Left wrist pain: spiritual meaning and emotional causes

What left wrist pain is

Left wrist pain is pain, aching or stiffness in the left wrist, the joint of eight small bones, ligaments and tendons between the forearm and the hand. For right-handed people this is the non-dominant wrist, so pain there is less often from repetitive work and more often from something specific. A fall onto an outstretched hand can cause a sprain or a fracture. The small scaphoid bone at the base of the thumb can break without showing on the first X-ray, so lasting pain after a fall needs checking.

Other common causes include De Quervain's tenosynovitis, a painful inflammation of the tendons at the base of the thumb that often appears in new parents lifting a baby, a ganglion (a smooth, fluid-filled lump, often on the back of the wrist), and carpal tunnel syndrome, with numbness and tingling in the fingers at night. Pain and swelling in both wrists, with stiffness in the morning, can be a sign of rheumatoid arthritis, which benefits from early treatment. For left-handed people, the left is the working wrist, and overuse from writing, tools or sport becomes the likelier cause.

The left arm also needs a word of caution. Heart pain often spreads from the chest into the left arm, sometimes down to the wrist. Left arm or wrist pain with chest pressure, breathlessness, sweating, nausea or pain in the jaw needs emergency help: call 999 in the UK, 911 in the US or 112 in the EU.

Most wrist pain settles with rest, ice, a support and simple painkillers. Splints, physiotherapy, injections and sometimes surgery are used depending on the cause. The page on wrist pain covers the condition as a whole.

The emotional meaning of left wrist pain

Spiritually, the wrists are the pivots that give the hands their suppleness and start every movement they make. They express your will in action, and they let you take hold of what life presents with ease. In the map of the left and right sides of the body, the left side carries the receptive, feminine principle, in men and women alike: feeling, intuition, creativity, tenderness, receiving, and the women in your life, a mother first of all. So the left wrist tends to ask about the actions that come from the heart, and about the hand that receives.

A hand that cannot take

Stiffness in the wrists is linked to difficulty taking hold, in harmony, of what life offers you, or choosing among it. On the left, the receiving side, this can be a hand that will not open: help you refuse, a compliment you brush aside, love you do not quite let in, an opportunity you do not reach for because it feels too good to be yours.

A gesture held back

Wrist pain is linked to energy held back around something that needs doing. On the left, that action is usually a heartfelt one: calling someone you have fallen out with, apologising, saying "I love you" with a gesture rather than words, visiting a parent, writing the letter. You know what your hand wants to do, and it stays still.

Creativity on hold

The wrist is linked to resisting new directions, new solutions, or simply your own creativity. The left side is the seat of artistic gifts and intuition, so a sore left wrist may ask about the painting, the music, the writing or the craft you keep postponing. The hand that would make something is waiting for permission you have not given it.

Swayed by the people you love

A wrist problem can show how easily you are influenced. On the left, that influence often comes from close bonds: a mother's opinion, a partner's preferences, the family's expectations. You may find yourself acting on their wishes and not on your own, then feeling stuck in the gap.

Tied in a relationship

Some people with painful wrists feel chained, as if handcuffed, in a relationship, unable to say what they feel. On the left, this is often a close bond at home. If a relationship truly restricts you, controls you or frightens you, talk to someone you trust or to a support service and get to safety. That is not something to carry alone.

A past that weighs

The wrist can also hold something from the past that weighs so heavily you would rather deny it ever happened. On the left, this may be a family story, an old loss or a hurt from childhood. A fracture or sprain, once treated, is linked to a deep conflict about how you express yourself in life. On the left, it may ask which feeling you have never allowed to show.

The other side

Right wrist pain is linked to action in the outer world: decisions at work, pressure so strong you no longer know which way to go, responsibilities you would rather put down. The left wrist asks which gesture of the heart you are holding back, the right which practical action. The page on wrist pain holds both sides.

A gentler way to hold it

• Open your hand to one thing. Accept one offer of help or one compliment this week, without explaining it away.
• Make the gesture. Choose one heartfelt action you have held back and do a small version of it.
• Give your creativity an hour. Let your hands make something, with no aim but the making.
• Check whose wish it is. Before acting, ask whether this comes from you or from someone you love.
• Name what ties you. If you feel handcuffed somewhere, say it to someone safe.
• Trust yourself. Stay open to each situation, and take the chances life offers you.
• Rest the wrist when it needs it. A support, pauses and treatment are part of acting with care.