Translating your bodies signals...

Hi. How are you today?

The answer to this common greeting is an aggravation for anyone who can't honestly answer "fine." How do you sift through the complicated state of body and mind to come up with a suitable short phrase? Translating body signals and communicating about pain is challenging-whether you are in conversation with your next door neighbor or physical therapist.

Pain has a language all its own. It doesn't speak English or Spanish or Japanese. It cares little about scales of one to 10. The mind is linear and likes information in a systematic format, like A, B, C and 1, 2, 3. The body is a poet. It speaks in symbols, metaphors and stories.

The mind needs a translation guide to find the right words so it can communicate about what's going on in your body. The more your mind and body understand each other, the more you'll be able to pass this information on to others.

The first step is to for the mind to stop and listen so your body has a chance to "speak." Whether or not you write down your sensations or keep a pain journal, taking a few minutes a day to "hear" your body will usually give you valuable information and may even decrease pain. After all, it won't need to yell so loud if someone is listening.

As an exercise, sit quietly, scan your body, and notice the sensations you feel. When one sensation draws your attention, follow it for a few minutes. Does it have a color or shape? Is it dense or diffuse? When you pay attention to it, does it trigger thoughts or memories? Stay with the experience and notice how the process of paying attention creates change. Also notice if you get a clear message of what this place needs.

With practice, the mind will be able to interpret the messages of the body into something that makes some semblance of sense. For example, your headache might start as a sharp, red, pointed pain behind the right eye that spreads into an orange/brown cloud over the top of the skull.

When asked how you are, your mind can interpret and give a response as appropriate. For example:

To a co-worker: "I have a bit of a headache."

To your kids: "It's like a spike in my eye and a cloud over my head." (Children understand the poetry of the body more than most people.)

To your healthcare provider: "The pain in my head seems to start behind my right eye and is connected to a fuzzy type of feeling over my skull." This is more informative than, "I have a headache that's worse today than yesterday," as sensations can describe trigger points or muscle tension.

Following sensations also gives you the opportunity to notice places that aren't in pain. Your low back might hurt, but your legs might feel strong. Staying in touch with good sensations gives you access to forgotten resources.

Since the mind and body are speaking different languages, it will take some practice to interpret complex messages. It doesn't always have to make logical sense. Here's an example. When I was working on the side torso muscles of a client, I asked her how it felt. She answered, "It makes me want to throw up and laugh at the same time." That sure doesn't fit on a scale of 1 to 10, but it directed me to a source of the restriction-her diaphragm and abdomen, which are both involved in laughing and vomiting. We were able to follow her body's clues to the area that needed release.

"The more you work on your mind-body communication, the more you will tap into your body's intelligence and intuition."
The more you work on your mind-body communication, the more you will tap into your body's intelligence and intuition. When deciding whether to go for a long walk with friends, your body may respond with a feeling of sluggishness. With a few minutes of attention, you can determine if your body needs more energy from some breathing exercises (like lifting your arms overhead as you inhale) or if you are better off taking a short or leisurely walk instead.

Over time, your body intelligence and mental intelligence will develop a working relationship to handle even challenging requests. For example, if a personal trainer asks you to do 10 reps with eight pounds, you'll know if that's too much (or not) and can reply with confidence. Even better, you will know what you can handle, 10 reps with five pounds, five reps with eight pounds, or some other combination.

Most importantly, learning to translate the message of your symptoms will correct the errors that come from miscommunication. Your body isn't lazy or defective or unreasonable. It is undergoing complex processes that can't always be broken down into A, B, C and 1, 2, 3.

If you don't usually feel "fine," maybe that's because that word isn't in your body's language. You may be "molto bene," "штрафа" or feeling like a crab crawling across the sand. The world could use a little more poetry, and the people you meet might appreciate a different answer than the commonplace, "I'm okay.".