Spiritual pain is a self-identified experience of personal discomfort, or actual or potential harm, triggered by a threat to a person's relationship with God or a higher power.
Meaning – struggling with the “meaning” behind life, relationships, and the world around you. Forgiveness – pain that stems from forgiving others, ourselves and God. Relatedness – dealing with relationships, whether good or bad. Hope – feeling like there is no hope or it doesn't exist.
For your emotional pain, forgive, forget and re-engage. For your spiritual pain, reach out to the Creator or to the virtue you find most ennobling, and silently let that power into your heart and soul.
Emotional trauma can last from a few days to a few months.
Some people will recover from emotional trauma after days or weeks, while others may experience more long-term effects.
Emotional healing is possible
But, its true, not everyone returns to emotional health. Some people continue to experience deep emotional pain, repeat unhealthy behaviors and relationships, and struggle with negative, distorted thoughts.
Take time to slow down and be alone, get out into nature, make art, listen to music while you cook your favorite dinner, meditate to cleanse your mind and relax your body, take a bubble bath or a nap to restore.
Lent in the Christian tradition is a time of sacrifice and penance. It also is a period of purification and enlightenment. Pain purifies. It atones for sin and cleanses the soul.
We need to embrace the body-mind-soul aspect of the pain (metaphysical). The back represents our support system, so problems with our back usually mean we feel we are not being supported. It is also linked with finance, the lack of money, fear of not having enough, fear of material loss, the fear of your own survival.
Our souls long for freedom, and oppression pains our souls. Our souls are meant for love, and animosity and hatred pains our souls. Our souls are meant to be treated with reverence and care, and callousness pains our souls. When our soul doesn't get what it needs, we feel pain.
Pain is an alarm signal that occurs when the body is in danger. Think of it as protection from harm.
If you have joint pain, you may use body positions that are less painful to your joints. However, these positions can put extra stress on your joints and muscles. This can lead to fatigue. The physical and emotional energy you use trying to deal with pain can make you feel fatigued.
Ever since people's responses to overwhelming experiences have been systematically explored, researchers have noted that a trauma is stored in somatic memory and expressed as changes in the biological stress response.
Emotional information is stored through “packages” in our organs, tissues, skin, and muscles. These “packages” allow the emotional information to stay in our body parts until we can “release” it. Negative emotions in particular have a long-lasting effect on the body.
Two key areas of the brain are activated by shame: the prefrontal cortex and the posterior insula. The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain associated with moral reasoning. This is where judgements about the self occur. The posterior insula is the part of the brain that engages visceral sensations in the body.
Researchers have established that crying releases oxytocin and endogenous opioids, also known as endorphins. These feel-good chemicals help ease both physical and emotional pain.
If you're feeling life is painful at the moment, it's highly advisable that you reach out to a mental health professional, or contact a crisis line and similar resources. Once you've reached out, you may also want to try some of these techniques to help you find relief from your emotional pain.
Awareness: The first step in emotional healing is becoming aware of the emotional pain and trauma that needs healing. This involves recognizing the feelings and behaviors that are causing distress and identifying the source of the trauma.