Chicken & The Egg

So....

Is your emotion the chicken and your symptoms the egg?...

or is it

The symptom is the chicken and the emotion is the egg?....

Wondering what I am speaking of? It will make sense I promise - read on...

Can emotions cause our symptoms? Can emotions cause our illness? I believe yes and a lot of people follow that belief. And now with quantum physics we know that particles (things) can be controlled (manipulated, made to appear) through thoughts (energy, vibration, intention).

You know how it goes - you have a bad headache and you are feeling really crappy so, you get stressed and frustrated because there are things you want to do and this headache is preventing you from doing them.

OR

Deep down you are overwhelmed, worried, stressed, exhausted, etc so your body gives you the headache so that you are forced to slow down and rest?

We may be coasting through a week, feeling positive and happy and wham - we get hit with a bad headache, a bad back, a pain somewhere in our body or maybe we cannot sleep one night. What is going on? The symptom(s) continue and/or get worse and what tends to happen? - our moods and emotions get worse, they become negative, we become frustrated, angry or even a little depressed.

I hold all my tension in my neck and shoulders. I have been struggling with this for years. So much so that I have built a very elaborate story about why I experience this neck pain, tension and headaches. My story is that I have been in a lot of car accidents, I was into heavy weight lifting and injured myself quite a few times, so these injuries are catching up with me, I am getting older, etc, etc. All true - but all a story.

I have a very busy life and I am a high energy person. Many body workers have tried to help me with my neck tension and pain and I have come a long way, but it still can bring me to a complete halt sometimes.

I get told by people to stay calm, find ways to relax, de-stress, etc. I am a yoga teacher so I do practice relaxation breathing techniques and I do make sure I take time to relax.

I have had x-rays, I have seen doctors and many body workers and still this is a big problem for me.

What I have noticed is that when I am feeling uncomfortable - whether it be a headache, upset stomach, etc -the symptom leads me to feel (experience emotion) a certain way. Stress and tension builds up and makes things worse. I can feel it coming on. I try to just sit in the pain or discomfort and not judge it or fight against it. This works great sometimes but not always. When days go by and I STILL have my headache or uncomfortable symptom, my emotions get worse and the situation becomes worse.

I also believe that a symptom (sickness, pain, disease, tumor, etc) is trying to tell us something. We need to listen to our bodies and catch the small warning signs it is giving us. If we ignore these subtle nudges over and over again, they will become stronger and more prominent. Pretty soon something hits us with full force and we are knocked out of control and forced to deal with what we had been ignoring.

I believe that the emotion is first - then the symptom. But I also believe that the symptom itelf can cause the emotion. It really is hard to know what causes the other and I think both is true. An emotion can cause a symptom and a symptom causes an emotion which can make the symptom worse.

Ahh.....It really is a circle.

So if symptoms arrive to tell us something, are the symptoms we experience during perimenopause trying to tell us something?

Hmmmmm.....this may very well be true. I know that Dr Christiane Northrup who wrote the book "Wisdom of Menopause" definately believes so....

More on this in my next post.