The last few months have been incredibly challenging and gut wrenching. There has been multiple events through which every major past wound or pain has struck with a nuke-all at the same time. This has led to me be in a near constant state of emotional pain. At times I have found myself marveling at how much pain a human can endure and stay conscious.
Just like many of you, I have been through hard times before. Yet, in this season as I press into greater understanding of how God has made me as a Prophetic Feeler it is my contention that Feelers experience emotional pain on deeper level or greater scale than non-Feelers. Just as Prophetic Feelers experience other emotions and atmospheres at greater levels, they also can experience greater pain. In my pain now and in the past I have often questioned my sanity and grip on reality because of its intensity. I have wondered if I was just hyper-focusing on the emotional trouble or situation. I have pondered whether I was simply being overly dramatic and over-reacting to the pain I experienced and carried. Many friends and relatives have told me to just stop thinking about situations or hurtful words that have been spoken and that the pain would go away. Not true. Though it is helpful to pull my conscious thoughts towards Jesus and his thoughts for me, the pain does no go away. The pain is there even when I am not thinking about being in pain or the events which have caused it. I have woken in the middle of a deep slumber with stomach and chest pain right in the middle of my chest. In the moments before I am a fully awake I am confused why I am in such pain and try to remember what has caused such pain. I cannot help but suspect many of you fellow Feelers have experienced the same thing.
Last night when I woke to intense emotional pain and physical pain, I decided to research if there was any articles or studies done on the link between emotional and physical pain. I finally found the evidence I was looking for to explain my experience which causes my stomach to ache and the middle of my chest to hurt like I had been punched. There isn't a great amount of research or materials on the subject yet but the article by Robert Emery and Jim Coan, professors of psychology at the University of Virginia provides a remarkable insights into how emotional pain is processed by the brain and then manifested in the body.
The article titled "What causes chest pain when feelings are hurt?" A reader of Scientific America writes in to ask what causes chest pain when he experiences emotional pain. Their answer is quite helpful and significant to Feelers. Stress is part of pain and heart ache and can be attributed to some of the physical symptoms but not all. Emery and Coan assert that "emotional pain involves the same brain regions as physical pain, suggesting the two are inextricably connected". I will let you read the article for the details.
There is a second additional remarkable clue for Prophetic Feelers. The article takes it a step further and also discusses how recent studies show that experiencing emotional pain on behalf of others through empathy, can affect our physical pain perception as well. A study in 2006 was able to measure how even mice are affected by watching their cage mate in pain, is in turn more sensitive to physical pain in their own body. Then another study with humans was able to establish how small acts of kindness can reduce the experience of physical pain in the recipients of kindness. Prophetic Feeling cannot be solely contained or proven by science and measurements in the natural realm. Even still, there are two powerful principals that these studies have captured for human beings. The first is that emotional pain can manifest as physical pain with very good reason. It appears to be processed by the same part of your brain! Second, human empathy has a direct impact on physical (and likely) emotional pain levels in other people. Uniting the two discoveries it seems, possible for Prophetic Feelers to have heightened experiences of these two principals and thus may experience feel the emotional pain of others as physical pain in their own body. This has definitely been my experience. One day at work I had no choice but to ask a mother with two sweet babies to leave our property and head out into the night, with only a referral to another shelter. I was trying to carry on through the moment but the pain hit my stomach. In the privacy of the workroom I was doubled over with intense stomach pain.
I know that Jesus has more in the way of grace, or buffers or understanding so that I do not have to suffer as I do at times. I am confident that more help and revelation will come as I seek to walk this gift out. For now there is a measure of comfort in knowing that the physical pain I am feeling is not imagined but real. Thank you for reading.
There is a second additional remarkable clue for Prophetic Feelers. The article takes it a step further and also discusses how recent studies show that experiencing emotional pain on behalf of others through empathy, can affect our physical pain perception as well. A study in 2006 was able to measure how even mice are affected by watching their cage mate in pain, is in turn more sensitive to physical pain in their own body. Then another study with humans was able to establish how small acts of kindness can reduce the experience of physical pain in the recipients of kindness. Prophetic Feeling cannot be solely contained or proven by science and measurements in the natural realm. Even still, there are two powerful principals that these studies have captured for human beings. The first is that emotional pain can manifest as physical pain with very good reason. It appears to be processed by the same part of your brain! Second, human empathy has a direct impact on physical (and likely) emotional pain levels in other people. Uniting the two discoveries it seems, possible for Prophetic Feelers to have heightened experiences of these two principals and thus may experience feel the emotional pain of others as physical pain in their own body. This has definitely been my experience. One day at work I had no choice but to ask a mother with two sweet babies to leave our property and head out into the night, with only a referral to another shelter. I was trying to carry on through the moment but the pain hit my stomach. In the privacy of the workroom I was doubled over with intense stomach pain.
I know that Jesus has more in the way of grace, or buffers or understanding so that I do not have to suffer as I do at times. I am confident that more help and revelation will come as I seek to walk this gift out. For now there is a measure of comfort in knowing that the physical pain I am feeling is not imagined but real. Thank you for reading.
