware of or able to acknowledge that our job is stressful, we may get headaches that seem to have no origin. We’re not as likely to lead with the headaches and say, “I’ve been having headaches, and it’s because my job is stressful.”

You can apply this to any number of examples. For instance, if we’re in a relationship that isn’t right for us, we might start to experience feelings that make us want to get out of the relationship. We may say, “I feel claustrophobic,” and may even be aware of why we’re feeling that way. However, if we’re not tuned into our emotions, when we start to feel the physical symptoms of claustrophobia, such as shortness of breath, we may brush them off as poor air quality or allergies, rather than a prompt to ask ourself, “What is making me feel short of breath?”

This is how most of us go through our day-to-day, experiencing symptoms and events around us, seeing them at face value or surface level, without considering what they may be tied to. So, rather than continue to use these expressions blindly, consider their origins. Know that these sayings are clues and provide insight into what the real issue may be. This is how we start to turn things around.

Indeed, our ailments (bodily AND environmental, severe AND mild) are literal reflections of our emotional state. No need to overanalyze once-off afflictions. But for any patterns, whether it’s a pain in the ass or neck, brush fires or broken dishes, take a step back and ask, “What needs to change internally for things to shift externally? What will help me to feel physically better, stop having accidents, and what will prevent shit from falling apart in and all around me?”