Why Pain?

“Often it is the deepest pain that empowers you to grow into your highest self”

Have you ever heard someone say, “The pain is good”, well in most cases they are actually right. Pain like every other function of our body is a natural process that was designed to keep us alive. Without pain how would you know that the pan you just grab was scolding hot? How would you know when you stepped on a nail? How else could you receive that warning from your wife that you said something wrong? 😉 Pain is our internal alarm system that warns us of physical danger. That warning leads us to make a change like pulling our hand off the pan so that it doesn’t burn off.

So what is pain, where does it come from? Your body’s pain system is made up of special nerves that relay information to the brain. When your brain receives these signals it process them and decides what the best reaction may be. The nerves of the pain system are living things and like any other living thing can change over time. In some cases the nerves can become more sensitive or less sensitive, if they become more sensitive they turn on easier and we feel more pain. You may be asking, “Why on earth would we want to feel more pain?” After an injury or illness the body wants to protect the injured area to help it heal so the brain will actually release chemicals that will make the nerves more sensitive. The sensitive nerves will send more information to our brain and remind us that we are injured so that we are more careful and allow ourselves to heal. This is why we walk with a limp after an ankle sprain.

Pain caused by the hypersensitive nerves after an injury (what we call acute pain) should only last a couple weeks, but sometimes something goes wrong. All though long-standing or chronic pain is common it is not normal and is an indication that the nerves are too sensitive. Sometimes the hypersensitivity can spread to other parts of the body; in some cases people don’t have an injury and can experience pain for what seems like no reason at all. For these people a visit to the doctor can in and of itself be a painful experience because they are seen as “crazy” or over exaggerating. The response from the doctor will be “I can’t find any physical reason of why you are in pain, it must be all in your head” I am here to tell you that you are not crazy, your nerves are just hyper sensitive. The good news for everyone is that nerves are living things and living things can change over time.

Now that we understand why we have pain and where it comes from our next post will help you understand how we can control pain, make sure to follow us on social media to receive every post and healing technique.