Mind-Body FAQ 1: What is Mind-Body Medicine?
Pain is our body’s way of speaking the truth.
Q: What is Mind-Body Medicine?
A: Mind-Body Medicine refers to the tendency for us as human beings to express in our bodies what doesn’t get expressed in other ways.
In past eras, both physicians and patients have recognized this truth, that our bodies can express what we can’t express in other ways. Only in the past 50 to 75 years have physicians lost sight of the mind-body connection and treated all physical symptoms as if they’re all driven by physical abnormalities.
My reading of the scientific literature as well as my own experience, however, have taught me that while there’s an association between physical damage and pain and other physical symptoms, there are also plenty of times when pain is associated with no damage whatsoever.
Thus, I know that if someone has a physical symptom it may very well be because something important is going on in their life and not in their body.
This means that when someone sees me with a debilitating symptom, I have learned to always ask if something stressful is going on in their life. When I’ve asked that question, people have told me about relationship issues and family issues and the deaths of important people in their lives and anxiety and depression and job changes and financial issues. And none of those responses surprise me any longer.
Human beings have always done this—have always used our bodies to speak for us or to tell the truth or to say things that can’t be said in words. So, when we now have physical symptoms, rather than asking ourselves what’s wrong with our body, what medication we need, or what tests need to be run, we can ask ourselves what our body is trying to say.
I’ve learned over time that pain is not the enemy—it’s just our body’s way of speaking the truth. When we learn to interpret what it is saying, then oftentimes our body will feel like it has done its job and the symptoms can calm down on their own. The more we’re able to relax, to be curious, and to not be afraid, the more likely we are to find the key to why the symptoms are present and how it is that we can make them go away.
For a more complete answer to what is Mind-Body Medicine, please see my post Mind-Body Medicine 101. If you’d like to explore how to use Mind-Body Medicine in your own healing journey, please click here to schedule an appointment.