The Spiritual Meaning of Elbow Pain and Tennis Elbow

Tennis elbow is a relatively common condition involving a swelling of the tendons in your upper forearm that bend your wrist back toward your arm. Despite the name, it’s relatively uncommon for people playing tennis and much more common for people who do some kind of repetitive motion with their arm(s) in general, and treatments like rest, pain medications, and physical therapy can help. While we attend to the material and medical needs of tennis elbow, let’s also consider the spiritual meaning of this common condition.

The Impact of Repetitive Habits

Tennis elbow is normally caused by some form of repetitive movement. Let’s consider that movement and what it might mean spiritually:

• What is the repetitive movement you are doing every day?

• Is the action related to this movement something that brings you joy or stress?

• What does this injury tell you about how you are spending the majority of your time right now?

Problems Gripping and “Holding On”

One of the symptoms of tennis elbow can be difficulty with grip, holding onto objects like pencils or coffee cups. Let’s consider the concept of holding on:

• Is there something in your life you are gripping too tightly, holding onto too hard?

• Alternatively, is there something that feels like it’s slipping away, like you can’t hold on tight enough?

• Do you feel powerful in your life right now, capable of making wise choices and taking action?

• Do you feel like someone or something else is controlling you?

• Are you carrying an emotional weight that feels too heavy?

Issues with the Heart Chakra

The arms and hands are connected to the heart chakra in the ancient traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism. The heart chakra is correlated with the experiences of connection, community, and love, and our arms and hands are the parts of us that express our feelings, reach out to connect, or push away that which we don’t want, essentially doing the work of the heart. Some people believe the hands have their own chakras, with energy centers in the fingers and the palms. Consider:

• What is your relationship with love, community, connection, and feeling seen and heard right now?

• Are you regularly giving and receiving healthy consensual touch?

• Do you want to “reach out” into the world and express yourself, connect, and make an impact?

• Have you been hurt in some way that makes you want to withdraw your energy back into yourself?

• Have you been giving more than you’ve been receiving?

Action Versus Receptivity

The right side of the body, known in Traditional Chinese Medicine as the yang side, is connected to power, action, movement, choice, and outward expression. If your pain is on the right side, consider the following:

• Do you find you are trying really hard at something without getting the results you want?

• Are you happy with the choices and actions you are taking on a day-to-day level or does something need adjusting?

• Are you doing too much, giving too much, or trying too hard?

• What would it feel like to withdraw and take some time to focus your attention inward rather than outward?

The left side of the body is yin—the more receptive side of the body. Many people believe that we receive energy through the left hand, and it flows out through the right. Pain on the left side of the body that is related to the heart chakra can often point to heartache or heartbreak. This could be something old you’re still holding onto or something new that’s come up to cause you to stop in your tracks. Consider:

• Are you receiving enough love, care, attention, and understanding?

• Do you take the time to care for yourself, receiving the energies of tenderness, rest, and emotional safety?

• Does your heart hurt in some way?

• Have you been withdrawing too much, isolating too much?

• Are you alone more than you’d like to be?
  

Continue to attend to the physical symptoms of your tennis elbow as your health practitioner recommends. In the meantime, though, attend to the spiritual and emotional concerns that your body may be trying to communicate with you. Take good care of your sore elbow!

Learn more about the spiritual meaning of lower back pain.