The Body Is Not the Obstacle — It’s the Archive

In many healing conversations, the body is treated as an inconvenience.
Something to override.
Something to manage.
Something to fix.

But the body is not the problem.

It is the storage chamber.

As The Body Keeps the Score book <Bessel Van Der Kolk> so clearly articulates, what we are unable to process mentally or emotionally—because of overwhelm, dissociation, fear, or simply being too young—the body continues to register.

Every impact.
Every moment of bracing.
Every time something happened that could not be metabolized.

The body keeps track.

Trauma Lives Where Language Could Not Go

Many people carry pain in their bodies that was never given language.

Sometimes because they were children.
Sometimes because the experience was too much.
Often because it was both.

In those moments, the nervous system does what it must to survive:

• it disconnects

• it numbs

• it dissociates

• it tightens

These strategies are not failures.
They are intelligences under pressure.

But what could not be processed does not disappear.
It lodges. And like anything that ‘lodges’ (think splinter), it will get infected and the pain will worsen, then start impacting neighboring body parts. Sound familiar?

Over time, this dense, unresolved energy may show up as:

• chronic aches and pains

• unexplained fatigue

• tension patterns

• inflammation

• anxiety or depression with no clear cognitive cause

The body is not malfunctioning.
It IS holding history.

The Limits of a “Neck-Up” Model

Western mental health has largely focused on the mind—thoughts, beliefs, narratives. While this is valuable, it is incomplete.

Trauma is not only remembered cognitively.
It is remembered somatically.

When we neglect the body, we ask the nervous system to resolve what it is still physically carrying—without ever listening to it.

Healing cannot be completed from the neck up.

The Pain Body Is Not the Enemy

Some traditions refer to this accumulation as the pain body.
That language can sound ominous, but it’s important to understand what it really means.

The pain body is not bad.
It is not broken.
It is not trying to sabotage you.

It is the part of you that stayed awake when you had to go offline.

And it is waiting to be met.

Learning to Work Skillfully With the Body

There are body-centered modalities—such as Somatic Experiencing or Core Energetics—that recognize this truth: healing must include the body.

At the heart of this work are three core skills:

1. Awareness/concentration

Learning to notice sensations as they arise in the body and developing the capacity to stay with unpleasant sensations instead of fleeing, suppressing, or overriding them.

2. Sensory Clarity

Being able to distinguish what kind of pain is present.
Can you tell the difference between the pain of a broken foot and the pain of a broken heart?
This discernment matters.

3. Equanimity (the crown jewel)

The ability to allow sensations to be exactly as they are—without narrative, judgment, criticism, condemnation, attack, or hatred.

Equanimity creates movement, movement to ‘unstick’ the stickiness of lodged, dense energies.

And equanimity cultivates safety. It lets the body know “I see you. I feel you, I understand why you are here, and it’s ok”. This stance is what allows the body to offgas that energy and speak

Letting the Body Tell Its Story

When the body is met with open presence—without force, without agenda—it begins to release what it has been holding.

Not all at once.
Not dramatically.
But honestly.

Shaking.
Tears.
Heat.
Softening.
Breath returning.

This is not catharsis for its own sake.
It is the nervous system completing cycles that were once interrupted.

Healing Requires Listening, Not Forcing

Your body already knows how to heal.

What it needs is:

• time

• safety

• presence

• permission

When the body is finally included in the healing journey, pain stops being something to eliminate and becomes something to understand.

And when it is understood, it no longer needs to shout.

Closing Reflection

The body is not holding pain to punish you.
It is holding it because no one was able to listen at the time.

Healing begins when you do.

If you’d like to learn how to work skillfully with the pain body—through awareness, presence, and embodied practice—you’re invited to connect and learn more.