The Four Stories of tne Pain Body

I can hear a student saying “but my Pain Body has all kinds of different stories!?”

And yet, really, it doesn’t. The Pain Body, linked to the Left Hemisphere of the brain has only four types of stories:

1. The future shouldn’t be

2. The future should be

3. The past shouldn’t have been

4. The past should have been

And that’s it. All standard and even non-standard Pain Body stories can be reduced to these four basic structures.

The Left Hemisphere of the brain has no functions in the present moment.

“Our left hemisphere is all about the past, and it’s all about the future.” - Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

And so in the competitive universe of our brains, the Left Hemisphere only gets more blood flow if it convinces us to join it in the same realm. Complicit with it in Pain Body attacks is what Dr. Taylor calls “The itty-bitty shitty committee” which is a small cluster of cells about the size of a peanut also located in the Left Hemisphere of the brain that “has a predilection for doom and gloom stories.”

Now, if it can combine with the Story Teller and the Limbic System to get our attention it gets to feed. It’s that simple. It operates EXACTLY like a marketing firm concocting the right kind of stories and claims to make profits, in this case, the profit is our attention which sends these neuronal clusters blood flow.

If the stories weren’t in the future or past these brain mechanics would starve (which, since they are over-fed is hardly a bad thing but I digress…)

So, I am going to break down a couple of “standard oldies but goodies” that I have of course heard from my own brain over the years, and now frequently hear from my students. And I am going to reduce them to their basic stories to give you an example of what I mean.

Let’s start off with a very common Pain Body story:

“I am not loved/valued…”

This one is VERY prevalent in one form or another in every human brain on this planet. Let’s break it down because it is in the present tense which is why it seems to be breaking the rules I’ve stated.

My brain says “I am not loved/valued…” while I am whole, fed, clothed, and safe, which is by far the most common state someone is in while running this story. The last point being the most important, “I am safe” is indisputable because, as I’ve pointed out many times, if we were in any ACTUAL danger we wouldn’t have the time to be ruminating on these kinds of stories.

So, since we are safe and whole in the present moment, what can this kind of story be suggesting? It can’t be suggesting that it is dangerous now, because we would see through such a story. What is it REALLY trying to scare us with? It’s really suggesting that a lack of value now, is a danger sometime in the future. In the future, if this lack of value continues, we will be “discarded, unloved, un-valued, and alone…” all of which imply some kind of danger to our “future selves.” All of these conditions can be seen as undesirable or put more simply “Futures that should not be…”

Which brings us to story number one from above: “The future shouldn’t be”

Of course, it can be reworded in a way that it fits “The future should be” as well, but that’s a creative choice by the marketing department in our brains… More like “I need to find a mate/lover or partner because blah blah blah…” is an example of a “the future should be” type of story which essentially reduces to the same “I might be safe now but my future is unsafe because it should be… blah blah blah” kind of story.

Now let’s look at some other common stories and break them down:

“My childhood was so painful that I can’t function…”

Is a VERY common story that people in the mental healthcare profession deal with on a daily basis, and which many people use to paralyze themselves on a daily basis in the form of Depression and Anxiety.

Let’s break this down again. Notice again, that if someone is safe enough to be ruminating about the past they have to be safe in the present to be doing so. So, again, the threat from this story has to be in the future or in playing over horror movies from the past. These stories are really not useful as being dangerous in the present moment in any convincing fashion, and sure enough when someone who is running such a story in the present is reminded to “look around the room for a panther or a threat” you can observe them coming out of some “trance” to notice that they are indeed currently safe. But it usually only takes mere seconds before the “but the future will…” story comes out as they rejoin the future threat that comes from the past trauma.

“I am always going to be broken, dysfunctional and in pain…” is the story that usually follows the dismissal that their present moment is, indeed, perfectly safe and they are whole and not in any danger in it.

Can we spot “The future shouldn’t be…” in the story just said? It can just as easily be a “the future should be” story, but in this case, it’s usually by comparison like the “other people can function and I can’t” type of story, which is ready for the counterpart of “the past shouldn’t have been” or again usually by comparison “the past should have been more like other people’s…” etc. etc. etc. In this case, hitting on all four of the stories in one big ball of “victim stories” that feed the hungry Left Hemisphere and Limbic System while it holds us under its spell.

When we are asked to find the character in these future and past stories that is “us” we are forced to admit that in fact, this character is merely a thought in our heads, an “abstract identity” or “abstract sense of self” that we create much like a fictitious character in a movie that while under the spell of the story takes on our identity and causes us to suffer from future pain that has not yet to - nor might ever - occur.

It is the characters in these future and past thought movies that are the basis of the “ego” that is constantly talked about in spiritual circles, because our “present self” is ineffable and impossible to get a hold of.

It is because of this phenomenon alone that the future and past abstract versions of ourselves can at times feel more concrete than our actual present moment self. And, is also why these stories can be so alluring and convincing when we give our “sense of self” to those abstract characters.

And yet, when it comes to Pain Body “horror movies” they really can be reduced to these four predictable plots:

“The future/past should be”

or

“The future/past shouldn’t be”

Take a deep inquiry into your own stories and find these standard and painful plotlines for yourself!