Healing Our Emotional Pain
Allan Kehler
Mental Health Keynote Speaker creating a culture of connection where people are seen, heard, and supported | TEDx Speaker | Best-Selling Author x 4
Our reaction to physical pain is not the same as our reaction to emotional pain. For example, when we experience a cut or a broken arm we are very quick to act, and will immediately tend to our wound and progress towards healing. On the other hand, when we are injured at an emotional level we rarely give this wound the immediate attention that it deserves. This is unfortunate because it is actually our emotional pain that has the ability to impact our lives to a much greater degree than physical pain. Unmanaged emotional pain has the potential to affect the way we think, the way we act, and eventually may manifest into physical pain and illness in our bodies.
When we are in pain on an emotional level, most individuals will automatically try to avoid it in an effort to get through the day. As we go about our day-to-day lives, we are often required to put on a smile, whether or not it is indeed genuine. We do a great job of masking our emotional pain while we appear to be happy on the outside. Now this may be necessary in certain situations, such as your place of employment, but it is not healthy to carry on this way. If you continue to ignore these emotions, they will build up within you and eventually reach a point where you feel as though you are drowning in them.
The first step towards healing is acknowledging that pain exists. I firmly believe that we all want to be free from our pain, but many of us don’t know how to do this. Some of us can’t even begin the process of healing because we have built walls around us to keep painful feelings contained within. For example, if you have been betrayed time and time again, you may have buried those negative emotions, only to have them come back and replay when there is an opportunity to trust someone in your life again. Or you may have learned from a young age to keep your emotions deep inside, because you never had a role model who encouraged you to talk. In both of these cases, healing can be delayed because the emotions have been buried deep within you.
After recognizing that pain exists, the next step is taking the time to sit with your pain, and identify where the source is stemming from. For some this may come from the loss of a loved one, or for others it may be some form of abuse that they have endured in their lifetime. No matter what the source of your pain is, once it has been identified, it is time to not only face it, but also to move through it so that healing can take place.
* The above is an excerpt from my new book "Born Resilient"
Branch Manager of RBC in Hanley SK
7 年Ive been learning that our cells need to be healed in order to move past any emotional trauma and not fall back into old emotional patterns. Its interesting how much we absorb in our cells and we may feel mentally in control but our cells are telling a whole other story if you listen and acknowledge how your body is actually feeling.