The Mind-Body Approach to Chronic Pain: What Is Your Body Trying to Tell You?

Chronic pain can be a complex and frustrating condition but it is also an opportunity—a signal from your body that something deeper is at play. As a mind-body medicine practitioner, I believe that your pain holds valuable information about how you're living and what might be misaligned in your life. When we approach pain through the lens of mind-body medicine, we’re not just treating symptoms; we’re uncovering the deeper messages behind them.

I know you’ve already been told to reduce inflammation, improve sleep, exercise regularly, and hydrate. While those are all important and valid steps, I’m not going to focus on that in this article because you already know that. Instead, I want to offer you another perspective—one that digs into the emotional, psychological, and energetic systems at play in your pain. And guess what? This approach puts you back in the driver's seat for your health!

Listening to Your Pain: What Is It Telling You?

Have you ever noticed patterns in your pain? Perhaps you get a migraine every time you visit certain family members. Maybe your heart races after a heated argument with your partner, or your digestion acts up when your boss demands too much. These physical symptoms are more than just random occurrences—they are cues from your body, alerting you to emotional stressors or unaddressed feelings.

Often, we fail to put these cues together. We treat each headache, heart palpitation, or stomach issue as an isolated incident. But when you start to recognize the connection between your symptoms and your emotional triggers, you begin to see that your body is speaking to you. Chronic pain, from this perspective, becomes a messenger—not just a reflection of isolated moments of stress but the accumulation of years of restraint, suppressed emotions, and unmet needs. Over time, these unresolved tensions build up in your body, signalling areas of your life where you are pushing too hard, living inauthentically, or disconnecting from your true self.

The Role of Secondary Gains: How Pain Can Keep You Stuck

It might sound strange, but sometimes there are hidden benefits—known as secondary gains—that keep us stuck in pain. While chronic pain is undeniably exhausting and frustrating, it can also provide certain advantages that we may not consciously acknowledge. For instance, pain might give you permission to slow down, take time off work, or receive extra care and attention from loved ones.

Think about it: when you're in pain, it's socially acceptable to rest, ask for help, and take time for self-care—all things you may struggle to do without the pain as a justification. While these benefits aren’t a reason to dismiss or diminish the experience of pain, they can keep you in a cycle where the pain serves an unconscious purpose. Recognising these secondary gains is an important step in reclaiming control over your body.

The Patterns That Cause Us Pain: What Are You Really Seeking?

From a mind-body perspective, pain often arises when we are disconnected from our true nature. The patterns we fall into—overworking, people-pleasing, perfectionism—are usually driven by deeper motivators. At the root of these patterns is a desire to either obtain something, like a sense of value or approval, or to avoid something, such as failure or rejection.

These core motivators shape the beliefs and behaviors we develop in order to achieve or avoid these feelings. For example, someone who fears failure might take on an excessive workload to prove their worth. Someone who craves approval might sacrifice their own needs to keep others happy. Over time, these behaviors cause internal restraint, where you’re constantly at odds with what you really need. This disconnection from your true self manifests in stress—and, eventually, in physical pain.

So, when you feel pain, it’s often a sign that you are in restraint. You might be pushing your body to the limit, suppressing your emotions, or ignoring your deeper needs to fulfill the expectations of others or your own perfectionist tendencies. Chronic pain can be a red flag from your body, telling you that something in your life needs to change.

Pain as a Compass: Where Are You Living in Restraint?

Pain doesn’t just come out of nowhere. It can be a direct signal pointing to areas of restraint or disconnection in your life. For example, if you experience lower back pain, it might correlate with feeling unsupported or overburdened by responsibilities. If your neck is always stiff, you may be carrying the weight of unexpressed emotions or stress. Migraines might signal tension around the expectations placed on you by others or yourself, think of it like having 1000 tabs open on your mental computer in an attempt to anticipate everyone’s needs.

The key is to listen. Instead of seeing pain as something to battle or suppress, what if you viewed it as a compass, guiding you to the areas of your life where you're out of alignment? Where are you saying “yes” when you mean “no”? Where are you suppressing your feelings or taking on too much?

Reclaiming Your Power Over Pain

The mind-body approach to chronic pain empowers you to take back control of your health by addressing both the physical and emotional aspects of your condition. It’s about asking yourself: What is my pain telling me about the way I’m living? Where am I holding onto stress or tension? What patterns do I need to release to feel more connected to my true self?

By recognising the emotional and psychological factors driving your pain, you can start to make meaningful changes. Perhaps you need to set boundaries, express your emotions more openly, or prioritize self-care. Maybe you need to reassess the beliefs that have been driving your actions—are you pushing yourself to prove something? Are you afraid of failing or letting others down? Have you forgotten your own inner power?

Healing the Root Cause

The mind-body connection reminds us that healing goes beyond managing symptoms. When we start addressing the root causes of our pain—whether emotional, mental, or physical—we can break free from the patterns that keep us stuck. Chronic pain, then, becomes less of a burden and more of an opportunity to realign with our true nature, live authentically, and release the stress that’s holding us back.

I’m here to help you connect those dots. In a session with me, we’ll dive deep to uncover the root causes of your pain, identify the underlying patterns, and develop a personalised plan to reset your nervous system for true healing. My approach is about more than just reducing pain; it’s about empowering you to live a more meaningful, aligned life that prevents pain in the first place. Together, we can shift your body’s programming and create lasting change. Book a session today, either in person in Margaret River, or online, and start your journey toward not just less pain, but a life lived in harmony with your true self.