Heartache Medicine
We have all been hurt at many different times in our lives, and we have all experienced heartache and thought, “Man, I wish there was a pill I could take to make the pain go away”
Well, come to find out, there is, and it is something you likely have at home already.
Most of the time I am writing, I am writing about the mind-body connection whereby the mind is in headquarters of the body. Control the mind…control the body. However, that is not always the case, and in a lot of circumstances, the body also influences the mind in ways that we often overlook.
We have all heard that smiling can lighten your mood just by physically forcing your mouth to smile (even when there is nothing to smile about) Hint: There is always something to smile about 🙂
We also know how important posture is as a reflection of how you are feeling, but this can be reverse-engineered. Change your posture, change your feeling. Our body has a much larger influence over our brains and moods than we assume.
For decades, scientists have been aware of how physical pain (like a needle prick) activates the neural circuits that make us feel the pain. Since our brains are constantly trying to be as efficient as possible we don’t have two separate areas for recording physical vs emotional pain.
Our brains simply dont have the size or bandwidth for it, so they both register in the same area.
That area is the neural pain matrix (specifically the insula and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)). This area is activated by both physical and emotional pain.
Because our brains don’t always make a clear distinction between physical and emotional pain we can literally use the same ways to mitigate the pain of a headache as we would a heartache.
A daily dose of Tylenol can diminish the pain of emotional hurts.
Yes, I am saying that when feeling heartache or rejection, Tylenol does the job. (So do aspirin and ibuprofen.) This is because it reduces the sensitivity of the neural circuits involved in pain. (the ACC mentioned above)
Disclaimer: I recognize that, by nature, heartache takes longer to get over than a headache. So never use more Tylenol than is recommended, or for an extended period of time. Also, Tylenol will not cure your emotional pain entirely. For that reason, I recommend coaching, therapy, or counseling. However, it is safe way in which you can take the edge off in the short term.
If this doesn’t help, or if you are dealing with long-term feelings of resentment and emotional pain, I am here to listen. Click on my links below and I would love to help you.
