Carpal tunnel syndrome: emotional and spiritual meaning

What carpal tunnel syndrome is

Carpal tunnel syndrome is compression of the median nerve as it passes through a narrow tunnel at the front of the wrist. You feel numbness, tingling and sometimes pain in the thumb, index and middle fingers, and sometimes weakness of the grip. It is often worse at night or on waking. It is more common in women, in pregnancy, around the menopause, in diabetes, and in people whose work or tools load the wrist. It also happens in men, and without any hormonal change. Splints, changes at work, and sometimes an injection or a small operation relieve the pressure. The nerve is a physical structure. A story about control does not decompress it.

The emotional reading below belongs to seasons when the hand is numb and the life feels narrowed. Tennis elbow is the neighbouring complaint of the arm. The hands page is the wider picture.

The emotional meaning of carpal tunnel syndrome

It shows up, in this reading, at times of great hormonal change, when you have not yet included a feminine side of yourself in its fullness. That is a question about a season of change in a body, not a rule about women, and not a claim that men are exempt. It usually appears when you feel relegated to the second rank, or when you no longer feel in your place. Before, you had the impression of being the pillar that brought balance to your life and to the people close to you, in the family, at work, or in a social activity. Now the attention is on someone else, and you put pressure on yourself to find new ways of being noticed.

You do not know how to use your authority. You need to let go, and you refuse to let go of control, to "loosen the rein". You tend to want to give orders. You feel far from your partner, and you are no longer in contact with a sexuality that feels absent. You see few solutions and few paths. The tunnel is very narrow. You feel pressed by life, and compressed by your responsibilities, which makes a decision harder. The structures you oblige yourself to satisfy leave you feeling limited.

A gentler way to hold it

The direction is to accept the newness and the changes that are arriving. A situation or a challenge is read as a chance to acquire a new strength, so that a potential can be realised. This passage is one you make in relation to who you are, and to your physical and inner changes. You accept taking risks, and discovering avenues that bring a real personal satisfaction, because you will have come through your fears. You choose to include what you are, as a whole. You free yourself from what was chaining you, and you come back to yourself.

• Have the nerve tested if the hand is going weak. Damage is easier to prevent than to reverse.
• Ask where you were the pillar, and no longer are. Being pushed into the background is the season this reading names.
• Notice the rein you will not loosen. Control and the wish to give orders sit together.
• Look at the narrow tunnel of choices. Few paths, and a life that feels compressed, are the image of the wrist.
• Include the change in the body. Pregnancy, menopause, or any real shift is part of the picture. It is not a failure to be feminine or masculine enough.
• Use the splint or the treatment you were offered. Meaning does not open the tunnel.