Do you have a hard time going up or down stairs? Would you be more active if it weren't for that ole' bum knee that keeps acting up? The knee is commonly injured in sports, and perhaps you're familiar with ACL tears. Well, today we're taking a different approach to knee injuries and knee pain. We're going to dive into the underlying emotional factors that contribute to knee pain.
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If you have knee pain, you know how difficult daily activities can be. Trying to get up a flight of stairs in a knee brace and with crutches is no simple feat! Or perhaps you've got some chronic knee pain from an old injury, or you fell on the ice over the winter and banged your knee. Whatever the case, there are common underlying issues that connect all of these knee problems.
Watch the video, or read on!
Feelings are behind the physical pain
Remember that your physical pains or other symptoms that you have in your body are simply your body's way of communicating with you and trying to tell you what's going on. It's a sign that there is something out of balance from within.
When we look for these underlying beliefs, thoughts or emotions that might be contributing to these symptoms we're having, we're not actually trying to heal something. We're trying to release a blockage so that the body can heal itself.
The body is meant to be healthy and vibrant all the time. And so we just have to release those things that are getting in the way of the body doing what it naturally does best.
The particular thoughts and feelings that contribute to the knee problems that you might be having are not necessarily ones that you're consciously aware of.
They may be things that you've only experienced once, or multiple times in the past, or it might even be something that is a habit, a way of being that infuses your daily life.
Sometimes the pain that we have is caused by emotions that we have absorbed or taken on from other people. Especially if we don't have good boundaries, we tend to take on on things from other people.
This also happens a lot when we're children, because we haven't yet set up those boundaries. And we have these very close relationships with our family members. So it's very common to take on emotions from other people in the household that you grew up in.
I once treated a woman who was having trouble driving her manual car because of pain in her knee. There was just one trapped emotion that was causing that pain, and it was something she had absorbed from a family member years prior. We released that trapped emotion, and she was able to drive her car without knee pain.
It's also important to remember as you think about the possible causes of the pain that you're having in your knee, or whatever symptoms they may be, you are going to have to do some pondering to figure out if these things are true for you. You need to see what your body in particular is telling you.
And again, realize that you might not be consciously aware of having these feelings. You might have to do a little digging to see where these feelings have come from.
Possible feelings causing your knee pain
Okay, so if you have any sort of pain or injury or symptoms in your knees, what could that possibly mean from an underlying emotional standpoint?
Inflexibility, inability to bend, stubborn
Think for a moment about the things your knees allow you to do on a day to day basis. Walking, running, squatting, climbing stairs, sitting - all of these things require the knees to be flexible. The knees must be able to bend, and to not resist that bending.
Take a look at your feelings and though patterns. Do you have an awareness of being inflexible in some way? Not wanting to bend, not wanting to give way to someone else's point of view?
Injuries to the knees are very often about some variation of being inflexible, not wanting to bend, and oftentimes that's to authority. If you think of genuflecting, or taking a knee. That's done as a sign of respect and often denotes humility or humbleness of the part of the person who is genuflecting.
What person in authority, or what aspect of authority, do you know what to bend to, or to give in to?
Going along with being inflexible and not being willing to bend is stubbornness. Being stubborn has to do with our pride or our ego. We don't want to have to let somebody else be right, if we're being stubborn.
Left knee or right knee pain?
There are two other questions to consider when considering what is true for you. The first is, which knee is painful, the left or the right?
The left side is the feminine, the right side is the masculine.
For the majority of people, the left side of the body represents the feminine nature, the female, women, the mother, the idea of taking in, and of protecting. The right side of the body represents the masculine nature, the male, men, the father, the idea of giving and of letting go, and of fighting.
If you're left-handed, the left and right might be reversed. Again, you'll need to do some pondering for yourself to see if this is true if you're a lefty (like I am!).
Now, there's also another aspect of this left side/right side concept. If it is the same side of the body as your gender, it may be about someone else of that gender, but it also may be an issue about yourself.
For example, maybe you're a female and it's your left knee. Well, the left knee is normally associated with the feminine, with women, and with the mother.
So does this issue of inflexibility in the left knee have to do with women in general, all women, does it have to do with something specific with your mother or maybe a grandmother, or does it have to do with you as the female?
The same, of course, would be true for the masculine if it was your right side. So take some time to go through these things and figure out what resonates from you. Have a little conversation with your body and see what comes up for you.
The second question to consider is, what was happening in your life at the time of the initial injury?
Try to remember what other events might have been going on. What kind of stressors or experiences were you encountering at home, at work, at school, or in any of your significant relationships?
All of these things will give you some clues as to your particular symptoms that you are experiencing and what your body is saying to you.
Is the injury or pain acute or chronic? Was it a one-time issue or does it keep coming back? Look for patterns in the symptoms that you're having.
Tune in and allow the answers to come, then let it go!
Find a quiet spot, meditate, and journal about these things. Listen to what comes up and notice any feelings that arise. Ask yourself, for example, is this about inflexibility with myself? Stubbornness related to my dad?
Be willing to let whatever needs to come to you come to you. If you find that you're feeling resistance to what I'm offering, then it means that you're probably just not ready yet to experience and explore this particular issue in your life. And that's okay. Everything will come to you in time when you are ready to allow yourself and ready to have that healing and learn that lesson associated with this knee pain.
Now that you've done that process, of course, you want to release it and let it go so your body can have healing from this.
If you'd like help to identify and release the specific feelings and beliefs, book a healing session with me.
The idea is to acknowledge and recognize whatever it is that is coming up at this time. Allow yourself to feel and experience whatever you are feeling. If you need to give it a name to identify it. You may or may not need to do that.
The next part of the process is to choose to let it go and then to replace it with something else. Anytime we do any healing, and when we release an emotion that we don't want anymore, we want to replace it with something else that we feel is more positive. If nothing specific comes to you simply replace it with the idea of being flexible, or of allowing things, or of being healthy or being full of love.
Otherwise, see if you can find a specific affirmation or a new thought pattern to replace whatever one you've let go of. And then just repeat that to yourself a few times while you're going through this process, and then use that affirmation for the next few days or weeks, however long you may be feel as necessary until you've accepted this new belief into your life.
And again, remember anytime you find any resistance to any part of this process, it means that you're just not quite ready to go there yet. And that's completely okay. Healing is not something that we do in an instant. It's something that takes time. It takes patience, and it takes a lot of compassion and love for ourselves as we go through the process.
Find healing for your knee pain by expressing your emotions
- Ask yourself questions related to being inflexible, unwilling to bend, or stubborn. See where in your life, either in the past or in the present, these things have come up.
- See if you can determine if the issues specific to the left or right side of the body apply for you, and if the female or male aspect is about you or someone else in your life.
- Allow whatever comes up to surface, and let it go. Forgive it! Replace it with a positive feeling or belief that resonates with what you desire instead.
What did you discover about the feelings, beliefs or experiences underlying your knee pain?
Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.