Joanne Smith's neck pain from an old roller-skating injury came roaring back after her father died. She realized her body was expressing grief physically because her mind couldn't handle the emotional weight directly. Her advice: move anyway, research what's happening, decide if the pain still matters, and commit to healing without obsessing.
An example was I'd, I didn't— I had an injury where I'd fallen on my roller skates and really badly hurt this here. And, and then literally when my dad died, I only connected this after the event when I learned about mind-body symptoms, because I had a couple of weeks where I had the most— this pain came back really, really, really achy. It was so painful and it came back just after I lost my dad. And I can remember like constantly thinking, oh my gosh, that is aching so much. And then years, well, ages down the line when I had this insight, when I went back to the place that I'd fallen on the skates and I was like, oh wow, that was a mind-body symptom because the emotional pain of losing my dad. Was clearly coming across as more dangerous to me than my brain cleverly, because it couldn't give me neck pain, it couldn't get— because I already had all of that going on, it wouldn't have worked. So it cleverly protected me with this. It's so incredible how it works. So I encourage you to move despite it. Expect it to go well. Do your research, get the clarity, make a decision. Does this— well, make the decision, is this relevant to me? And stick with it and don't get carried away.
