The Root of Pain

I was listening to the radio yesterday and the man hosting the show was speaking about traffic and how we never seem to be able to fix traffic problems. He argued that when we do have traffic problems we "temporarily" fix the problems by building new roads, new highways, and toll roads and so on.... He then went on to say that this doesn't really fix the underlying problem because after a while more people we move in (hey....the town has no traffic problems now, you would love it here!) and the cycle will ultimately repeats itself. He concluded by saying that the current condition of the roads and transportation system is not the problem, the root of the problem is that more people keep coming in,.....I suppose its a cultural thing?

The point he made was a valid one. And one I think we can all benefit in learning from. I immediately began to associate his philosophy to finding "the root of the problem" to how it relates to "the root of pain." At the clinic we work in we see many many people who are just now beginning to see and understand the root of their problem. Just as in the traffic example where a town/city attempts to resolve its problem with quick fixes, our culture and our mindset towards healing has been doing the same thing.

I think much of it has to do with where we go for answers when we have pain. Our culture has been telling us that when we do have pain we should immediatley seek out"pain medication." And don't get me wrong....there are many many times when we do need the medication to help us get through painful times. Afterall this will no doubt get us out of pain, which we deserve, but did we get rid of the underlying problem? Not always.....and quite honestly....it's sad. Very often in fact the root of our problems with pain comes from the stresses the culture has put on us. Most of us sit all day at our jobs, our muscles are becoming imbalanced, we create tensions that begin to pull on our once symmetrically balanced anatomical postures and turn it into a display prepared for a breakdown. So...it's very possible that while on medication we do not feel the pain and all is well....we go on our merry way. We go back to our jobs sitting the same way, moving the same way and things seem great!

This type of approach to fixing the problem was seen in the traffic example and as we know...only more problems will come. If the root of the problem is not addressed then the problem will grow at an exponential rate, perhaps even to the point that one day surgury will in fact be required. This is an extremely unfortunate thing because the body could have healed itself earlier, the habits could have changed, the weight of the world didn't have to come down the way it did. While working in hospitals I was lucky to be able to work with amazing patients who unfortunately had an amazing amount of pain....I wish we could have gotten to them sooner, we shouldn't have to go through this.

The point to be made here is one of redirection. Where are you going when you have pain and what are you really aiming to resolve? Is it ultimately in the best interest of the long term? What is your body telling you? Do your habits contribute to this pain? Are your methods just giving you a tempory fix? Is that what you want?

Addressing our pain is very much like that of the traffic problem. We could build more roads and yes...for a while things will be moving again, we won't feel all this pain that has been brought on by the culture that was moving in. But sooner or later more of our culture, bad habits and yes....more pain will come rushing back in, history will in fact repeat itself and we are left with blaming the system and complaining about this terrible problem.