The Mind-Body Connection

Woman with a Migraine Headache

"The issues are in the tissues." This is what I tell my clients who are struggling from emotional stress. They come in with back pain, migraines, trigger points and neck cramps that linger, worsen, and flare up with emotional stress. Many ask me "what's wrong" because there seems to be no pathological root to their pain. And that's just it: the cause is not always physical.

Our relationship to pain is emotional and psychological. It is the mind-body connection. You and I can have the same injury (let's use a paper cut, for example) and yet, we will each have very different relationships with that experience. I may dwell on "why did it happen?", "It hurts so much when I touch it!", "When will it go away?", and you may hardly notice the injury.

This is quite different than saying "it's all in your head". There is definitely a link.

In 1977, American psychiatrist George L. Engel elaborated on this idea theorizing what he called the biopsychosocial model, which posits that the biological, psychological (thoughts, emotions and behaviors) and social factors contribute to human functioning within the context of disease or illness. In studying his patients, Engel realized that many ailments were the direct result of emotional turmoil or negative thinking. Conversely, when people feel good and have a positive outlook on life, they are also in stronger health.

More and more people are turning to alternative medicine these days as they realize the immense power behind the mind-body connection. The mind-body connection means that your mind and body are inextricably connected and play an integrated role in overall health. Emotional suffering can lead to pain and sickness just as pain and sickness can lead to emotional suffering.

I've seen countless patients, both men and women, who come to see me after a traumatic event, serious life change or months of growing stress and are amazed that their pain is directly tied to their emotional state. Yet the mind-body connection is at the essence of human health, and has been recognized for ages. Take this ancient Kurdish folk saying:

• The root of all health is in the brain.
• The trunk of it is in emotion.
• The branches and leaves are the body.
• The flower of health blooms
• when all parts work together.

The good thing about the mind-body connection is that it's something you can control. Being aware of your emotional health, tapping into your feelings and releasing these feelings in a healthy way will keep negative energy from becoming "trapped" in the body, and then manifesting in illness or pain. Massage therapy is one of the best ways out there to release this toxic energy.

The connection between mind and body becomes astonishingly clear when practicing therapeutic massage. It's not uncommon that a client will become emotional when I'm massaging a particular area, even to the point of crying. This is clearly indicative of trapped energy. Once the emotion is released, the area of pain melts away. It's truly a miraculous thing to witness.

One young woman came to me with lingering hip pain. She had sustained a minor running injury during the same week that her mother suffered a paralyzing accident. This young woman spent sleepless nights in the intensive care unit of the hospital by her mother's side, followed by three months of physically and emotionally grueling recovery.

The accident, which left her mother paralyzed from the neck down, was deeply traumatizing for this woman and because she had sustained her own injury during this emotionally draining and stressful time, the area was never able to fully heal. Months later she began talking about the emotional toll her mother's accident was taking on her while I massaged the painful area. She suddenly began crying, releasing what was more than three months of trapped emotion. Almost as if in a wave, the tight muscles released and her trigger points melted away. 

This is just one example of many that I have seen in my practice. The mind-body connection is truly a powerful one. Yet its beauty is that you can use your thoughts to positively influence your body's physical response, no matter how much pain you may be in. This is why therapeutic massage, which relaxes the mind as well as the body, is so effective. And it is one of the most rewarding aspects of my work.

Yours In Good Health,

Eugene Wood
Licensed Massage Therapist
NYC-Massage.com