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Today, I’d like to continue our discussion on pain and illness. In our last conversation, we were focused on the fact that all pain, all illness begins internally, has an internal cause, and that it’s always a choice, whether conscious or unconscious. My question now is, why do we choose the specific pain or illness we experience? And how can we know which emotion we’re repressing or which of our belief systems is holding the pain in place? During this recent painful episode with my back, I found myself asking these questions a lot. “Why is my back bothering me again? I take good care of myself, I exercise, I’m healthy and strong, so what’s behind this? What’s really going on?”

Every human person is different and will manifest pain and illness in a variety of ways for a variety of different reasons. One individual may experience, like yourself, pain in their lower back for much of their adult lives. Others may experience chronic infections, or migraines, or heart palpitations, or digestive issues, or any number of physical ailments. The type and location of the pain or dis-ease will depend a great deal on what each individual sees as their susceptibility to certain physical conditions. It is very common for humans to perceive of their health-related issues in this way. It would never even occur to most human persons to make a connection between their health and their emotions or belief systems. And yet, emotional energy management, or lack thereof, has more impact on the ongoing health and well-being of all incarnated beings than any other force on the physical plane. Let us take a moment and suggest one scenario as an example, using your own experience with the pain in your lower back. Now that you are retired and are no longer working full-time, let us say that you have had to make some adjustments in your relationship with money and this has caused you some stress. You fear that you are not giving yourself the financial support that you feel you need at the present time. Left unaddressed or unprocessed, those worries and concerns build up within your emotional body, gaining momentum and eventually accumulating enough density to manifest as a pain in your lower back, an area that serves to function as a support system for your physical frame. Do you see the connection that might have been made by your unconscious? You feel that you are not supporting yourself and you begin to experience pain in your back, your physical support system. Now, perhaps not all humans are as literal as this example might illustrate, but all repressed emotion, if held in check long enough, will create a similar type of dysfunctional condition whose characteristics will be informed by the unique belief system held by the individual. This is why it is so important to remember, especially when it comes to your own physical health, that emotional energy is meant to be expressed. Any resistance to that expression will block your innate state of health and well-being, the natural flow of Source energy into your physical form. It will build up within your system, gain density as it does so, and if left unprocessed or unaddressed, will eventually manifest as pain or illness within your physical form.

So, then, pain or the illness is actually a sign that our system is out of balance. Our energy, what some people call chi, the true essence of our life force energy, should flow freely and naturally, but when it doesn’t, when we block it by not expressing our emotions, sometimes even denying that our emotions exist – “Oh, no, I’m fine. I’m not having any problems at all right now. Everything is perfectly OK.” – then eventually our system gets clogged up, almost like a kitchen drain, the energy cannot flow naturally, and the result is an imbalance in our energy field that we experience as pain or illness or both, the characteristics of which are defined by our own individual belief system. Is that what you’re saying?

A bit more complicated than a clog in your kitchen drain, we might say, but yes, that is essentially how pain or illness develops in the human form. Because your entire energy system is guided by your higher self, it will always seek balance and flow, will always seek to reflect your true loving self. That is how your energy system is designed. When it cannot achieve this balance and flow, and pain and illness develop, it is, in a sense, your system’s attempt to call your attention to the emotional imbalance that has formed. Even though we have never ourselves incarnated in physical form, we are well aware of the power of physical pain to attract your attention.

Yes, well, the truth is, pain not only attracts your attention, it grabs a hold of it and won’t let go, making it almost impossible for you to focus on anything else, including a desire to release your resistance and return to a feeling of well-being in your body. All you can think about when you’re in pain is getting rid of the pain, and if you can’t get rid of it, you often end up feeling powerless and alone, which is the last thing you want to feel when you’re trying to heal your body. Unfortunately, intense pain places your attention on what you do NOT want, and as you’ve said many times before, we manifest what we place our attention on, so when we’re solely focused on pain or illness, it’s like a vicious circle. The pain or illness is there to alert you to the imbalance in your system, but you can’t restore your balance and flow because your mind is focused on the discomfort caused by the condition.

We agree that dealing with the physical experience of illness or pain in the body is one of the most challenging aspects of the human journey and as always, the key is awareness, no matter how you bring it about. Healing can only begin when your awareness is open and receptive to understanding where you are within yourself at any given moment. It takes courage to open your awareness so that you can acknowledge and accept those parts of yourself that feel the need to block your supply of unlimited health and well-being. It is even more difficult when the blockage itself takes so much of your conscious attention. That is why it is so important to keep your mind focused on what is going on inside of you. That means taking responsibility for what you are experiencing. Indeed, it is the lack of responsibility for one’s own creation that manifests much of the pain and fear in the world. Again, this should not be used as an excuse for blaming yourself. You have done nothing wrong. You are simply creating experiences, consciously or unconsciously, that are designed to awaken yourself to who you really are. It is all a part of your journey. It is why you have come.

While I understand what you’re saying, it’s still very challenging to access and release those darker parts of ourselves, the repressed emotions and the underlying beliefs, in order to heal our bodies. One thing I did not realize, not until my recent experience with back pain, was how we sometimes unconsciously hold onto pain and illness once it settles into our bodies. I discovered that there is often a hidden payoff to holding onto pain or illness long past the time when it could be released. For example, pain and illness often draws a lot of attention from others, which can make you feel special and cared for, and that’s great. But after a while, you get used to the comfort and support you’re receiving from others, and almost without realizing it, you hold onto the condition in order to continue receiving the attention. The same holds true when we use physical pain and illness as an excuse to feel sorry for ourselves, something I think we can all relate to. We have a tendency as humans to wallow in that self-pity because, in a strange way, we find solace in those feelings, and that, again, makes it harder to release any unwanted conditions. Something else I’ve noticed in myself is an inclination to use pain and illness, but especially pain, to test my endurance, thinking that the longer I can tough it out, the stronger I will feel and the stronger I will appear to others. Unfortunately, I think the need to feel strong in that kind of situation only prolongs the pain and discomfort. Guilt can also be a factor when you’re trying to release pain and illness, especially when guilt is the primary cause of your condition. If you consider pain a punishment for something you feel you’ve done wrong, for example, your guilt may hold your condition in place until you feel that you’ve suffered enough. The biggest challenge, however, at least for me, is how quickly and how often we come to identify with our pain or illness, especially when the condition lingers, a tendency that our friends often inadvertently enable. “How are you? Oh, you poor thing! I don’t know how you cope. You’re so brave. Feel better!” I realize that in this type of situation our friends are only trying to express their sympathy and concern, but what I’ve found is that after a while, you begin to associate yourself with the condition, holding onto it as part of your identity as the “sick friend,” and that makes it that much harder to imagine yourself as strong and healthy.

What you have just described, these tendencies that humans exhibit when attempting to hold onto pain and illness, this what we are referring to when we point out the importance of opening your awareness to those parts of yourself that you prefer to keep hidden. By exploring these thoughts in our conversation, you have in fact allowed yourself to open your unconscious mind to these tendencies within yourself in order to share them with our readers, and that is of benefit to all. Do you see?

Yes, I can see that. Sometimes just talking about something can open your awareness to it.

Indeed. With this in mind, we would encourage you to open your awareness even further and embrace the idea that no matter how dire or difficult an experience of pain or illness may be, there is always great benefit in everything that you create for yourself, for every experience, including all forms of pain and illness, contains within it the seed of remembrance. Discovering that seed, giving it your attention and allowing it to blossom, that is the purpose of all creation on the physical plane. Each time you experience a condition that runs counter to a state of perfect health and well-being, it is an opportunity for you to step into your own power, to remember that you are a creator, a healer in your own right, to remember who you really and why you have come.

Once again, you have provided us with some wonderful insights into the nature of pain and illness. Unfortunately, we’ve gone long and will have to stop here, but we still have so much more to say on this topic. So, let’s pick it up next time.

As you wish. Until next time then.

Thank you all.

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