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Are emotions causing you physical pain?

Vero Beach Newsweekly - 4/12/2017

According to Dr. Susanne Babbel, a psychologist specializing in trauma and depression, writing in Psychology Today, "Studies have shown that chronic pain might not only be caused by physical injury, but also by stress and emotional issues."

The dictionary has even attributed such a condition a name, somaticize, meaning, "to convert anxiety into physical symptoms."

We've often heard people comment that an individual has said, or done something, which has disturbed them mentally. They might comment that they are greatly "pained" by them. This pain is not physical but mental, and it is stilled when the sufferer changes his thought about the incident and those associated with it.

According to material science, pain always involves disturbed or disordered nerves, or a physical disorder. But what causes a physical disorder? What causes the pain to be stilled when one is asleep or under the influence of drugs, or when his attention is drawn away from the body?

Material evidence indicates that the nerves are still intact but the individual feels no pain. This is just one proof that pain is not in a so-called material body, or in nerves, but in mortal consciousness, or what is called mortal mind.

Can this pain then be considered a false belief in consciousness? Can we, by spiritualizing our thoughts, eliminate this false belief, or pain?

Christian Science teaches that the human mind alone is what needs to be healed. The material body is merely the externalized thought of this mind and images forth its impressions, whether they are good or bad.

Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, writes in her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "When we remove disease by addressing the disturbed mind, giving no heed to the body, we prove that thought alone creates the suffering."

Is it possible then to break down this belief ... to diffuse it ... to replace it with the kind of truth that Jesus used to heal centuries ago?

Can we take away the power of a belief by attributing all power to the omnipotence of God?

Can we take away the cause of this belief when we attribute God, good, as the only cause?

Can we diffuse this belief by knowing that God is a God of Love and doesn't create sin, sickness or death?

Can we replace this belief by affirming our oneness with God?

Can we instill in our thoughts that there is a spiritual law that nullifies all that is unlike God, good?

Can we affirm that there is no other power or presence than God?

Can we humbly yield to the understanding of God's truth that heals pain of any kind when understood?

Man, made in God's image, does not need to be changed. He is already spiritually perfect. Our false beliefs about man are corrected by a shift in spiritual understanding; this corrected viewpoint does heal the sick.

Thought alone creates the suffering. Hold to the truth that God, Spirit, is All-in-All and that each individual is a perfect spiritual idea, incapable of false beliefs. This error in thinking will be wiped out of consciousness and quickly disappear.

A spiritual idea, when understood and realized, dispels a false belief as light dispels darkness.

Martha Lemasters is a member of the First Church of Christ, Scientist Vero Beach, one of the oldest churches in Indian River County.