Welcome to Sunday Round-up.
This week's PAIN CARE theme:
tissue damage is not enough to create pain.
You are probably thinking "easy enough for you to
say."
I hear you, I'm with you on that, and I totally get it.
That's exactly how I felt when I first was presented with this information.
In fact, I went right over to " are ya crazy?"
It took a good long while for me to be willing to even look at the data that shows the truth of that
statement.
But once I started reading these stories about people who were able to cure their pain completely - not manage, but cure! - through the principles of neuroplasticity (the very same principles we now use in class) I felt hopeful and empowered.
Take your time, sit with your doubts.
Once you are ready to challenge your pain beliefs,
here is some info to consider and tools to implement.
Here is a reminder of some fundamental
concepts.
What is a baseline:
A baseline is that amount of activity that you can do and know that the pain won’t flare up. A flare up is that increase in pain, often sudden, that leaves you debilitated for hours, feeling really desperate and doing desperate things. For some people flare up happens the next day or even
later.
Pain as an alarm system:
Pain is one of the body's protective mechanisms. Pain's job is to make you change your behavior, not accurately inform you about the actual health of your tissues. (more on these concepts in the weeks to come).
Here in lies a question:
How do
we accurately assess what types of movement | ranges of motion | number of repetitions is safe for us to perform? How do we identify our baseline if we know that pain / numbness / weakness are not the accurate indicators of what's going on in our tissues.
The major goal of pain care yoga is to calm down the over sensitized nervous system, retrain the over protective brain (neuroplasticity in action!), and teach our bodies that movement is safe. We cannot create this
neuroplastic change if we are continuously triggering / ignoring our internal alarms.
In class we've used these strategies:
- Observe your breath: breath is a direct link to the nervous system.
Changes in the breath flow indicate what your nervous system perceives as safe or unsafe.
When breathing becomes a bigger priority than danger signals, calm breathing can / will engage the
nervous system and lead to lasting improvements.
- Reassess what you are doing if you are shortening or holding your breath, especially the exhale.
- Ask the questions:
Do this feel safe?
Will I pay for this tomorrow?
I know this sounds silly (at first!), but once you begin to tune in and really listen to the answers, they can and will provide you with an insight.
On - The - Mat Pain Care challenge:
Practicing attentional flexibility.
By it's evolutionary design, pain is attention - greedy.
When you are in pain, it can be excruciatingly difficult to draw attention someplace else. Yet, this is the very concept we mine for healing: the more that we can train our minds to place attention on purpose, rather than
randomly, the easier it becomes. And the more we give our nervous system a break from constant stress of pain, the sooner the nervous system begins to reset itself to healthier values.
Off - The - Mat Pain Care challenge:
- This week, whenever your attention is drawn to your pain or discomfort, remind
yourself that pain is an alarm system, and not an accurate indicator of your tissue health. (I know, completely counter intuitive. I struggled with that one for a while. This concept alone, once you get it, will free you to move forward.) Once you have, bring your attention to your breath; smooth and even out your breathing. Say to yourself: "Breathing is way more important than danger signals."
Try breathing meditation whenever you are caught in the pain inducing thinking
(we call these "thought viruses"):
Inhale, and say to yourself: "Breathing in, I feel calm."
Exhale, and say: "Breathing out, I smile."
This week's breathing practices:
- 4 part | rhythmic counting (any type of rhythmic activity, including chewing
gum, boosts seratonin - natural pain busting chemical - production in about 4 minutes).
- 3 Fold Breath
- Belly breathing: 4 corners of the belly
Movement focus:
- Hips on the ball - knees bent / legs up
- Rolling to side / side lying /
side breathing / side rocking / side rolling with a foam roller
- Rolling onto the belly - front crawl, knee up
- Intro to ball work on the wall
Attached Printouts / Worksheets:
