Muscle-Skeletal Pain and the Gut Connection

Pain is a word that is used to describe a wide range of experiences that all humans encounter. There are many different patterns that occur throughout life that are considered to be painful and, ‘pain’ itself is not a disease, illness or syndrome but is a symptom of many. In the most literal sense, pain refers to any physical sensation that is unpleasant and causes one to take evasive action. It is also a signal that communicates to our brains that we must become aware of some dysfunction and make the necessary changes to make it stop. As herbalist and bodywork Tammi Sweet says, "Pain is a signal to change your behavior". That can mean many things including lifestyle and diet, but also mental and emotional behaviors, attitudes and thought processes. Evasive action is not always the most appropriate either. Changing our behavior can mean to stop evading something and explore more deeply into the core of any issue or injury in search of hidden or repressed feelings or matters. Sometimes what is called for is for us to actually move more deeply into ourselves and embody our unique Earthly form more completely. I taught Yoga for many years and always encouraged my students to find their 'edge' where they were not in pain but were stretching themselves, gently, beyond their comfort zone. This requires that we move our awareness into tight and sometimes scary places and re-associate or, some would say, occupy places that we may rather ignore.