What do you mean the pain in my hips is coming from my emotions? Here at Live Free we look at the physical, chemical, and emotional components to try and get to the root cause of pain and dysfunction. Any one of these components or a combo of them could be the cause for your pain and dysfunction. Musculoskeletal pain absolutely has a physical component to it; as it is what is in pain. However, have you ever had muscle pain that, no matter how many massages you get or corrective exercises you do, it won’t go away and always comes back? This is where we have to look at what other components could be at the root cause of this pain.

It is well known that emotions and stress will trigger a hormonal response that releases stress hormones that will affect our nervous system. Too much of these stress hormones will put us out of balance and can lead to chronic symptoms of fatigue, irritability, brain fog and many more. We also know that under stressful conditions, we have a shallower breathing pattern, using more of our chest and neck muscles, which is a useful breathing pattern in stressful situations, but in today’s overly stressful world, those chest and neck muscles get over used. This is why everyone says they “carry their stress” in their shoulders and they always feel tight. However, this still doesn’t explain how emotions and stress could cause pain in our hips, lower back or anywhere else in our bodies.

New research has given us a clearer picture of how stress really affects our brains and body. A study conducted at LSU Health Sciences Center showed that a single exposure to acute stress affected information processing in the cerebellum - - the area of the brain responsible for motor control and movement coordination and also involved in learning and memory formation. So, you can see how, if the part of our brain that controls muscle movement, coordination and proprioception is affected, it can lead to movement dysfunction and pain throughout our bodies. Taking it one step further, a research study at Thomas Jefferson University Medical School had cancer survivors write down their diagnosis story. Then while in an FMRI machine, they were read their own diagnosis story and the reenactment of this traumatic event affected the same part of the brain, the cerebellum. They took the study one step further and looked how the brain responded while getting a treatment of NET (Neuro Emotional Technique) which is used to help people process traumatic memories. One of the researchers, Dr. Daniel Monti stated, “Just four to five brief NET sessions result in significantly less emotional and physical distress and these improvements are associated with connectivity changes throughout the brain.” The data suggests that the intervention of NET substantially alters the brain’s response to traumatic memories.

So, this is how traumatic events and emotional stress can leave lasting symptoms on our bodies long after the actual event. Here at Live Free have been diving deep into NET and will be taking a seminar and certification for it later this year. Combining emotional techniques with other modalities for physical and chemical dysfunctions, has given us the greatest results with helping people overcome their own chronic pain. Realizing how all these components intertwine and play a role in chronic symptoms, gives us a clearer picture of how to bring the body back into balance and on the way to Living Free.

Physical Pain… or Emotional Pain?