Mind/Body Intensive Pain Management Clinic Provides Methodology To Reduce Pain

[Cort]

Check out the full blog at the link below

• http://countingmyspoons.com/2015/04/within-my-control-5-lessons-in-pain-management/

Six years ago I attended a 3 week intensive hospital-based pain management clinic. It changed my life! During this course, I learned that pain is just a sensation within my body. Oftentimes the real suffering came from the way I reacted to my pain. Therefore, I had a fair degree of control over my pain. This was a real revelation for me. For the past 20 years, I believed that my pain controlled me. I would push through, ignore my pain warning signs, over do it and suffer as a result. I didn’t want to be ruled by my pain. I wanted to be normal and do the things everyone else was doing. So I would just fight against my limitations. I never realized that some of these thoughts and behaviors were actually contributing to my pain and my sense of helplessness. By mindfully controlling my reactions to pain, I had the power to reduce the severity and frequency of flare ups…So I bet you want to know more right?

Acceptance. I learned to accept pain. Chronic pain is a part of who I am. Since accepting pain, I have become attuned to what my body is telling me and I act accordingly. Without the resistance towards my pain (something that is beyond my control) I have the energy to focus on my response to the pain and on improving my general wellness (something that is within my control)......

Pacing. I am much more aware of my own limitations. And rather than push through them, I work within my capabilities to make sure I do not over do it and cause a pain flare. This involves the key concept of pacing. Put simply, pacing is controlled activity with breaks. How do you know when to take a break? BEFORE pain occurs.....

Movement. ...My starting points were very low (maybe 1-2 repetitions of some exercises) but I increased these daily and before long I was achieving good amounts of movement with ease.......

Mindset. Remember I referred to the additional suffering? For me, most of this came from my thoughts and reactions to pain. So essentially I made it worse than it needed to be.'......

Nutrition. This has been a relatively recent thing for me…and unfortunately it is not something that was ever mentioned in my hospital based pain management course.....

 

[Issie]

So liked this. It's how I try to live my life too.

When we stop moving, we start dying. Movement may be baby steps compared to someone else. But if we compare ourselves to ourselves the day or week before - one extra step - is a step further and in the right direction.

My philosophy is if I'm having a bad day - Put your feet up. Have some tea. And realize tomorrow will be better. It usually is. Might take longer than a day. But at some point, it is better. Try to find some type of joy in every day. There is much to reflect on. But we have to go outside of ourselves to notice it.

Issie

 

[Cort]

What I think a lot of us don't get and which I didn't get until recently is that it often takes some mental work to experience joy or appreciation or gratitude....You have to get beyond the resentments, the anger, the frustration, etc. in order to clear a place for joy...and when you're sick you have to create the possibility of joy....It doesn't come naturally (!)

 

[Issie]

What I think a lot of us don't get and which I didn't get until recently is that it often takes some mental work to experience joy or appreciation or gratitude....You have to get beyond the resentments, the anger, the frustration, etc. in order to clear a place for joy...and when you're sick you have to create the possibility of joy....It doesn't come naturally (!)

True! And when you think about anger, frustration and resentment - who is that usually primarily affecting. YOU and possibly no one else. And when we have those feelings we are thinking about ourselves, how we feel, how unfair to us, the nerve of someone doing that or saying that to ME. Does those feelings change anything? Does it make us feel better about ourselves, the other person/persons involved? Does the feelings we have change anything about whatever? If we can learn to go outside of ourselves and try to see the meaning of whatever from someone else's perception of what happened and start trying to focus on others and not so much on ourselves - we can find that joy. We can look around us and see others that have more going on than we do. It's human nature to see things in "our world" but can we see things in "others world".

It's true - there is more happiness in giving. It doesn't have to be anything material. Our most precious gift is our time. It can only be spent once and cannot be gotten back. It can make a difference in someone else's life and if used wisely will enrich our lives beyond belief. Giving of ourselves, our time, our empathy and sympathy is what will help bring that elusive JOY that is so important to Happiness. Acknowledging the existence of others and letting them into "our world" will bring the sense of belonging and acceptance that everyone is searching for. But putting up a wall to keep someone out or wall ourselves up - traps us in "our own world". The enrichment seldom comes until we take that chance of exposure. Sometimes it backfires. But usually you will touch someone in a positive way and the greatest benefit will be to yourself.

Issie