The link between emotional and physical pain and what it means for you

This is one of those subjects that I thought absolutely everyone already knew about. Then I remembered how spectacularly shit most burned out professionals are at taking care of themselves in any fashion and decided to take this moment to share this.

Just before I dive into this, take a deep breath, shut your eyes (once you've finished reading this sentence please!) and conduct a quick body and mind scan.

How do you feel on a scale of 1-10? Are there any areas of tension of pain in your body? Do you have recurrent issues with back or neck pain? Maybe you often struggle with colds and flu or have chronic IBS issues?

As professionals we spend most of our lives living from the neck up. Everything is intellectualised and compartmentalised and we pay very little attention to the physical aspects of our lives - we live in our inboxes, our iPhone notifications, in the near future of what we need to get done and what we need to pre-empt. As a result we don't pay all that much attention to what's going on below the chin.

So here are a couple of things to consider if you've been popping the ibuprofen or getting constant headaches at your desk.

Pain disrupts our attention and affects our accuracy. It literally slows you down and takes more energy to complete every day tasks. Your reaction time will be slowed by being in pain - sometimes to consider next time you're speeding home from a long day at work.

Physical pain fuels emotional pain. Whether it's waking up with a crick in your neck or a chronic pain condition, if you are experiencing physical pain or discomfort you are more likely to be short tempered, irritable, frustrated and feel a loss of control and hopelessness.

But so too can our emotional pain cause our physical pain, after all the signals travel along the same pathway in our brains. Think about it - with each ring of your phone your shoulders creep towards your ears and before you know it you're sending out a department-wide email for painkillers.

Ok, so I'm talking about 'pain' but what if we gave it another label? Stress? Frustration? Tiredness?

What if your work involves delving into other people's trauma? Managing other people's problems?

When you work in the distress-purchase-industry (lawyers, medical professionals I'm looking at you), your job is to take someone else's pain, struggle and suffering and create as neat a solution as you can for them. It means you're empathetic. Which means you experience their emotions, like a sponge soaking up spilled coffee.

So why is it somehow strange to think of you feeling the emotions of the people you're trying to help and experiencing the after-effects as if it were your own?

You can put in place boundaries and try to draw the line all you will (even though we both know that those things get eroded when you get tired and overworked) but if you're empathetic you're still going to feel it on some level or another.

That's why it makes it absolutely vital to pay attention to what's going on with your body and to take care of it, to manage your stress, your pain and to reduce the symptoms that go along with it.

What we are looking at here are the inevitable consequences of being human.

Picking up on other people's emotions.

Feeling emotional symptoms along with it.

That feed in to physical symptoms.

Which slow you down, reduce your accuracy and your ability to be resilient.

So what can we do (because without a happy ending this is a very concerning blog).

Well first of all just being aware of this link means that you're more likely to take better care of yourself, physically and emotionally. We all run around at 90mph trying to get everything done and don't really stop to consider that our energy, our physical resources, can be somewhat limited. Don't get me started on the inability to see that we need to take care of ourselves.

The second thing is that once you start paying attention to what you're feeling, it creates it's own roadmap. An example I often use is from my own experience.

I had chronic back pain throughout my time as a lawyer. Some of my colleagues saw me high as a kite on cocodamol (i'm lightweight, let's not dwell on it) and saw me finishing early to go to never ending physio, osteopathy, chiropractic appointments. I did pilates in the boardroom and was forever walking around with my headset on because I was getting stiff and painful at my desk.

I spent literally tens of thousands of pounds on treatment, relief, painkillers, all treating the symptoms of the back pain i thought was just 'Leah has a bad back'.

After I left my last job as a lawyer I had one session of chiropractic treatment... and didn't go back for a year. I had been attending every two weeks at a minimum and all of a sudden it was just...gone.

I've got to ask, what symptoms, struggling, niggling pain points or unresolved health issues have you been treating? Do you think it's possible some or all of them are related to your stress levels, your tiredness, the hours you work?

What can you do to make your working life, and therefore your whole life, easier and reduce those symptoms?

PS The Burnout Workshop is taking place next Monday 28th October at 8pm. In this workshop I will be talking you through what burnout is, what it does (and doesn't!) mean for you, how to spot the symptoms of burnout, manage and reverse them.

You will leave this training clearer or what is and is not a priority for you, with a clear plan of action and real, practical steps for you to take moving forward.

This is a live, online video training but there will be a recording which you will be able to access for life. Plus, join before I go live on Monday and receive a bonus workshop focused on Resilience and Happiness, as my gift for you.

Click HERE to find out more and join me