Chronic Pain Homepage

7 ways to leave your Chronic Pain Body

—

Working as a family doctor for almost 40 years, I am all too aware of how hard it is to cure chronic pain. My own lived experience with CP taught me a valuable lesson in humility. I too found lifestyle changes ridiculously hard to manage. Thank goodness I have the background in CP work. I knew making the changes would be worthwhile and they were!

  1. Ventral Vagal Breath lowers Limbic Alarm by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, (8th video on Limbic Alarm Page).
  2. Connect your subconscious with your conscious brain using sensory input. The 5-4-3-2-1 grounding tool can be done while brushing your teeth, driving, listening to someone droning on in a boring meeting or lecture. I even use it when I’m stressed listening to the many painful patient stories I hear daily.
  3. Connect the left and right side of your brain with creative work. My art is comically awful, but I use creative writing as a tool. Journal first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Handwriting is best and even better throw away what you write as we want to take that ever present critic sitting on our shoulders out of the picture. Draw. Paint. Dance. Sing. Drum. Any or all of these.
  4. Try to find places of safety. This can sometimes only be found within ourselves, by knowing we are strong enough to take care of ourselves. That no matter what has already happened, we are still standing. We have already proven we are powerful enough to survive. Now we can work towards thriving.
  5. Recognize when the critical inner part of you is telling you that you are not good enough. Be kind to that inner child. They were there to protect you but they are no longer welcome. Thank them for their help and ask them to move on. This is part of Internal Family Systems Therapy.
  6. Find people in your life who can be there with you. I found friends in writing groups and this gave me the confidence to seek friends out in my community. It has been a long process but socializing provides us with boosts of oxytocin (the “love” or “hug” hormone).
  7. Spirituality has been my savior. Find a way to connect to the spiritual world. We are not alone in this vast universe. My belief system has changed from childhood, but I have found truths in the Bible, Buddhism, the Koran, and many other spiritual teachings.

I wish you a blessed journey towards healing.

Judy

Comments

2 responses to “7 ways to leave your Chronic Pain Body”

  1. Avatar
    Anonymous

    I really appreciated this post and found myself relating to almost every point you made.

    I definitely believe in breathing techniques. Box breathing is something I use regularly to help manage PTSD and anxiety, and my spouse uses it as well. It is one of those relatively simple tools that I have found can make a very real difference when my nervous system is overwhelmed.

    The 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique is another tool I have found extremely effective. Bringing your attention back to what is physically happening around you can be incredibly helpful when your mind is pulling you somewhere else.

    Creative work is probably one of the biggest things for me personally. Being able to create and have an outlet for what is happening internally is incredibly important. Music, art, writing, and other forms of creative expression give me somewhere productive to put things that might otherwise stay trapped in my head. In a very real sense, creativity is one of the things that keeps me sane.

    I also strongly agree with the importance of finding places of safety. I think there is another component to this as well: making your safe space actually feel safe to you. The way you decorate your walls, the lighting you choose, the objects you surround yourself with, music, colours, and other things that make you happy can all contribute to creating an environment where your nervous system actually feels comfortable enough to settle down.

    The point about recognizing the critical inner part of yourself also resonated with me. I think the language we repeatedly use toward ourselves matters tremendously. I sometimes think of words almost like commands or “spells.” In computer terms, the things we repeatedly tell ourselves are a little like programming being fed into the brain. If the same negative message is repeated often enough, it can become very difficult not to treat it as truth. Learning to recognize that internal dialogue and deliberately respond to yourself with more understanding is something I think is extremely valuable.

    Having people who can genuinely be there with you is also incredibly important. I am fortunate to have a spouse who is exceptionally intelligent and one of the most empathetic people I have ever known. Having somebody in your life who will listen, understand, and be present with you can make an enormous difference.

    Spirituality is probably the one area where my own perspective is a little different. I am not personally a spiritual person, but I think I understand the underlying idea. I believe people need something that gives them connection, meaning, comfort, or perspective. For one person that might be religion or spirituality; for somebody else it might be music, art, nature, community, or something entirely different. As long as that source of meaning is healthy and is not harming yourself or other people, I think finding whatever genuinely provides that connection can be extremely important.

    Overall, I think you are very much on the right track with these ideas. Please keep writing these blogs. I genuinely enjoy reading them, and I think there is a lot here that people can actually take away and apply to their own lives.

    An appreciative patient,
    Train

    Reply
  2. Dr. Judy Avatar
    Dr. Judy

    Thank you for this. I am only now figuring out how to post comments. Only took me 8 years. LOL. Yours is the first comment posted. Hooray!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Discover more from Chronic Pain Homepage

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading