moving beyond pain

03/03/2023

Guilty as charged 😆

I’ve found Internal Family Systems such a great therapeutic approach for myself, and for supporting clients to explore what’s happening in their minds and bodies.

Have you heard if it? Experienced it? I’m interested to hear your thoughts!

12/11/2022

“The pain is not the problem, it's the solution. It's the solution the brain has come up with to alert us to a problem.”

I really enjoyed this chat between Dr Rangan Chatterjee and one of my mindbody medicine mentors, Dr Howard Schubiner, on treating chronic pain.

Listen to this episode from Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee on Spotify. Headaches, migraine, back, neck or joint pain, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), fibromyalgia – they’re just some of the common causes of chronic pain, which is estimated to affect between a third to half of a...

05/10/2022

I’d have to agree. These are the big four ‘pain fertilisers’ I’ve encountered - in myself and in the people I serve. Which ones do you relate to?

Constantly being on high alert is a great strategy if you're trying to avoid lions in the Serengeti. But for many of us living in the modern world, excess fear is a burden that makes our lives harder and our pain worse. Where does all this fear come from?

There are many different factors that can put us in a state of high alert. One I'd like to talk about specifically, are habits.

There are a few habits I see again and again in my patients that trigger fear and aggravate neuroplastic pain: worrying, putting pressure on yourself, self-criticism, and people pleasing.

🚨 Worrying, whether it's about your job, your schedule, or your dental hygiene, can increase feelings of danger and put your brain on high alert.

🚨 Putting pressure on yourself, whether it's to get an A on a test, losing five pounds before your wedding, or meditating for 20 minutes a day, can increase feelings of danger and put your brain on high alert.

🚨 Self-criticism, whether it's thinking you're not a great painter, beating yourself up for every little mistake, or feeling like your life is a failure, can increase feelings of danger and put your brain on high alert.

🚨 People pleasing, whether it's saying yes to things you want to say no to, not setting boundaries with loved ones, or putting other's needs above your own, can increase feelings of danger and put your brain on high alert.

Many of these habits form in our younger years as coping mechanisms. Habits are hard to break, but you CAN break them...all thanks to a wonderful thing called neuroplasticty.

24/08/2022

Have you found ‘your people’ on the road to chronic pain recovery?

The journey with chronic pain and illness can be incredibly lonely. Maybe you have a friend or two who can listen a bit, or a therapist who understands, but even those things are not enough sometimes.

We need to be around people who just get it. Not only does this provide camraderie, but it can also catalyse shifts and changes that just didn’t seem possible on our own.

If you’re looking for a well-supported group setting in which to explore healing your chronic pain and fatigue, I recommend this upcoming course with my dear colleague Rebecca Tolin.

Rebecca is definitely one of ‘my people’ in this space. Rebecca’s trustworthy wisdom and genuine compassion are born of her many years of lived experience with chronic pain and fatigue. She really knows this landscape from a deep place.

https://www.rebeccatolin.com/course

23/06/2022

Reading Dr John Sarno’s books changed my life and pain experience back in the 2000s. and while the science has evolved beyond his early theories, Dr Sarno’s wise insights have continued to change the lives of thousands of chronic pain sufferers. Thank you, Dr Sarno.

This free link will be available for 2 days to celebrate three things; the five year anniversary of the release of the film, Dr Sarno's birth (which happened…

03/04/2022

Shift your body state, shift your mind. It’s not always that easy, but sometimes it is!

This week, I’ve let my usual supportive somatic practices fall by the wayside. I’ve been in a slump.

And fair enough, too. I’ve been in isolation. One family member has Covid, and according to the tests, the rest have some other opportunistic virus. We are calling it ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Covid’.

Even though I’ve been well myself and had lots of free time, I’ve barely left my bedroom. The house has been neglected. I’ve not had any energy or motivation to do anything. My body has been heavy and slow while my brain has been zippy and unfocused.

Folks, this is a trauma response called a freeze state. And it’s completely normal in challenging circumstances. When under threat, the nervous system often decides that constriction = safety. So it immobilises us physically and constricts us with agitated thought patterns.

It’s easy add fuel to the fire with self-critical thoughts when this happens (I’ve indulged in plenty myself this week: ‘you’re being lazy. You’re such a sook.’). A more helpful approach is to recognise my state as an intelligent nervous system response to what feels like a trapped, futile situation.

Exercises like the simple one I’m posting here are far more helpful for lifting us out of such states than critical or motivational self-talk.

Come on. Join me. Drop those shoulders, unclench that jaw, orient to your surroundings and see what shifts for you.

The body is the key to the mind. You first have to calm the body’s response to trauma, shifting it from danger/alert to relaxed/controlled. Only then can you begin to recognize and process the mental and emotional aspects of the trauma.
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