Collarbone pain: spiritual meaning and emotional causes

What collarbone pain is

The collarbone, or clavicle, is a long, slightly S-shaped bone that runs across the top of the chest, from the breastbone to the shoulder. It holds the shoulder out to the side and lets the arm move freely.

The most common cause of collarbone pain is a broken collarbone. It usually happens after a fall onto the shoulder or an outstretched arm, or a direct blow in sport or on a bicycle. It causes pain, swelling and sometimes a visible bump, and it hurts to lift the arm. Most breaks heal in a sling within a few weeks, with painkillers and then exercises to bring back movement. Some need an operation, for example when the ends are far apart or the skin is at risk. Other causes of pain here include an injury to the joint at the shoulder end or the breastbone end, osteoarthritis of those joints, pain spreading from the shoulder or neck, and, rarely, an infection or a growth in the bone.

The emotional meaning of collarbone pain

The collarbone is joined directly to the shoulder, the part of the body that carries. Spiritually, it is linked to the way you hold the responsibilities you are given.

Anger at what you are given to carry

Pain in the collarbone is read as anger about the responsibilities placed on you. You may feel you have to submit, that this is an obligation rather than a choice. You may try to put forward good ideas, yet find you cannot bring them into being.

A broken collarbone: the fear of cracking

A fracture usually follows a fall onto the shoulder. Spiritually, it points to strong pressure around your responsibilities. Part of you feels you are going to "break" under their weight, and that thought makes you rebel. In French, the urge is to prendre la clé des champs, to "take the key to the fields": to run away.

Cornered

At the same time, you feel you can neither speak nor act. Decisions have been imposed on you and you feel you must give in to them. You start to question the person in authority. You feel backed against the wall, in a dead end. Life no longer flows through you, because you are resisting it or pushing it away. For the wider meaning of a fracture, see broken bones.

Left side or right side?

In this approach, the right side of the body carries the active "masculine" principle and the left side the receptive "feminine" one, in men and women alike. See the guide to the left and right sides of the body.

• Right collarbone pain may ask about duties tied to work, decisions and authority, and about the men in your life, such as a father, partner or boss.
• Left collarbone pain may ask about duties tied to caring, feelings and family, and about the women in your life, such as a mother, daughter or partner.

A gentler way to hold it

The aim is not to blame yourself for a fall or a sore collarbone. Injuries and joint problems are physical and need the right care. The emotional perspective invites you to look again at what you carry.

• Step back. Look at the situation as objectively as you can, as if it belonged to someone else.
• Separate the loads. Note which responsibilities you chose and which were imposed, and where you can say so.
• Give one idea a shape. Choose one good idea you have held back and take a first small step with it.
• Trust your capacity. Consider that what life hands you may be within your reach after all, and that you can ask for help with the rest.
• Look for another angle. When you feel cornered, look for one solution or one new point of view that helps you meet life more easily.