Back Pain and the Issue of Being “Not Good Enough”

The process of uncovering the connection between physical pain and possible emotional contributors to the pain excites me. As a Holistic Wellness Counselor/EFT Practitioner, it continues to fascinate me to see how interwoven the two are.

This doesn’t diminish or take away from the validity or truth of our physical ailments. But rather, what’s important in our journey to healing is to discover how our emotional issues can fuel the pain and hold us back from healing.

I had a client, a fellow in his late twenties, come to me for back pain. He’d read about EFT and wanted to give it a try for the pain. He explained to me how he exercises, works out regularly, has tried physical therapy, acupuncture, sees a chiropractor every week, and yet he still has back pain. His MRIs showed nothing to account for the amount of pain he suffers. He’s driven himself mercifully trying to get rid of this pain.

We started off by tapping on the physical pain and frustration:

Even though I have this problem; I’ve had it for years—this back pain that doesn’t go away, even after trying everything to heal it. I’m discouraged and frustrated by this lack of healing.

I’m angry about it. It depresses me. After all this effort, it should be better! It doesn’t feel fair. I feel cheated. I should be better and stronger. I’ve worked so hard at trying to get rid of this back pain.

My back pain should be gone—it’s not fair. But despite this back pain I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

We tapped on each of the sequence points, saying “this back pain, which won’t heal” and “I’m discouraged and angry”

As we talked and tapped we discovered that the first time he had back pain was as a young teen, when he started vigorously lifting weights to build himself up. He was always the skinny kid and tired of being teased. So, he engaged in dangerously aggressive physical workouts in an attempt to improve his body

We explored and tapped on being not good enough, not built up enough, being too skinny, and all of those related issues.

We next uncovered that his mother didn’t think he was good enough and told him he wouldn’t amount to anything. So we tapped on a few specific events dealing with his mother.

As we continued to tap on all of these specific events ("table legs”), slowly the issue of not being good enough and not looking good enough started to collapse. As the table legs (events) started to collapse, he noticed his back pain starting to diminish. This didn’t happen after one session, but after about a half dozen sessions.

Equally important, he started to feel lighter, more tolerant, and accepting, and more relaxed about life in general. He noticed these shifts even before his back pain started to improve! He said he no longer felt quite so critical of himself or others.

We always finished our sessions with a round of sequence point tapping and some positive affirmations. Since we’d cleared his energy system of disruptions from negative feelings, we wanted to reprogram his subconscious with positive replacement thoughts such as these.

I am on a wonderful journey towards complete healing
I look good and I feel good
My back is strong and healthy
I let go of the need to be perfect
I accept myself the way I am
I heal easily and fully
My back is strong and flexible and feels good today
Everyday I am learning to appreciate myself more
I am choosing to enjoy life
I’m choosing to be happy and to accept myself

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Jessie Wyatt
www.holisticallyyours.org