The thing about physical pain is it’s not just about the pain. There’s more. Way more. That is rarely explored.

Your back hurts…damn boxes. Neck tweaked…bad nights sleep. Rash…new lotion. Bee sting…dumb bee. Stomach aches…dairy. Stubbed toe…effing rock.

You pop advil. Take pain killers. And lament the pain.

But what if it wasn’t the boxes, or the bee, or the dairy…and it was your beliefs? Your stress? Your locked up emotion? You believe someone when they tell you that eye twitch is from your stress….Why wouldn’t that translate to bigger pains?

I’m not sure I would have believed it fully either, until I experienced it. Earlier this year, I was the right amount of pain free. For someone who has always battled a lower back blasted by one too many years of volleyball, relatively pain free was a good place to be. But one foreign fever and 48-hours laid up in a bed later, my back screamed. In pain. In tears. In Bali. And not sure how to fix it.

A few emails later, I ended up with the number of man who was supposed to be able to fix me. Osteopath, they called him. He fixed me…for sure. But not in the way I expected. He healed the pain by healing my heart. Turns out he was more of a healer than an osteo.

Jim taught me a lot of beautiful lessons, many personal, and even more oh so universal. And none greater than this: Your physical pain is tied to subconscious belief. Call it metaphysical therapy. Call it biomedical feedback. Call it whatever you want but more importantly: explore it. understand it. release it…the subconscious crap you’re holding on to that’s showing up as physical pain.

Your body will tell you what’s happening in the depths of your soul. Your aches and pain are trying to tell you something. Your energy is getting trapped. Balled up. And causing you discomfort.

I know. Because 4 months of working with Jim and being the most pain-free I’ve ever been was glory. Four months of not working with him, choosing not to practice what I’ve learned and my eye began twitching, there was a fixed dull ache in my side and my neck was jammed. Don’t tell Jim.

So I slowed down. I returned to what I was taught. I examined the meaning of the pain. And worked to release both the pain and the stress. Some of it physical. More of it emotional.

Eight months ago, this entire metaphysical lens of looking at my body was new to me. Very new. And likely to you too. And while traveling to Bali and seeing Jim isn’t an option for everyone, here’s a few things that are:

1. Heal Your Body, by Louise Hay.
2. The movie E-Motion.
3. Reiki Healers . They can help.

Understand that you’re not victim to your circumstance. You’re not helpless in your healing. And you’re not stuck. Do I think terrible accidents and awful diseases are our fault and fully our responsibility only to heal? Nah. I’m not that new agey.

But do I think we have a powerful hand in our day-to-day health and comforts with our minds, our meditations, and our self care? Oh hell yes. Do I think our belief systems and outlooks can help our healing from the bigger traumas and diseases? Yes and Yes.

What you think matters. It’s energy. Thoughts and beliefs, while not seen, are pumped with energy. So too are our bodies. And our pain. It’s all cosmically connected. From the inside out.