Dear Matt:

People refer to physical pain vs emotional pain, as if emotional pain is not physical. Biologically speaking, all pain is physical. There is nothing that we experience, including thoughts and emotions, that is outside the physical. It is just that certain physical changes in our bodies can be measured by existing methods (ex. body temperature) and other physical changes (ex., sadness) can not be measured, at least not easily.

Our thinking and feeling is made possible by our brain which is a physical organ. Without our brain, there is nothing to experience.

You mentioned repressed emotions, that drains the body, tires the body, to repress such an emotion as anger. The more tired the brain/ body is, the more sensitive it is to pain and distress. It is similar to not getting enough sleep, everything is more difficult, usually, after not sleeping enough, being overly tired.

anita