Chest Pain Stress

[RagsToRiches]

I do a lot of meditation and I know a lot of techniques for controlling emotions, reducing stress, increasing happiness, and so on.

I actually very rarely feel stress at all these days.

But when I do it comes in a (relatively) new form. It's like a stabbing pain in my chest.

I've had some success using pranayama and also chi flowing meditations (micro cosmic orbit) in getting rid of it.

Also "letting go" of certain things can obviously help in general with stress (Sedona-esque). So "letting go" of the root causes and getting outcome independent of them is useful - but I'm looking for ideally something which more directly addresses the physical/energetic symptoms.

I was wondering if anyone else had experience with this and had a more effective (read: quicker ) technique...

[lifetimelearner]

are you sure it's stress and not a medical condition ?

[mjump7]

It could well be a medical condition.

I recommend seeing a doctor.

If not, how about doing some simple things?

Like walking and going for runs.

Sometimes the simplest thing can help a lot.

[aggie]

it is really difficult sometimes to differentiate from strictly stress to physical symptoms exacerbabated by stress.

i went thru a stressful time in my life where i exhibited cardiac symptoms and had high b/p problems and ended up for a full hospital cardiac evaluation and found that i had mitral valve prolapse...not always a serious problem and one that people have for years without realizing it ...but something to be aware of none the less and in doing so, eliminate more serious problems, and able to recognize and deal with as needed subsequent symptoms.

[RagsToRiches]

I am extremely aware of my body.

It's not a medical condition.

It's caused by emotional pain which becomes physical pain through repetition.

But for the record I have low blood pressure, an extremely low pulse (from meditation), and good heart related history

[carenkh]

I agree with getting things checked out with a physician - you might not be aware of a medical issue you have, it could be a blind spot in your awareness.

What specific things cause this stress? Is it the same thing every time?

[RagsToRiches]

FYI...

You guys were right, it seems that these are actually physical symptoms and stress is just aggregating it.

I've had a chat with a friend who's a doctor who has indicated it seems to him like Costochondritis, inflammation of the sternum.

He's told me to get it diagnosed, but that it's nothing urgent.

I'll be interested in finding out what could have caused it...

[RagsToRiches]

Final Update--

Went to the doc, he recons nothing major.

He based his diagnosis mainly on the area around the pain on my chest being tender which apparently indicates it's muscular/tendon pain on the ribs rather than anything more serious.

He said these things tend to go of their own accord.

So the only problem is the pain.

That isn't a major problem with the ammount of meditation I do.

On a side note : Doc confirmed I've got a very healthy heart!

[codenamesmiley]

My husband has had some recent sturnum troubles.

Do you have a nagging wife?

[CoolBee]

Originally Posted by RagsToRiches

FYI...

You guys were right, it seems that these are actually physical symptoms and stress is just aggregating it.

I've had a chat with a friend who's a doctor who has indicated it seems to him like Costochondritis, inflammation of the sternum.

He's told me to get it diagnosed, but that it's nothing urgent.

I'll be interested in finding out what could have caused it...

I get that, though much more rarely these days.

The sternum swells up big and hard and the inflammation can cause the muscles to constrict your heart and lungs sometimes with it causing heart-attack-like symptoms which is how I got diagnosed - crushing pains in the chest, shooting pains in left arm etc etc difficulty breathing. The ambulance wired me up and figured it wasn't a heart attack, and after laying on a hospital trolley in A&E (ER for USers) for 9 hours, a young sprig of a doctor fresh from med school finally figured what I had. After reading about it online I realised I had had it on and off for years.

You can get it from a bad cold or something (all my colds seemed to turn to 'bronchitis' until I discovered I had this and how to treat it - basically I use aspirin! - and it never happens anymore! It was the old cost. inflammation squishing my lungs)., or from overuse of upper body muscles - I had it very badly after an intense few months of swimming, typing for prolonged periods, etc, and also of course stress. So maybe your meditating position is requiring you to hold your upper body muscles in a tense position or maybe you are doing something else using upper body muscles extensively?

The thing you need to know is that if you have a tendency to this and you get an acute attack, it DOES look like a heart attack and you MUST go to the ER because they can only tell you whether it is or isn't by wiring you up.