Why Breath work, Yoga, and Acupuncture Did Not Heal My Chronic Pain

If you live with chronic pain you probably know the feeling of trying absolutely everything to get relief. I did too. Yoga. Breathwork. Acupuncture. Meditation. Every single practice that promised stress relief or a calmer nervous system.

And this is the thing. They helped. They brought peace. They softened anxiety. They gave me moments where my mind felt clearer and my body felt lighter. For many people these practices do help chronic pain go away.

But for people like me and many of the people I work with who deal with chronic pain, TMS, migraines, IBS, pelvic pain and long standing anxiety, these practices only take you part of the way. They can make you feel better in the moment but they do not always create long term healing.

Today I want to share why. Not because these practices are wrong. They are beautiful. But because there is a deeper piece that often gets missed.

The difference between soothing and healing chronic pain

When I was in pain I used to treat every uncomfortable sensation as something that needed to be calmed. If fear came up, I would breathe it away. If anger came up, I would meditate so I did not have to feel it. If anxiety rose in my chest, I would reframe it.

It felt like this was the right thing to do. It felt sensible to try to relax my body. It felt normal to want stress relief. But what I did not realise was that I was teaching my mind that whatever was arising in my body was not safe.

Chronic pain often comes from emotional energy in the body that we have pushed away for years. TMS is the perfect example of this. When we avoid emotions, the body steps in and expresses them for us. Pain becomes a protector.

Soothing can create comfort. But soothing does not teach the brain that emotional energy is safe. It does not teach the body that fear or sadness or anger can exist without danger.

This is why so many people with chronic pain, migraines, pelvic pain, IBS or TMS get stuck. They are doing practices that feel good, but not practices that recondition the mind.

Why the pain stayed even when I felt calmer

For most of my life I had been conditioned to avoid big feelings. To be strong. To be calm. To be in control. So when discomfort showed up I tried to fix it instantly.

Breathwork would temporarily calm fear, but the next day that same fear would rise again. Meditation helped me relax but my back pain was still there. Acupuncture took the edge off, but the deeper emotional charge was still hiding under the surface.

My body kept expressing what I refused to feel. That is chronic pain in a sentence.

The real healing began when I stopped trying to fix my emotions and started allowing them. When I sat with fear and said this can be here. When I let sadness move through my chest without trying to reframe it. When I stopped trying to control my internal world and started meeting it instead.

This is where anxiety began to shift.
This is where stress relief started to become lasting.
This is where chronic pain finally lost its purpose.

Allowing is what heals, not soothing

Allowing means letting the emotional energy rise and fall naturally. It means staying present with what your body is showing you. It means trusting that the sensation is safe even if it feels uncomfortable.

This is how the brain rewires itself. This is how TMS patterns dissolve. This is how chronic pain finally releases its grip.

Self soothing is still beautiful. I still love yoga. I still meditate. I still believe in these practices. But they are support. They are not the final step.

The final step is presence with what is real inside you.

If you want support to learn this deeper level of healing

If you want a space that helps you understand chronic pain, TMS, and the emotional patterns that keep pain alive, you can join my Pain Relief Community here:

In there I go deeper into the mind body connection, emotional conditioning, and the exact tools that help people finally break free from chronic pain, migraines, pelvic pain, anxiety and long term stress patterns.

You can also read more or join through this link as well:
👉 [Join the Pain Relief Community]