AN INTERVIEWWITH VICKY VLACHONIS Excerpted from The Body Doesn’t


Lie: A 3-Step Program to End Chronic Pain and Become Positively Radiant. Copyright © 2014 by Vasiliki Vlachonis. Published by HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.


Pain is good. It might be surprising to hear an


osteopath, a healer whose mission it is to relieve pain, say such a thing. But I believe that pain is a messenger and one of our most powerful teachers. Pain is opportunity. Pain is


pathogen, your body releases a flood of cytokines. These natural chemicals bring immune cells to the site of the pain and trigger your inflammatory response, drawing fluid from the blood vessels to cause swelling. White blood cells zoom to the area to help speed healing. Overall, a very efficient and smart system. Our bodies are truly miraculous that way. Of course, this protective response


potential. Pain is a signal, a warning from the


body that something is not quite right. You might think you got that kink in your neck from the car accident you were involved in last year, or the slow burn in your lower back from sitting all day in front of the computer. But if you look into that pain, truly see it, you will slowly uncover something even bigger: the truth about your life, your relation- ships, your work, your state of mind. You see, the body doesn’t lie. Your body is talking to you. Those


aches and pains you feel are often the outer signals of inner pains you’re not addressing. All pain, every single kind, is both physical and emotional. And all pain, when you learn how to face it, understand it, and let it go, can help clear your path to a better life. While Eastern medicine has tapped


into the mind- body connection for thousands of years, recently Western experts have proven that the mind and body are not just “connected”— they are one and the same. Scientists at the University of Michigan did functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans on the brains of 40 people and found that, whether people were burned by hot water or looked at photos of peo- ple who’d broken up with them, their brains showed an identical pattern: Two parts of the brain — the secondary somatosensory cortex and the dorsal posterior insula — registered physical pain. The exact same brain patterns occurred whether the test subjects felt a burn against their skin or felt emotional pain— the brain simply did not know the difference. For decades, osteopaths and other


medical professionals have noticed that people who suffer major traumas become more likely to develop chronic pain and inflammatory conditions such as fibromyalgia. Many of these pains are the result of a good process gone bad: When you experience an acute injury to your tissues, caused by an acci- dent or a trauma, or by an invading


against foreign invaders is meant to pro- tect your body, not hurt it. But if those cytokines are triggered too often— whether through stress, a poor- quality diet, undiagnosed food sensitivities, not enough sleep, or, yes, even emotional trauma—the inflammation can become chronic. This chronic inflammation is thought to play a key role in, if not be the root source of, many dangerous con- ditions, including heart disease, dia- betes, cancer, and even autoimmune conditions. If you don’t slow down to take care of yourself, don’t take the time to fully process and release trauma, the pain that started long ago from a broken leg or a minor infection may linger for years, age your body, damage your genes, prevent you from taking pleasure in things you once loved to do— and possibly even shorten your life. As scary as that sounds, you have


another alternative— and it’s the only way to permanently release any kind of pain: You must turn and face your pain, seek to understand it, and then learn to let it go. Turn and Face Your Pain I have seen a pattern inmy practice:


Many people recognize their physical pain and have no problem asking for help. They’ll seek relief with a massage, an adjustment, some reflexology, a cra- nial sacral release, or a nice strong pill. But if they’re experiencing emotional pain, not only do they refuse help, they resist even really feeling the pain— resist it with all their might. Is this you? Maybe you’re mourn-


ing the loss of a job or a close friend, but do it behind closed doors, never sharing the depth of your pain with others. Maybe you’ve endured and denied the agony of a bad relationship for years, even decades. Maybe you regret a missed opportunity, or you do anything to avoid feeling afraid or lonely: Must check my iPhone for e- mail rather than be bored for one second and risk feeling the pain of sitting at this table alone. You may want to stuff down that


anger and resentment of your boss, feed those feelings of loneliness and bore- dom, block out that fear of the future— but the whole world that you’re carrying on your shoulders, that pain and fear


that you’re running from, that you’re trying so hard to ignore, will find a way to bubble up, one way or another.And if you’re not ready to acknowledge the pain of your anger or face your fear head- on, it finds a physical way out— via a shoulder injury or lower backache or a pain in the neck (literally!). • Consider the ways you might be


hiding from your pain: • Do you eat your emotions? • Do you drown them in drink? • Do you spend all day working,


working, working— never taking time to take care of yourself or your body, to rest and replenish? • Do you spend the night awake,


staring at the ceiling — and then use caffeine to get through the next day? • Do you use your phone as a shield


from the world — constantly checking e- mail, Facebook, Twitter? Does the phone feel like a crutch? An addiction? A lifeline? • Do you stay away from the gym


or the yoga class, blaming your bad back or your injured shoulder — when you know that movement and exercise are exactly what you need? • Do you feel shame about your


body and hide yourself inside, away from the sun and the fresh air? • Do you deny yourself the joy and


pleasure of being alive—though you’re not sure why? If so, I understand. Trying to pro-


tect yourself from feeling pain makes perfect logical sense.After all, who real- ly wants to feel chronic muscle or joint pain, let alone the soul-rending pain of regret or heartbreak? We use our little habits and addictions — overeating, overdrinking, overworking—like com- forting Band- Aids on our adult boo- boos. These diversionsmay notmake us heal faster, but they give us comfort, temporarily. The problem is, when we continue to rely upon unhealthy Band- Aids to triage ever worsening emotional wounds, we tend to end up with a lot of Band-Aids. Those unhealthy diversions — smoking, drinking, eating health- eroding food, avoiding social contact— startmultiplying and just end upmaking you feel worse. You haven’t dealt with the core source of pain; all you’ve done is add a dozen other sources of pain on top of it! In order to live a life of health and


vitality, you need to face your pain—all of it—and toss that Band-Aidmentality. You don’t need a quick fix. You need and deserve true healing, from your nagging headache down to the bottom of your soul. And you can start right now. www.vickyvlachonis.com


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