Understanding chronic pain and 5 pillars to start making lasting changes towards a pain free and more joyful lifestyle
This Blog is based on Dr. David Butler’s and Dr. Lorimer Moseley’s work and book called ” Explain Pain”.
We can all agree that pain is a very Universal and subjective experience…..and most recent scientific research explains that PAIN is produced by the brain …no matter if it is strong, mild, sharp, dull, constant or intermittent. The medical community may have put a label on it, by naming it back pain, neck pain, migraines, fibromyalgia etc.
If we had an initial injury to the body tissue within few weeks it is healed. When the pain lasts more than 3-6 months it is considered chronic in nature. But what can we do about it?
Having the brain producing pain even after the body tissues are healed or after you are told that there is nothing that can be done about your condition due to your diagnosis – is simply NO FUN!!!!
Ongoing pain produced by the brain is both about some structural changes, restrictions – alignment (this is where MFR is highly beneficial) and about sensitivity of the NERVOUS SYSTEM.
Chronic Pain is COMPLEX. So if the nervous system and the brain are responsible for the chronic pain experience, we need to RE- TRAIN them. So we need to look at all the factors that effect the nervous system and are possibly contributing to your —PAIN—- EXPERIENCE and we need to make a PLAN!!!
It is a dynamic process to retrain the brain from a holistic perspective. So here are the 5 pillars of chronic pain to joy:
- Myofascial Restrictions within fascial system will produce crushing pressure on pain sensitive structures. Refer to other MFR articles for details and get treated regularly and treat yourself as well.
- How are thoughts and emotions affecting the nervous system? Science shows that happy, peaceful thoughts produce pleasant emotions by releasing ” happy” hormones in the body like dopamine and serotonin. All the thoughts and beliefs are BRAIN impulses too…..so if on top of the pain I was given a medical diagnosis lets say fibromyalgia or congenital scoliosis…..it is enough to put the nervous system into hypervigillence and stress… !!!!!!!!!! We can learn how to relax the mind and body into pleasant softness and relaxation which leads to emotional well- being…which relaxes the body and diminishes pain…….
- Diet and Lifestyle can lead to sensitized nervous system…smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, nutritional level, quality of sleep, hydration level and being involved with activities that gives us joy and fulfillment contribute to decrease pain level.
- Exploring the deep meaning of pain and applying it to our personal life story can add enormous value to our experience. We definitely can make a link between worry, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed by various aspects of our life’s and how it relates to our FUTURE. Recognizing deeper emotions like fear, shame, anxiety, worry could be deeply healing and brings us closer to HAPPY FUTURE!!!
- Physical Activity and Function. It is important to recognize from brain perspective that FEAR is trying to protect us from free movement…Pain comes from Brain and when we see it from a WHOLE PERSON perspective, it gives us more opportunity to enjoy life again.
