Any time a particular thought causes a physical response in the body, the body is responding to something mental on a physical level. This is called psychosomatic response.
People often have stomach aches when faced with an unpleasant task; (school children who have school phobia often do this.)
Emotional stress can cause gastroesophageal reflux with resulting chest pain that can mimic heart attack.
I have heard some people say that certain sounds (fingernails on the chalk board for example) make their teeth hurt.
Your hand pain that occurs on thinking of loss of a loved one, sounds like nerve pain similar to that suffered by diabetics (diabetic neuropathy) or patients taking certain chemotherapy drugs. Thoughts are probably most closely related to the nervous system, so it is not too strange to imagine that nerve pain could be cause by emotional stress.
It is not all in your head. The pain is real. I strongly suggest you do some EFT to neutralize the emotion and the pain in your hands will probably go away as well as the extreme emotional pain you have with your thoughts. Send your questions to Gary Craig at
EFT Provides Impressive Health and Emotional Freedom--New Discovery Often Works Where Nothing Else to find out how. or you can email me at
mwoo57@gmail.com and I will help you over the phone.