My chronic pain went away when I was ready to say goodbye to it.
Pain served many purposes in my life.
Pain distracted me from difficult and uncomfortable decisions I knew I had to take in my life.
It was easier for me to deal with the pain rather than quit a successful investment banking career, for example, and disappoint all my family and friends.
“You are too stiff, I can feel tension here and here and here”, Lance my osteopath used to say.
He was right but why was I stiff in the first place?
Because all I did was to please people, say always “yes” to everyone, and care for everyone else except for myself.
I always tried to control others’ opinions and thoughts about myself.
Guess what?
All those maladaptive behaviours made me perfectly stiff. That was the perfect recipe for stiffness! lol
And stiffness brought my back pain, lower back, upper back, leg, chest and everything in between.
And IBS and insomnia and skin conditions and more.
But I’m telling you, for a long time it was easier to put up with the excruciating pain than dump a toxic relationship or the “perfect career” that everyone else would love to have.
Only when I addressed my emotions, my anger, my needs, my wants and took action, did the stiffness, the back pain and all the rest in that package go away.
That process was not easy though.
It took time.
Sometimes I would go halfway and return to my comfort zone—which came with pain of course.
Until one day I had enough and went full way.
I ditched a “successful” career, a toxic relationship, useless friendships, and most importantly, the need to strive to be someone I was not.
And guess what?
I became less stiff.
Lance missed me.
And my pain went away…
Only when I was ready to say goodbye to it.
With love, Angelos
P.S. To learn more about how I healed, check out my chronic back pain story.
P.P.S. And this is how repressed emotions can cause chronic pain (Tension Myositis Syndrome).
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