Understanding Pain - A Brief Overview
The video, Understanding Pain + What To Do About It In Less Than 5 Minutes, offers an excellent overview of understanding pain, especially chronic pain. I help people with complex pain implement the lifestyle changes necessary to help them to move beyond pain.
Most people who experience complex pain do best when addressing their pain on many fronts — most of which are in this video. This video highlights many of my professional perspective on working with pain. It's spot on with a Feldenkraisian approach to moving, learning, growing, and healing.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
#1
Most Things In The Body Heal After 3-6 Months.
Persistent pain is often a result of changes at the nervous system's level vs. actual damage to the structure. If you peruse this site, you'll see that I often refer to this type of pain as complex pain.
Why use the world complex? Because often there is not just one reason for the pain. Instead, it's a perfect storm of genetic predisposition, our self-image, our mindset, our immune system's health, neurological factors, and so much more. At first glance, this can seem daunting. However, starting to see all of the factors contributing to our pain also offers us several access points for change.
For instance, in Feldenkrais, we might think about it in terms of how has pain becomes part of your self-image at the neurological level. Does your system anticipate pain? If so, what patterns of movement or organization trigger the 'anticipation' and how can we shift it. We might also look at the habits of motion you have developed in response to the pain. These response patterns may have been beneficial at one point in time, but may also be contributing to your pain now.
#2
Medications Only Help To A Certain Extent.
Medications can be great for getting you moving by interrupting the pain response. Unfortunately, drugs alone are rarely adequate to manage chronic pain and, in some cases, may worsen the quality of life. For instance, in some cases, opioids may worsen the pain experience through a process known as "opioid-induced hyperalgesia." It's essential to know and understand the risks and benefits of these medications and how to optimize your time on meds so that you're actively moving towards a lifestyle that will sustain pain changes for the better.
#3
Diet & Lifestyle Can Have A Huge Impact On Pain.
Diet, sleep, stress, feeling disconnected; all of these can contribute to the inflammatory process. Sometimes doing something as simple as keeping a log of what you eat and experiencing different levels of pain can go a long way in shining the light on what helps and hampers. The same goes for lifestyle.
Does sitting in front of your computer for two hours without a break impact your pain? Maybe its 40 minutes. Keeping track can help. Doing a mini Awareness Through Movement® lesson, taking a short walk, or shaking your booty to your favorite song during that break can be enough to shift your attention, posture, and pain.
#4
Thoughts, Emotions, And Beliefs Can Contribute To Pain.
What is your personal story with pain? How is it part of your self-image?
Mindfulness practices such as meditation and Awareness Through Movement can go a long way towards bringing awareness to and then transforming your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs about pain. Your story can about stress and pain impacts your physiology. Shift your story, and you'll change the way you experience pain and life. PSST….the Feldenkrais Method can help with this.
#5
Physical Activity And Improved Function Can Help Reduce Chronic Pain!
Movement and improved function is one of the major cornerstones of the Feldenkrais Method! One of my favorite endeavors is to help students find a way to take what they learn in private sessions or classes and apply it to something they love. Learning how to move from being pushed by pain to being pulled by your dreams can have a massive impact on how you move through life.
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