Beyond the Pain

Have you ever been accused of being over sensitive?

I am frequently.

And, I’ve wondered: Am I? If so, where did my oversensitivity come from?
And, is it necessarily a bad thing?

Okay. I’m ready. I admit I am highly sensitive. Note: I didn’t say over sensitive.

Is that bad? Yes and no.

No, because as a coach and teacher my sensitive nature allows me to tune into the emotional
undercurrents. To help clients identify feelings they may be unaware of. This helps get a the real issues.

It’s bad in that I pick up negative emotions very easily. For example, after
spending 30 minutes with a very anxious client (face to face in a small office)
I began to feel severe myalgia. As soon as I realized my pain was caused by her
anxiety I was able to put up a bit of ‘shield’ and carry out. Then after the
meeting I went for a walk to shake out the negative feelings.

I need to pay particular attention to sudden shifts in feeling. For example, if
I feel good or only slightly in pain and then suddenly my myalgia
escalates or come on, I’ve learned to look around and see if someone else is
feeling negative. 8 times out of 10 it’s the other person not me who is the
actual source of pain.

So, where did my sensitivity come from?

Check out the next post.

The post might also have been titled "When Your Body is at War With Itself".

Have you ever had the experience of picking up a book and thinking,"not much here," only to return to it later and find all sorts of valuable ideas. That’s the case for me with  When The Body Says No.

Recently my coach suggested that I might find some value in  When The Body Says No as another of his clients had found it immensely. I thought, why not? Funny the title didn’t even ring a bell. It was only when it arrived at my branch library that I realized I’d leafed through it before.

Today, I finally had a chance to read a bit. I gravitated to Chapter 13, "Self and Non-Self: The Immune System Confused", as I knew  FMS  was sometims considered an auto-immune disorder.

It was like reading about myself — except in multisyllable, medical language. The case studies were mirrors of my life: childhood abuse, perfectionism, repression of anger, role reversal (where we become the parent to the parent), and hyperindependence.

In this chapter Mate explores how these characteristics result in the immune system turning on the body — "they will attack the body tissues they were meant to guard. Allergic reactions or autoimmune diseases may result." [Mate]

The result: we get sick, sicker, more and more pained until we pay attention. And, do something about it.

One of the simplest things we can do is to simply do something for ourselves. This may be one of those simple things that is hard to do, by the way.

But, do something for yourself.

It doesn’t have to be big. But, it does have to be just for you.