Your response to a chronic pain flare up is YOUR CHOICE.  I’m here to educate you so that you can make the healthy choice.  So let’s talk about what to do when you have a “flare up” of chronic pain.  I’m in the middle of one right now, so I’m very aware of my 2 options of how I deal with it. 

A.      I can ruminate on the pain and think of it as a CATASTROPHE!  I have worked so hard to reduce my low back pain and now it’s baaaack!!! Panic and Freak Out! 

B.     Oops! I must have done something to my back.  I just need to breathe and move gently and I will be better in a week. Soooo….

Let me explain what happens if I choose A vs. B.

If I choose A, I exaggerate the situation and focus on the negative which is called pain catastrophizing.  I have negative thoughts about what is happening now (“I’ve really messed up my back!”) and what will happen in the future (“I’m never going to get rid of this pain”!”).  It is hard to get my mind off the pain.  In doing this, I send my entire nervous system into ALARM mode.  The nervous system doesn’t discriminate between physical pain and emotional pain, so both will be affected.  It also doesn’t discriminate in the location of pain.  So the result of pain catastrophizing is magnification of low back pain and sensing pain in other areas of the body.  So everything feels as though it hurts and this amplifies the pain even more and creates a viscous cycle.  I will also have emotional pain and may lash out to loved ones in a defensive way rather than seeking support during this pain flare up.  The entire nervous system gets ramped up and this could send me into a heightened state of anxiety or even depression.

Whew! Lots of negative consequences with that response.

If I choose B, I logically review my activity over the last day or so and realize that I didn’t do anything that would harm my back.  Maybe I sat too much on a long drive and visit with family.  Maybe I was a bit too zealous on a long walk and talk with a friend.  But neither of those 2 activities should hurt my back.  It is just a little twinge and it will all go away based on normal healing times for an acute injury. These thought patterns create CALM in my mind.  So I perform gentle exercises to make sure that I don’t hold tension in my body and don’t lose any motion while the pain in elevated.  I can also do a few strengthening exercises to turn on the deep core muscles to make sure that they don’t reflexively shut down.  These actions also create CALM.  When I stay CALM, I allow the body to HEAL.

These 2 responses are absolutely CHOICES when you are AWARE of what is happening.  With this education, you can recognize negative thoughts as they arise and chose to shift the thoughts to CALM.  You can recognize the sensations in your body, like holding tension in other areas besides the painful area, and choose to breathe and gently move in order to LET GO of the tension. Recognizing your thoughts and body sensations and choosing positive instead of negative is a Cognitive Behavioral Strategy that has been shown via research to reduce low back pain.   The goal is to tell the nervous system…Cue Taylor Swift again…

YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN!

I hope this education helps you as much as it helps me.

Namaste,

Stephanie

P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are two ways that I can help you…

1.  Join my free Facebook group, Yoga Physical Therapy Approach to Ease Chronic Pain, where I and others just like you are ready to provide support.

***Request to Join the Facebook Group…Click Here

2.  Get on the waitlist for my online course, Yoga for a Better Back.  When the course opens you will have access to the approach where you Live More with Less Pain.

***GET on the Waitlist….Click Here