The body screams what the heart keeps silent

Have you ever wondered if your painful silences mask a physical disorder? When you have had a bad time, or have you had a dislike, have you developed a cold or have you had a relapse of your weakest point? In these cases, your emotions may be taking their toll on you.

But do we know how to detect those intimate cries and their relationship with our emotions? Or, on the contrary, do we not think and flee forward, denying pain, and making suffering appear?

• Related article: "Emotional psychology: main theories of emotion"

The relationship between the physical and the psychological

He thinks for a moment about the following example:

Alex was a boy who liked to fish and often went out with his best friend to the nearest river they had. One day, back home, Alex got a thorn in his foot. From that moment on, Alex walked trying not to plant his foot on the ground, since the spine caused him immense and continuous pain in a way that prevented him from walking well... So the days went by and, while his friends had the best time in the park going up and down the slide, Alex regretted not being able to do it as they had done until then. But Alex was afraid of pulling the thorn out of him because of the pain it was going to cause him. His friends, seeing Alex's suffering, plotted to hold him between feet and arms, and despite attempts against Alex, they finally managed to remove the thorn from his foot. At that moment there was a silence and a great relief came over Alex. (J. Neighborhoods).

This is a clear example of how many times, trying to avoid pain, we incur in constant suffering that prevents us from living happily. It is almost always preferable to face pain, no matter how intense and heartbreaking, in order to remove the thorn that the suffering drives us into our existence.

Let us remember that almost always (at least in 90% of the cases, as Stephen Covey would tell us) we are responsible for the suffering that we allow in our lives. The results after my years of experience as a psychologist coach have led me to several conclusions about this.

Physical problems after emotional problems

Our nature is wise and declares to us what our heart does not confess, either by not knowing how to express or by not wanting to face the circumstance. This is how we somatize and often end up getting sick. In that sense, the flow of words, as Daniel Goleman would say in his book Emotional Intelligence, will relieve a heavy heart.

Our internal dialogue is defined by the flow of our conscious thought. The thought generates an emotion, therefore before the emotion there has been a thought, many sometimes derived from thought patterns automated by learning and experiences lived.

Emotions and amygdala connect our thought to our body, so any thought generates a type of emotion and, consequently, a behavior and the functioning of our organs: it is parts of the body contract, the secretion of stomach acid increases, the heart rate, the respiration, we produce spasms in the intestine, we sweat, we blush, we cry, ...

If thoughts and emotions are continuously "negative" (they become maladjusted if they persist over time) our organs, our muscles, our viscera will work in a forced way, adapting to a situation of permanent stress that ends up making them sick.

For example, if I think that I am controlled or I feel persecuted and I feel fear, my heart races, I breathe faster (hyperventilate), my hands are sweaty, my mouth is dry, my stomach aches, or my muscles tighten Body. If, on the other hand, I think that life is going well for me in general, that he smiles at me, my muscles they relax, I feel well-being, my tension drops, my body becomes oxygenated and my breathing becomes more deep.

In order to improve our physical and mental health our objective should be to determine the relationship between the symptom that our body manifests and our hidden emotion and give it expression. Let's think that once we identify our problem, 50% of it we can solve. When we identify it, we are in a position to control it.

Definitely, it's about the language of the symptom and, favoring the environment that Psicoconsulting Empresarial offers you, with cognitive-behavioral therapy as well as the strategic brief, we help you to identify and express it. When we don't, we run the risk of getting sick. So beware of repressed feelings that we feel we have not received permission to express! We will somatize to release the emotion.

What is done in therapy?

From the cognitive-behavioral current we try to describe the symptoms that we suffer; for example, palpitations, lump in the throat, shortness of breath, dizziness, stomach pain, sleep problems, knee pain... especially symptoms that affect or incapacitate us in some way in our daily lives. We could make a list with the patient in order of intensity, and previously identify the thought that took place immediately before the symptom.

In that sense it is advisable to keep a record of each of the symptoms, from the moment in which they have arisen, and to be able to arrive at the positive reformulation of the same thought. It should be noted that the same thought can cause different symptoms with different intensities depending on the person. To assess the intensity of the symptoms, we will use the Beck test and develop a scale of symptoms, personalized, in order of intensity, which during the intersessions will go away quantifying.

In many cases they will be thoughts that cause fear, anxiety, fear of fear, and it will be there when in addition to working with techniques cognitive-behavioral, we will work with those of strategic brief therapy, strategies that will have to do with "adding fuel to the fire" (G.Nardone).

Commented in passing, we also know from the bibliography of Dethlefsen and Dahlke (2003), in their book The disease as a path, as well as the work of Adriana Schnake, that the parts of our body that get sick do so many times because we do not accept any of their characteristics, and they have a symbolism and a correlation with the organs of the Body. Healing will take place when both parties are reconciled, and our mind accepts the characteristics of the diseased organ. Despite this, to the general meaning of each symptom, we must combine several rules for its interpretation.

Observed the symptoms of the body

By means of the cognitive behavioral therapy It is very important to consider the moment in which the symptom appears. Because emotional recall is short-term, a comprehensive recording of both the symptom and the thought at the same time they occur is recommended:

• Date? hour?
• What thoughts were you having at that moment?
• What have I felt?
• With what intensity?… (For example, from 1 to 10)
• Reformulation of thought
• New assessment of the emotion felt.

On the other hand, all the symptoms force us to change our behavior, which also gives us information, especially when they incapacitate us in our day to day life. For example, continuous headaches will prevent me from developing my work properly, or my energy it will decrease if I do not eat well, or I do not sleep well... Before this we can also ask ourselves: What is preventing me from symptom? What is this symptom forcing me to do?

This is how we, mental health professionals, facilitate the client / patient to become aware of what is wrong limiting and hindering their growth and offering them coping techniques for the resolution of the conflict and the suffering. Ultimately, the goal will be to go learning to be happy.