Free The Body Doesn't Lie by Vicky Vlachonis

their body and reflect for a moment:
    Am I feeling anger or fear? Insecurity perhaps?
    Could it be that the bonus I was expecting never came?
    Does that make me feel inadequate?
    Does it leave me feeling scared about myself and my family’s future?
    Does it leave me feeling out of control?
    Neck pain and upper back symptoms tend to occur in people who suffer with present-day problems. Their emotions are typically centered on current worries and anxieties, which together have a compounding effect that ultimately triggers the physical symptoms. One emotion leads to another and then another, and the emotional pain and fear accelerate until they become overwhelming and finally manifest as physical distress. In addition to upper back pain, these people may have neck pain, sinus trouble, headaches, panic, flaky nails, and hair loss.
    Do any of these symptoms resonate with you? If so, think about your situation. Sometimes these upper back issues stem from having endured something like a car accident and whiplash, and of course such things have to be investigated. More often, though, the pain arises from feeling unsettled, scared, or even panicked about life. Does that sound like you? Perhaps your mouth guard is your best friend—without it, you might clench your teeth so hard that you’d fracture them. Fear of financial loss may consume your thoughts; you may find that you can’t have sex with your partner because you’re thinking, “How are we going to pay the bills?” The stress of the present situation may be standing in your way of enjoying life.
    My number-one piece of advice to people with upper back and neck pain is always radical stress relief and parasympathetic rehab. You need to improve your body’s response to stress, and the only way to do that is deep relaxation and self-care—a lesson that my patient Adam finally learned for himself.
    When I first met Adam, he’d just come from a breakfast meeting, and he was scheduled for an international conference call in ninety minutes. I had come to treat him in his office due to his busy schedule.
    “Let’s just focus on my shoulders,” he said, his eyes on his iPhone as he did a final scan of his e-mail. “I’m really tight right now.”
    Tight would be an understatement: His shoulders were completely seized up, and as my hands worked over his upper back, I found several clumps of accumulated tension—what felt like years of blocked bloodflow in his tissues. “How long has it been since you’ve had a massage, Adam?” I asked as I gently removed his Bluetooth device from his ear and reached for my acupuncture needles.
    “About two days,” he said.
    I was grateful that his eyes were closed so he didn’t see my jaw drop open. Turns out that Adam had a steady rotation of massage therapists, physical trainers, executive coaches, nutritionists, chefs, and doctors coming through his office. A whole army of professionals constantly circling, on call to help him manage his stress level! At forty-seven, he’d recently been given a stern warning by his cardiologist that his blood pressure and cholesterol were dangerously high. His dentist had told him that he might have to get crowns because his back teeth were being damaged by all the tension in his jaw. Despite his legion of caretakers, Adam still hadn’t enlisted the help of the one person who could make a real difference in his health: himself.
    When I inserted the needles, I could see from the way they reacted that some of that upper back pain and neck pain was also masking referred pain from his heart. Working twenty-four/seven, always pursuing the next big deal, Adam told himself he thrived on the “rush” of business—but I’d seen enough adrenaline junkies to know when the rush had become an unhealthy addiction and was headed for a crash. That was Adam in a nutshell.
    At the end of the session, Adam grabbed his phone and started scanning his messages. Without looking up, he said, “Vicky, I feel