“All of Western medicine is built on getting rid of pain, which is not the same as healing. Healing is actually the capacity to hold pain.”— Dr Gabor Maté.

In this episode, we step into a radically different relationship with pain.

Instead of asking “what’s wrong with me and how do I get rid of this as fast as possible,” we explore a deeper and more healing question:“How can I emotionally hold myself through this?”

We live in a world that rushes to eliminate discomfort, but when we don’t listen to what pain is trying to communicate, it doesn’t disappear. It amplifies, it repeats and it eventually speaks louder through the body, the nervous system and sometimes even illness or diagnosis.

This conversation opens the doorway into capacity. The capacity to feel, to stay present and to allow emotions to move through rather than be suppressed or avoided.

Insights are shared from a World War II observation involving saline being used in place of morphine, where soldiers still reported reduced pain. It raises a fascinating question about the relationship between perception, safety and the experience of pain itself.

We also explore how childhood conditioning shapes our nervous system responses to pain based on what we witnessed growing up. The way pain was handled around us becomes the way we instinctively try to handle it within ourselves.

I also share a process I use with clients to release the emotional charge behind physical or emotional pain. Not by forcing it away, but by first acknowledging it, feeling it and then allowing it to be gently released with understanding and gratitude for what it has taught us.

Pain is not just something to escape. It can be a doorway into deeper wisdom, regulation and self-trust when we have the capacity to stay with it.

Connect with me here: https://linktr.ee/annavanechten

Disclaimer: This episode is not medical advice, use your discernment when listening, take what resonates and leave what doesn't.