Tennis elbow: emotional and spiritual meaning
Updated
What tennis elbow is
Tennis elbow, or lateral epicondylitis, is pain where the tendons of the forearm attach to the bony point on the outer side of the elbow. Despite the name, it is a complaint of repeated gripping and wrist extension, in work as often as in sport. The tissues become sore and irritable. Lifting, pouring and shaking hands hurt. It is an overuse injury. Rest from the provoking movement, a change in how you grip, and a gradual return of strength are the usual care. Forcing the same action because you "should" get on with it is how it lasts.
The emotional reading below is about direction, credit and a blow you do not throw. Carpal tunnel syndrome is the nerve complaint of the wrist beside it. The arms page takes up the wider gesture of embracing and of carrying.
The emotional meaning of tennis elbow
The elbows give you the flexibility you need when the direction changes. When they are inflamed, the question is what you are opposing with so much resistance, and why. Frustration can grow after repetitive events in your life, with the impression that you must constantly absorb the blows. You can feel you put in more effort than other people to accomplish certain tasks or reach certain results, and that you do not receive the credit you are due. You are very impulsive in your actions. You tend to forget the lessons learned in the past, so you tend to make the same mistakes again.
Tennis elbow can indicate that there is something you cannot manage to realise, or that you are being obliged to do and have no taste for. You live a lot of anger about a situation, and you would like to punch someone, and you hold back.
A gentler way to hold it
The direction is to let old ideas and old patterns go, so you can take the best direction for your own evolution. You also let love circulate in the events that present themselves. The elbow still needs a change in the physical load. Love does not replace that.
- Ask what change of direction you are refusing. Flexibility is what the elbow is for.
- Name the blow you keep absorbing. Repetition is the medical story and the emotional one.
- Notice effort without credit. The resentment of doing more than others belongs here.
- Look at the lesson you keep forgetting. Impulsiveness is how the same mistake returns.
- Ask whom you want to hit, and do not. Held-back anger is the reading. Acting it out is not the remedy.
- Change the grip, not only the story. A kettle and a keyboard are allowed to be part of the cause.
Questions to ask yourself
Take your time with these. There are no right answers; simply notice what comes up.
- What am I resisting so hard that my elbow has to keep changing direction for me?
- Which repetitive event am I forever absorbing?
- Where do I put in more effort than others and receive no credit?
- What lesson have I already learned, and keep repeating anyway?
- What am I being obliged to do that I have no taste for?
- Whom do I want to hit, and what stops the blow?
“I can drop an old pattern and take a better direction. I let love move through the events that present themselves.”
When to see a doctor
- Pain on the outer elbow that makes gripping, lifting a kettle or turning a door handle difficult.
- Pain after an injury, or with swelling, redness and fever.
- Numbness, or pain that travels from the neck. A nerve may be involved.
- An elbow that locks, looks deformed, or will not straighten.
- Pain that is not improving after a few weeks of relative rest and a change in how you load the arm.
- Steroid injections and surgery are decisions for a clinician. Most cases settle with load that is graded, not with pushing on.
Related conditions
Sources and inspiration
- Jacques Martel, Le Grand Dictionnaire des Malaises et des Maladies.
This page is an original interpretation written by Body Hemi-Sync. It is inspired by these sources and does not reproduce them.