Stress affects different individuals in various ways. For example, when you see a police car and you are speeding on the freeway, does your heart rate speed up? Can you imagine staying calm and not having this type of biological reaction when seeing a police car? In the long term, it could be better for your health to stay relaxed in more life situations.

Pain can be a manifestation of stress, and sometimes can be resolved by resolving stressful issues. An anecdotal example: a personal friend of mine, who introduced me to the work of John Sarno, developed chronic back pain that persisted through many types of physical therapy and medicinal regimens. By reading Sarno’s works and applying his techniques of writing down the aspects of her life that caused her stress and seeking to minimize or avert them, she was able to free herself from chronic back pain. Sarno’s approach is not intended to offer a one-size-fits-all solution for every patient with chronic back or body pain. If, however, your pain is caused by emotional stress, the best way to eliminate your pain may be to eliminate or manage the emotional stress causing your pain. The bottom line is that if you are experiencing pain, it may not be due to your physical environment or work habits. The root cause of your pain may be your reaction to emotional stress.  You’ll want to keep that in mind when doing your root cause analysis.

Mental stress can manifest itself in physical pain.

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