Dr. Sean Pastuch is a helping people reframe their mindset around pain, and the limitations we impose on ourselves in the name of avoiding discomfort. Curious about Emotional Release? Get bi-weekly emotional healing insights and ways to connect with the community on the ELM newsletter! Join here: https://www.elm.health/newsletter Topics: - Can repressed emotions cause physical, chronic pain? ○ Yes - emotions cause pain. Pain actually is an emotion. ○ It's a negative emotion. It's associated with uncertainty, which brings on fear. ● We end up in this vicious cycle of “if it makes me feel uncomfortable, I'm going to stop doing it.” ○ The more we can understand the reasons why things are uncomfortable, the more we can embrace things that are uncomfortable so that they can make us better people. ○ Oftentimes we deal with chronic pain because we're withdrawn from the things we need to do simply because those things are uncomfortable. ● So many Americans are on opioids.. we are conditioned from an early age to withdraw from pain ○ Medication mutes the pain. ● Emotional pain is a nervous system thing. ● Pain is a negative emotional response that's directly tied to uncertainty about something that we're feeling. ○ The uncertainty about what’s happening to us causes more pain - all coming from neurological response to physical sensation. ● The first step to eliminating chronic pain is to adopt the belief that you can eliminate your chronic pain. ○ The number one thing that you need to have is the belief that you can change, the belief that you can live a better life. ○ Start to craft the life that you want to live instead of holding back the tears which holds back the emotion, which holds back the change. ● Think about why you're saying sorry before you say sorry next time. ○ People often apologize for being themselves. ○ As soon as you realize you have nobody to apologize to you, life changes. ● An injury is a decision that I can't do something. ○ Irritation is the moment that we start to feel something. ○ Pain is the negative emotional response to that irritation. ○ I'm in pain and I want to change something. ○ Injury is the decision that I can't. ● People come in and say “I have a back injury. I have an ankle injury.” That's interesting because you walked in here your ankles working, your back is working. You're able to do all the things. It seems like it just hurts you. ○ They decided this is my excuse this is my reason for not being who I was supposed to be. ● It's going to be irritating. This is going to be uncomfortable. Irritation, drives, adaptation ● We are all a few decisions away from living a completely different life. We have all the power to make that decision. Be sure to like and subscribe to #HealThySelf Hosted by Doctor Christian Gonzalez N.D. Follow Doctor G on Instagram @doctor.gonzalez https://www.instagram.com/doctor.gonzalez/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices