In order to avoid connecting to buried feelings or other difficult truths, you might find yourself finding seemingly valid explanations for your pain that stop you from being open to further exploration. For example, you may try to come up with physical reasons for you pain, such as “it’s because I was sitting the wrong way” or “I overdid it” or “it’s the weather”, and then stop being curious about other components to the pain. Or you may stay stuck in only looking for specific physical injuries or diagnoses that may be causing your pain.

This is a tricky one, because the reasons you come up with may very well relate to your pain, so it can be tempting to believe them and stop further exploration. But if you come to this conclusion too quickly, without taking the time to explore possible non-physical contributors to your pain, you may sell yourself short and miss something important that is actually contributing to or even at the root of your pain.

So this doesn’t mean there aren’t actual physical things going on in your body, or that there aren’t things you’re doing that might be contributing to your pain. It’s about being open to other factors that might also be involved, and being open and curious to knowing ALL there is to know about your pain and your body.