##### 🔑 Parts use our minds and bodies to get or distract our attention Our various symptoms and discomforts are very often signal flairs from [[💡 Parts|Parts]] trying to get our attention. When we get distracted during [[🕯️ Meditation 🧘|Meditation]] or anything else we’re [[💡 Focus & Concentration|concentrating]] on, that’s a [[💡 Parts|Part]]. Though there is a meaningful difference between [[💡 Protector Parts|Protector Parts]] who are using [[🛡️ Distracting|🛡️ Distraction]] instrumentally to distract us *from* something, and being lost in thought because our [[💡 Parts|Parts]] are preoccupied or concerned *with* something. > [!example] > We may have [[💡 Protector Parts|Protector Parts]] who don’t want us paying attention to our object of focus and so use [[🛡️ Distracting|🛡️ Distraction]] or even [[🛡️ Dissociation]] to stop us; alternatively we may have other [[💡 Parts|Parts]] who magnetize our awareness to something else because they feel excited or anxious about it. [[💡 Exiles|Exiles]] and [[💡 Protectors-in-Exile|Protectors-in-Exile]] have very few ways of communicating with us because our [[💡 Protector Parts|Protectors]] can escalate and push them back down. So then they might give us flashbacks, [[Panic Attacks]], or [[💡 Nightmares|Nightmares]] which are much more difficult to suppress.[^2] With enough time and enough [[💡 Parts|Parts]] in exile, the buildup of stress can lead to [[Medical Conditions and Diagnoses|illness and disease]]. ###### Body Dr. John Sarno discovered a link between unmetabolized [[⭐️ Emotions]] and [[💡 Chronic Pain|Chronic Pain]], especially back pain. Early in his career he treated patients’ back pain through surgery with mixed results. Eventually he explored the idea that [[🔑 Psyche and Soma are not separate]] and discovered his patients began feeling significantly better as soon as they started [[🕯️ Journaling]] in order to [[🦮 How to feel your feelings|🦮 metabolize emotions]]. He claimed over 90% of [[💡 Chronic Pain|chronic pain]] is psychosomatic[^1] Symptoms are often [[💡 Trailheads|trailheads]]. When we’re able to meet with our [[💡 Parts|Parts]] and attend to their wounds our symptoms and diagnoses can soften or sometimes disappear entirely, because when their messages are received our [[💡 Parts|Parts]] don’t have to send them anymore. ###### See also - [[🦮 How to connect with Parts through Symptoms]] - [[🔑 Trauma can heal somatically]] - [[🔑 Our symptoms and illnesses are never our fault]] - [[🔑 Not all symptoms, conditions, and diagnoses are related to parts]] [^1]: The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain, The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders [^2]: [[📖 ✅ IFS Online Circle]] Month 6 - The Body & the Automation Nervous System & Putting it All Together - Month 6 with Richard Schwartz